Even before the pandemic, the search for qualified employees created intense competition between employers. The “War for Talent”, as described by McKinsey in 1997, began the institution of workplace perks—like ping pong and beer Fridays—to attract more employees with changing attitudes toward the workplace environment. At that time, these new entrants into the workforce were looking for more from the companies they joined than just a paycheck. They were seeking employment with companies that aligned with their belief systems and demonstrated a greater focus on philanthropy.
Since then, working from home and the always-on nature of technology has created an even greater crisis for talent acquisition. Lured by the fun aspects of working for a company with lots of recreation opportunities, free food, and other amenities, employees found that their employers were simultaneously creating work cultures that enticed people to come in early, stay during breaks, and leave later.
Once home, employees were expected to be available via text, email, and other digital communications to respond to questions and requests. While the conversation around work/life balance continued to be a popular topic, few employees felt they were given the opportunity to live the ideals espoused by their employers.
Today, the broken culture of work has reached a critical apex: The Great Resignation. Not surprisingly, given our 24/7 work ethic, poor employee mental health is one of the greatest factors leading to the culture of quitting. According to a 2021 Mental Health at Work Report, 84% of respondents named at least one workplace factor that negatively impacted their mental health in the past year—most commonly, emotionally draining work—a workplace factor reported as having worsened since the pandemic.
The broken culture of work
Enter the pandemic in 2020. Employees forced to work exclusively from home began to reevaluate their work. Once the trappings of a workplace culture, such as free lunch, snacks, and on-site gym were stripped away, people began evaluating the true nature of work/life balance and their feelings of purpose and value in their day-to-day work.
Organizational challenges that have always been a issue, including managers with poor people skills, unlimited PTO policies that didn’t compensate workers for time not taken, competitive work cultures that recognized and rewarded employees who spent 60 hours or more at work, and pressure to be available well beyond the work day are causing employees to reassess their careers and company loyalty. At the top of the list is the manager/employee relationship.
Once the trappings of a workplace culture were stripped away, people began evaluating the true nature of work/life balance and their feelings of purpose and value in their day-to-day work.
It’s a long-accepted fact that people leave managers, not companies. In Gallup’s study of managers, they found that, “The manager accounts for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement.” Given the fact that people are leaving jobs at unprecedented rates, it’s not a stretch to say that the Great Resignation is a result of poorly managed companies.
Our workplaces are broken and companies have no choice but to find a way to repair the culture of work and begin attracting talent back into the workforce.
Poor workplace mental health is a symptom
“Half of our study respondents reported leaving previous roles due, at least in part, to mental health reasons—32% did so voluntarily. Others are prioritizing mental health more as job-seekers—91% believed that a prospective company’s culture should support mental health.”
While mental health is the reason cited for leaving a company half the time, it’s merely a symptom of unhealthy workplaces and cultures. Treating the cause requires companies to look deeper than simply offering another mental health day that employees may, or may not take. Triage for workplace wellness must begin at the manager and team lead level.
Normalizing the conversation by giving managers the vocabulary and tools to open lines of communication is critical to addressing the issues employees are facing in their daily work. Beyond that, setting company culture expectations for work/life balance and ensuring managers are putting those into practice at the team level by making adherence to company values part of their performance reviews sets an expectation beyond simply putting a values poster on the wall.
To feel valued, employees must have a sense that their manager cares about them and their wellbeing beyond just work deliverables and professional achievements. With the right training, managers can learn important leadership practices that lead to healthier, happier workplaces.
Leading with empathy
People management is so much more than leading a team to produce deliverables that align with overall company goals. The best leaders realize the personal value of each individual team member. Unfortunately, these people are not the majority and few managers are actually trained with the soft skills required to bring out the best in each of their direct reports.
Wellness management training directly addresses the need for empathy, caring, and understanding when we are dealing with other human beings. Life happens while we are at work and managers who realize this fact are better able to create environments where empathy drives the discussion and daily decisions.
