In the summer of 2021, after over eighteen months of hardship and experimenting with new ways of working and learning, an HR leader friend of mine logged onto Zoom to discover his colleague having a full-blown panic attack. He knew the signs. But he couldn’t reach out and comfort her. He steadily walked her through the steps to find oxygen, helped her stabilize her nervous system and got her the help she needed. He did all he could do through a video call.
Sadly, this is an all too familiar scenario. Our workforce is hurting. Even if our colleagues aren’t among the millions resigning from their jobs each month, they likely aren’t thriving at work. Burnout is at an all-time high. Yet organizations still have revenue goals to hit. New business changes must be absorbed and implemented. Learning and development executives still need to deliver results through employee engagement and skill building and application. Pressure to perform hasn’t let up.
The good news is, even amid the gloomy statistics about how we’re all feeling at work, L&D executives can be instrumental in offering tools to achieve greater wellbeing. We’ll explore:
- The leader’s role in modeling wellbeing.
- Strategies to promote self-care and compassion.
- The double-edged sword of flexibility and choice.
- How to measure wellbeing results.
Leaders can model setting boundaries
Organizational psychologist Adam Grant says setting boundaries at work is a group project. In other words, it’s tough to have individual boundaries at work when your boss and colleagues email you requests at all hours. Others are quick to reference the importance of putting on your own oxygen mask before helping others. I, too, am guilty of praising the value of unplugging from work yet find myself attached to my laptop late into the evening hours. A strong work ethic needs limits, lest we break.
To help set those limits, some teams benefit from creating shared guardrails around work. Melissa Daimler, chief learning officer at Udemy, explained to me how her people team has defined core hours when they are expected to be available for synchronous work. Udemy leaders purportedly stay within those hours when sending emails and slack messages. “It starts with your relationship with your manager,” Daimler says. “As a leader, it’s important to make sure that you’re taking care of yourself and modeling your own wellbeing and practices.”
Daimler underscores the importance of tried and true management practices, which can contribute to general wellbeing and greater calm at work. Techniques like communicating team priorities, not getting distracted by new shiny objects, and being clear about performance expectations can ease concerns and potential confusion among a fast-moving team. When adopted by the entire team, clear boundaries give people permission to say no to work that’s non-core.
Self-care and compassion need more than an app
In addition to creating work boundaries, many L&D organizations have discovered scalable tools to prompt greater awareness around wellbeing, including wellness apps that range from meditation classes to on-demand yoga. The HR marketplace now has an abundance of tech-enabled solutions to help improve mental and physical health. Although these offerings may signal a rise in the organization’s commitment to wellbeing at work, Daimler cautions putting too much weight on them as quick fix solutions.
Instead, practicing caring conversations at work to fully check in with each other is critical. Many leaders are overwhelmed from the scale of loss, fatigue and grief their teams have navigated over the past 20 months. Providing learning experiences that build empathy and strengthen authentic relationships can build skills that last well beyond these pandemic times.
Many of my clients have opted to refresh the team’s North Star. By re-anchoring to the organization’s clear mission, leaders help team members know what work is valued and prioritized, so they’re not left swirling in busy work that doesn’t contribute to the team’s purpose. Additionally, employees can gain perspective on what work means to them, how it links to their personal core values and purpose, and the importance of making time to do other things they enjoy outside of work. With greater reflection and self-awareness, work can become more meaningful, and ultimately have a big impact on overall wellbeing and retention of employees.
Having teams speak openly about wellbeing and mental health is a good first step. By openly exploring and discussing the contributing factors to burnout and understanding what leads to a state of wellbeing at work, managers can explore potential changes. Experiments like more walking meetings, “no-camera Wednesdays” or “no-meeting Fridays” have been just a sample of outcomes from honest discussions around what each team member needs to thrive at work.
Flexibility, choice and simplification
Many of us may foolishly believe our workplace experience will get easier once the worst of the pandemic is behind us. But we’re likely entering a new phase of challenges in the months ahead. Several workplaces are just beginning to find their footing in a hybrid environment, and employees may be experiencing new anxieties in their choices about when, where and how they work.
