New evidence on the efficacy of employee wellness programs
The failure of current interventions
At 87% we have contended that, without adopting a measurement-based approach, the wellbeing industry has very little transparency; it cannot evidence actual performance. We know business leaders mean well. They are fighting hard to improve their employees’ wellbeing through investment in a range of wellness programs, from mindfulness apps to yoga sessions to EAPs. The Guardian report that workplace wellness programs are a $61bn+ global industry. But despite such investment, rates of burnout and work-related stress are still rising. Business leaders have been unable to evidence the efficacy of the wellness programs on offer, with no way of knowing what is or isn’t working.
New research from William Fleming at University of Oxford has been able to shed some light on this issue. Working with a sample of 46,336 employees across 233 different organisations, Fleming examined a range of “common individual-level well-being interventions”, such as mindfulness classes and resilience training, across a number of “subjective well-being indicators”. The findings will be of great concern for business leaders.
Fleming reports no statistically significant benefits of such individual-level wellbeing interventions, with the possible exception of volunteering and charity work. However, even with this particular intervention, Fleming cautions that “the estimated effects are small, probably selection-biased and these initiatives would not engage with the job demands and resources central to theoretical and empirical understandings of work well-being”.
He goes on to summarise that “it seems premature to recommend individual-level interventions to all workers”, instead suggesting that “more emphasis must be placed on the greater benefits of organisational rather than individual change, as well as on the importance of high-quality intervention implementation”. Such organisational changes could include “changes to scheduling, management practices, staff resources, performance review or job design”.
Importance of insight
We do not think it is necessarily all doom and gloom when it comes to individual-level wellbeing interventions. Rather there is a crucial piece of the puzzle missing: insight. And data-driven insight is also critical to informing change at the organisational level.
Without utilising insight, delivered through proper measurement of employee wellbeing, organisations are flying blind when it comes to investing in ‘individual-level wellbeing interventions’. Business leaders simply have no way of knowing what is or isn’t working within their existing wellbeing strategy. Much like when people go on a weight loss diet - how can you ever know how much weight you’ve lost unless you measured it in the first place?
The 87% employee wellbeing assessment is therefore like stepping on the weighing scales for the first time. We help you to baseline wellbeing across your organisation, before tracking changes over time and across different populations. Tailored AI-driven recommendations then help you to focus wellbeing initiatives where, and on whom, they are needed most.
This data-driven approach changes everything. Business leaders now gain actionable insights into the underlying wellbeing of employees (and not just what they’d tell you). Harnessing real (anonymised) employee wellbeing data, they uncover issues in their organisation they would otherwise be unable to see, at both the individual-level (e.g., number of absence days related to mental health issues) and organisation-level (e.g., attitudes towards working conditions and job design). They learn which audiences are struggling most and identify key areas to target for improvement to drive better performance and improve workplace culture.
Closing remarks
Despite best efforts to safeguard employee wellbeing, the current model is failing, and at a huge cost to businesses. To build better mental health, you must first measure it, and then use insights to inform strategy and planning. 87% is the missing piece of the employee wellbeing puzzle. Unlock this missing piece today - get in touch or book a demo.