Flexibility, communication, and understanding are three keys to leading with empathy. In order to put these soft skills into practice, managers must be able to recognize the signs of stress, anxiety, and burnout. Without awareness and training, managers will continue to manage based on their current strengths as individual contributors and not as leaders of people—propogating the same cycles of hiring, burnout, and resignation.
Leaders who have raised their Wellness Intelligence IQ are more likely to nurture teams of people who will elect to remain at a company, even when faced with mental health challenges.
Flexibility, communication, and understanding are three keys to leading with empathy. In order to put these soft skills into practice, managers must be able to recognize the signs of stress, anxiety, and burnout.
In fact, mental health study respondents who felt supported by their employer with their mental health were 2.7 times more likely to be satisfied with their job and 2.5 times more likely to intend to stay at their company for two years or longer, compared to those who didn’t feel supported.
Leading by example
Management can’t just talk the talk, they need to walk the walk. Modeling healthy work habits frees your employees to do the same. If managers come in early and leave late, email outside of work hours, don’t take time off when they are sick, and stay connected during PTO, they are sending a message that there are unwritten rules about what dedication looks like at your place of business.
Changes in workplace culture take time, but the first step is to create clearly written expectations about how balance is achieved within the organization. Expectations around taking PTO or sick days and not staying connected, work hours and established norms like no meeting days are the foundation of healthier workplaces. Once established, everyone in the organization should be expected to follow these guidelines. Managers and team leads that consistently work outside of the guidelines should not be rewarded for their extra work. Instead, they should be reminded that leading by example is a company value and they need to be positive role models for the people who report to them.
Simple actions like staying off email outside of work hours has the effect of lowering stress for employees who would otherwise may see messages come through at all hours and feel the need to respond. Whether in the office or working from home, illness should be taken seriously and no one should be trying to work through sickness. Not only is it unhealthy, it can be dangerous, especially if there is a chance to spread disease to others in the workplace.
Managers and team leads that consistently work outside of the guidelines should not be rewarded for their extra work.
Workplace wellness begins at the management level and spreads through action and intention throughout the organization. Clearly written policies, training, and open lines of communication are the first steps to mending our broken workplaces and stemming the tide of reginations now plaguing most organizations.
Workplace perks vs. engagement and long-term retention
An extra mental health day, more paid sick days, and standard EAPs are not enough to fix what’s broken in modern workplaces. Companies looking to create environments where employees are actively engaged, motivated, and loyal need to look deep within their organizations.
Each manager needs to understand that they are the causal factor that is either creating long-term retention or two-year churn. Companies who accept that they will lose employees every two years—and therefore don’t want to invest in their wellbeing—are not acting in their own best interest. Slowing churn and creating an atmosphere of longevity not only impacts the bottom line, it allows companies to grow and nurture an actual company culture with people who stay long enough to help it mature.
Investing in management training that emphasizes putting people at the center of the organization and recognizes and rewards managers who are able to build healthy, productive, and loyal teams may be the key to changing the expectation that two years at any company is enough.
Companies who accept that they will lose employees every two years—and therefore don’t want to invest in their wellbeing—are not acting in their own best interest.
But it won’t happen overnight or magically. Managers must understand that employee wellness is a priority and they must be given the time to take the training necessary to accomplish the goals. From there, instituting one-on-one meetings between managers and employees where the expectation is to discuss more than the weekly deliverables will give managers a chance to really know their employees and employees will have the time to freely communicate their challenges and needs.
In the short-term, making an investment in your employee’s personal wellness and mental health will send a clear message that you value people above all else. Your reward will be greater productivity, employee longevity, and even more innovation and creativity. In the long-term, you’ll build a company culture of caring, personal worth, and engagement that will encourage employees to remain for more than two years.
At Welligence, we specialize in mental health training programs for the workplace. Our courses are designed to lead companies to overcome the stigma of mental health concerns by way of education and implementation of workplace wellness best practices. Find out how we can help you normalize the mental health conversation in your workplace.