Linking wellbeing with employee engagement drives performance and convinces leaders of the need to invest in both, according to a brand new report that was published today.
Hot off the press is a whitepaper from the wellbeing subgroup of the Engage For Success movement. The Evidence: Wellbeing and Employee Engagement, explores the link between employee engagement and wellbeing with individual and organisational performance.
Wellbeing means feeling good and functioning well. Employee’s psychological well-being is a cause for success, not just an output from it.
Employee wellbeing leads to better performance and can be a source of competitive advantage, innovation and growth.
It is also growing in importance for attracting talent to organisations.
The wellbeing subgroup was launched in August 2013 to build on the paper “Why wellbeing matters: Sustaining Employee Engagement & Wellbeing”.
Chaired by Wendy Cartwright, former HR Director for the Olympic Delivery Authority, the group sought to build upon the great work already taking place and provide a “wellbeing, nailing the evidence” document.
Engage for Success started to investigate the links after receiving “a groundswell of requests” to examine the subject area. The evidence has been drawn from three distinct perspectives: academic research, research by consultancies and organisational case studies.
There are small case study vignettes in the main body of the report, but more detailed case studies for each of these are available on the Engage for Success website.
You can read the whole report below or download it here.
Speaking at the launch yesterday, David MacLeod, co-founder of the Engage for Success movement said a focus on wellbeing is timely as the UK moves into recovery.
Twelve steps to success
The report includes a 12-step plan to introducing an integrated wellbeing and engagement programme:
1. Gain CEO buy-in/support
2. Set up dedicated teams
3. Gather insight to drive wellbeing efforts
4. Develop an action plan
5. Design meaningful and appropriate interventions
6. Implement a communications strategy
7. Help leaders serve as role models
8. Grant permission for employees to get involved
9. Create a supportive environment
10. Align processes, procedures and employer branding
11. Evaluate outcomes
12. Celebrate success
This report builds on and is complementary to the paper entitled Nailing the Evidence, which Engage for Success published in November 2012. It is intended to add to the increasing body of evidence that demonstrates why employee engagement and wellbeing matter to workers and help drive sustainable organisational performance outcomes.
Defining engagement
The definition of employee engagement used by Engage for Success (and the one I reference in my glossary of internal communication) is:
“A workplace approach designed to ensure that employees are committed to their organisation’s goals and values, motivated to contribute to organisational success, and are able at the same time to enhance their own sense of well-being.” Plus “Creating the conditions in which employees offer more of their capability and potential.”
Well done to the wellbeing and engagement subgroup for producing the whitepaper. What do you think of it? You’re welcome to comment below or you can find Engage for Success on Twitter @engage4success.
If you are studying communication at the moment, it’s a treat for you as it’s absolutely packed full of references and resources that will help you explore these topics further.
Tip: If you’re interested in reading more about employee engagement, keep an eye on the hashtag #e4s as members of the movement mark their Tweets with it, including me, to share relevant content.
Further reading
Want to know more about Engage for Success? You’re in the right place. I’ve written about it numerous times on my blog over the years – see some of my articles below:
- Why wellbeing matters for employee engagement
- How to engage people with disabilities
- Employee engagement and social media – overview of my talk at CIPR
- Engaging for success in Italy – overview of my visit to Rome to help launch their version of E4S.
- BlogTalkRadio – weekly radio show, Monday 4pm BST, on employee engagement. Includes a listen again feature
- How to engage for success
- Milan social media week: Italy gets engaged
- Engaging workplaces for a sustainable future
- The Sunday night blues
Rachel
Read the whole wellbeing whitepaper below:
The previous report I mentioned above can also be seen below:
Post author: Rachel Miller