Why isn't employee wellbeing just HR's job?
Employee wellbeing isn't just HR's job because most of the conditions that shape it are decided elsewhere in the organization. Operations leaders set workloads and staffing, managers set schedules and expectations, supervisors determine how people are treated day to day, and executives decide what gets funded and what gets cut. HR can design benefits and policies, but it usually can't reduce a department's workload or change how a supervisor communicates with a team.
That's why we approach workforce challenges as a people, data, and systems problem. The U.S. Surgeon General's framework for workplace wellbeing makes a similar point: it names practices such as engaging workers in workplace decisions, making schedules as flexible and predictable as possible, and building a culture of recognition, and it says that lasting change has to be driven by committed leaders working together with employees.
What does poor employee wellbeing cost a business?
Poor employee wellbeing can cost a business through absences, turnover, and work that suffers when people are exhausted. Gallup found that burned-out employees are 63 percent more likely to take a sick day and 2.6 times as likely to be actively looking for a different job, and that they typically have lower confidence in their own performance (Wigert and Agrawal, 2018). Those findings describe associations across many employees. They don't tell you how much of your own turnover comes from burnout.
When people leave, the costs include recruiting, onboarding, and training replacements, vacancies and overtime, lost knowledge, and more pressure on the employees who stay, which can make their wellbeing worse. What is turnover actually costing us? covers how to count those costs.
So alongside the cost of a wellbeing effort, it's worth asking what it costs to keep operating without understanding what's wearing people down.
Should we invest in employee wellbeing if we can't measure a return?
You should still invest in employee wellbeing even if you can't measure a precise return, as long as the investment is aimed at a problem you understand. A measurable return is a reasonable thing for leadership to ask about, and it shouldn't be the only reason to act. Employees spend a large part of their lives at work, and how that work affects their health, energy, and lives outside work matters to them whatever it does to a quarterly number.
What you can do is invest carefully. Find out what's affecting wellbeing, and where, so that money goes to changes that address the conditions your employees are actually facing. Then check afterward whether the changes helped. How do we know whether the change we made actually helped? covers how.
Where should a business start if it treats wellbeing as a business problem?
A business that treats wellbeing as a business problem should start by understanding what's affecting it, and where, before choosing a solution. Ask employees what's making work harder and what would make it better, look at the records you already keep, such as overtime, sick days, and turnover by team, and compare the results across departments, shifts, and roles.
Then involve the people who can change the conditions. If the findings point to workload, operations has to be part of the response; if they point to supervision, supervisors need support and development; and if they point to how decisions are made, leadership has to be willing to look at its own practices. A focused starting point, such as a targeted assessment of one problem, can be enough to show where to act first.
If you already have a wellness program and employees are still exhausted, Why isn't our wellness program reducing burnout? covers why.
The Grantibly perspective
Angelika's perspective
We treat workforce development as a business issue as well as a people issue, and wellbeing is part of that. How people are treated, how much they carry, and whether they feel valued affect whether they stay, how they work, and how the organization functions.
At the same time, we don't think wellbeing should have to justify itself only through retention or productivity. People have one life to live, and their wellbeing, enjoyment, and energy matter. We also recognize that leaders and organizations operate under real constraints and that not every problem has an easy solution. What we want to help leaders do is understand what's actually happening in their workplace and why, so they can make changes that improve both their employees' wellbeing and how the organization works.