While we were all on lockdown, the limited number of choices in where to work reduced decision fatigue. There was no FOMO — fear of missing out. Now, however, as many employees are selecting a new rhythm to their in-office and remote work experiences, there can be buyer’s remorse in making any kind of choice: Will I be out of sight, out of mind? Will opportunities for advancement still exist if I’m working from home? Will I still be able to build meaningful relationships at work? If I choose to return to the office, what personal sacrifices am I making in other important parts of my life?
Daimler reveals it comes down to clear expectations and communication. “Many managers who are newer to management only know how to manage when they see people,” she says. “So they had to see you on Zoom just to check in and make sure you were there versus being clear about what needs to get done. Give people the flexibility to make their work work for them. If you have to go pick up your dog or your child at two o’clock, then great, just let me know.”
In addition to reflecting on personal tradeoffs in a more flexible environment, this is an opportunity to reexamine the complexity of our choices at work. Practical changes like insisting on a clear agenda for each meeting, clearly defining how to use Slack and email, and reducing meeting duration can have a big impact on wellbeing. Although there’s benefit to highlighting where employees have autonomy and choice at work, championing a few select learning and growth opportunities may leave a more positive impression than an all-you-can-eat buffet of learning choices. Simplification can be calming.
Michael Lewis, senior vice president, general counsel and chief corporate development officer at American Public Media Group, reports the growing need for leaders to be aware of the ripple effect that is created by short deadlines or nice-to-have initiatives that aren’t mission-critical. “What we’re seeing and hearing is exhaustion from the sheer number of things on people’s plates,” Lewis says. “Everyone wants to do good work, but it’s up to leaders to be thoughtful about the number of projects to which we’re committing. Sometimes less is more for the sake of organizational wellbeing.”
Measuring wellbeing
As with many L&D program objectives, the ROI of wellbeing strategies comes down to effective measurement. But how do we measure wellbeing across the organization and reach conclusions about correlation or causation from the action we’re taking?
In partnership with a client who is prioritizing wellbeing at work, we’ve created a wellbeing dashboard with a constellation of metrics to help create a fuller picture of team members’ happiness. It includes a mix of performance indicators from survey questions, paid time off reports, manager satisfaction scores, internal promotion and retention, and the percentage of time spent on deep work. Although not a perfect science, it’s led to a series of open conversations about setting clearer performance expectations, defining priorities and goals, categorizing important versus urgent work, setting boundaries around work and defining team rules of engagement. In sum, the effort is spent on working smarter, rather than working harder with longer hours.
Even in the best of situations, measurement can be tricky. Data collection and analysis can be biased and subjective. But with leadership’s commitment to improvement, even simply ensuring wellbeing stays on the agenda of strategic priorities can initiate positive change. No longer can we justify a suffering workforce for business results. Wellbeing and high performance must coexist not only to attract and retain talent, but to fuel sustainable business growth.
Summary and key takeaways
Several years ago, feeling the pressure of leading a team and growing a business with little room for a personal life, I was the one suffering from burnout. Over dinner on a work trip, at the risk of appearing not up to the task, I openly shared my struggles with my manager. And he listened. He helped me do something about it. He cared enough to put people first and business second.
As we all emerge from this foggy state of the past 20 months, we have renewed opportunities to model caring for ourselves and each other. We can:
- Set clear boundaries around work and make it a group project.
- Learn and speak openly about the contributing factors to burnout and wellbeing at work.
- Offer greater flexibility and choice yet simplify to avoid overwhelming the team members.
- Revisit how things are going and adjust the strategy when needed.
- Find ways to regularly measure wellbeing at work with both quantitative and qualitative data.
Wellbeing at work doesn’t need to feel elusive. By investing in core management skills and behaviors, we can help provide a sense of calm, clarity and purpose our workforce has long desired. It may have taken a global pandemic to remind us how important wellbeing at work truly is. Now it’s up to all of us to continue to cultivate it.
