Workplace wellbeing: Stop focusing on individual ‘fixes’ and address the elephant in the room
HR Zone
Before employers throw their hands up in the air and cancel their subscriptions to digital wellbeing apps and mental health platforms, let’s be clear on one thing: wellbeing is a crucial investment in the workplace.
According to a recent study by the Wellbeing Research Centre, organisations with higher subjective wellbeing outperform the stock market. And not just by a small margin. They saw an 11% greater return than the S&P 500 in the first half of 2024.
Given that investing in wellbeing is a business and people imperative, that still leaves us with the question of how to make workplace wellbeing work for your organisation. Earlier this year, a new study by Oxford University’s William Fleming examined the impact of various wellbeing interventions such as mindfulness classes and wellbeing apps. It found that almost none of these solutions had any statistically significant impact on employee wellbeing.
Productive Doesn’t Always Mean Present, But It Helps
Forbes
Research from the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford found that the most productive employees are happy ones. Its study of workers at a contact center over a six-month period found that when workers were happier, they made more calls per hour, and converted more of those calls into sales. The researchers also found that happy workers do not work more hours than their discontented colleagues – they are simply more productive during their time at work.
Habits that kill productivity
Business Daily
Incorporating additional insights from a study by Clement Bellet, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, and George Ward, it is evident that happiness substantially increases productivity within workplaces.
Conducted within a large telecommunications company, the study leverages natural variations in employee mood influenced by weather exposure at work, revealing that happier employees show significantly higher sales performance.
What happened to Bhutan’s ‘kingdom of happiness’?
The Guardian
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, professor of economics and behavioural science at Oxford and one of the authors of the annual World Happiness Report, says that without a certain level of economic development, people don’t tend to rate themselves as happy. Bhutan’s own figures show this – those its surveys find happiest are those who are wealthiest, according to the Asia Development Bank.
“We can’t get around economic development,” says De Neve. It is an important part of people’s wellbeing, and Bhutan is “quite right” to focus more on per capita GDP, he says.
New Reapra Fellowship at Oxford to study sustainable wellbeing
A major new research partnership seeks to advance the study of sustainable wellbeing.
The Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, and Asia-based venture builder and investment group Reapra, will collaborate to examine long-term questions around human wellbeing in what is thought to be the first Fellowship of its kind.
A new Reapra Research Fellow will work among Oxford’s interdisciplinary researchers to study the relationship between human wellbeing and environmental sustainability, with the goal of creating policy insights for the benefit of both current and – crucially – future generations.
The three-year partnership will augment Reapra’s efforts towards its vision of enabling future oriented-ness in business and society.
Founded in 2014 by Japanese entrepreneur Shuhei Morofuji, Reapra’s mission is to co-create industries for the betterment of society through research and practice.
“There is often a palpable tension between advancing population wellbeing and environmental sustainability.”
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Professor of Economics and Behavioural Science at Saïd Business School, Oxford, and Director of the Wellbeing Research Centre, said: “There is often a palpable tension between advancing population wellbeing and environmental sustainability. And, even when working with the best of intentions, policymakers and business leaders alike can lose sight of the long-term impact of their actions.
“We are therefore energised and excited by this new research partnership with our like-minded colleagues at Reapra, and wish to pay particular thanks to Shuhei-san for his leadership in this critical area of advancing our understanding of sustainable wellbeing .”
Laura Lynn Lee, Growth & Wellbeing Catalyst at Reapra, said: “By integrating human and planetary long-term wellbeing with business success and social contribution, we are aiming for a new way of industry-building that will empower next-generation orientation in socio-economic systems.
“This partnership with Jan and team at the Wellbeing Research Centre is a heartening milestone in that journey – one marked by the deep curiosity we share for long-term wellbeing and its integral role in orientating each generation to think about the next.”
The Wellbeing Research Centre now seeks an exceptional postdoctoral researcher to examine the interface between research and practice in the pursuit of long-term wellbeing as its new Reapra Research Fellow.
More details can be found on the Centre’s website ahead of the deadline for applications on Monday 11 November, 2024.
What does work wellbeing have to do with business success? Everything, pretty much.
Business Insider
Since 2019, Indeed has partnered with leading experts at the University of Oxford to collect data on how employees feel at work, resulting in defined criteria for measuring work wellbeing: happiness, purpose, stress, and satisfaction.
Additionally, Indeed measures what influences wellbeing, including foundational, social, and growth needs. Wellbeing data collection spans 19 countries and is publicly available on company pages in the US, Canada, and the UK, where Indeed’s Work Wellbeing Score has launched.
Building upon this massive dataset — the world’s largest study of work wellbeing — Indeed has collaborated with the University of Oxford to create The Work Wellbeing 100, an index of the top 100 publicly traded companies ranked by the Work Wellbeing Score. These companies consistently outperformed leading stock indices, including the S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite, and Russell 3000, showing that prioritizing wellbeing benefits people and business.
Top employers revealed by new Work Wellbeing 100
A new index of the top 100 publicly-traded companies in the US, powered by Oxford research, has been published by Indeed.
The 2024 Work Wellbeing 100 draws upon insights from the world’s largest study of workplace wellbeing, undertaken by global job matching and hiring platform Indeed alongside the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford.
Work wellbeing – or how employees feel at work – is a critical factor for job seekers when deciding where to work, and plays a significant role for employers hoping to attract, hire and retain top talent.
Oxford researchers previously found that Indeed’s work wellbeing data shows a compelling correlation: higher work wellbeing leads to improved valuation, higher return on assets, and greater profits underscoring that employee satisfaction can serve as a predictor of a company’s business and financial success.
The top 10 companies on Indeed’s 2024 Work Wellbeing 100 are:
H&R Block
Delta Air Lines
L3Harris
Accenture
NIKE
Tradesmen International
Disney Parks, Experiences and Products
Addus HomeCare
IBM
Amazon Flex
“The employers on Indeed’s Work Wellbeing 100 list are setting an example and leading the way in creating thriving work environments,” said LaFawn Davis, Indeed’s Chief People and Sustainability Officer. “While work wellbeing has faced challenges in recent years, it’s more important than ever for companies to create environments where employees can truly thrive. By prioritizing work wellbeing, companies cultivate a more resilient, effective and happier workforce which ultimately drives business growth.”
The recognised companies represent a variety of industries across the US, ranging from healthcare to retail, to manufacturing, hospitality and tech. The retail and transportation industries are well represented on this list, with 23 and 14 companies respectively, showcasing the commitment to wellbeing. Regardless of their industry, employers on this list stand out for offering robust career growth opportunities and a commitment to flexible work options.
“Research consistently shows that how we feel at work matters.”
“Research consistently shows that how we feel at work matters. It deeply impacts our general wellbeing as well as company financial performance,” said Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Professor of Economics at Saïd Business School and Director of the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford. “For employers, the wellbeing of their workforce cannot be underestimated as our research shows that those who prioritize wellbeing reap the rewards of higher productivity and improved employee retention and attraction. This is something we’ve now shown to be the case in both hard financial metrics as well as stock market performance.”
The companies on the Indeed Work Wellbeing 100 were determined based on employee feedback shared by US employees on Indeed across the four key wellbeing indicators between January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023. To qualify, companies in the US must be a publicly-traded company on the NASDAQ or NYSE and have received at least 100 responses for work wellbeing indicators in the past year (Jan 1, 2023 – Dec 31, 2023).
Beyond the obvious, here are the business benefits of investing in employee wellbeing
Business Insider
Oxford recently analyzed Indeed’s work wellbeing dataset and highlighted a strong correlation between company wellbeing and business performance. The findings featured in the 2024 Global Work Wellbeing Report reveal that higher levels of employee wellbeing are associated with improved firm valuation, return on assets, and gross profits. Moreover, companies with higher levels of employee wellbeing collectively outperformed the stock market.
The Indeed-Oxford research also looked into whether happier employees today means better business results later. Based on data from before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, the findings show that companies with happier workers before COVID-19 performed better afterward in all three performance indicators (valuation, return on assets, and gross profits).
Moreover, the Indeed-Oxford research reveals the long-term business benefits of prioritizing employee wellbeing. Indeed further strengthened the business case for work wellbeing with the launch of the Work Wellbeing 100, an index ranking the top 100 publicly traded companies by their Indeed Work Wellbeing Score.
Indeed Introduces the 2024 Work Wellbeing 100, Ranking the Top Publicly-Traded Companies for Work Wellbeing in the U.S.
Business Wire
“Research consistently shows that how we feel at work matters. It deeply impacts our general wellbeing as well as company financial performance,” said Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Professor of Economics at Saïd Business School and Director of the Wellbeing Research Centre at Oxford University. “For employers, the wellbeing of their workforce cannot be underestimated as our research shows that those who prioritize wellbeing reap the rewards of higher productivity and improved employee retention and attraction. This is something we’ve now shown to be the case in both hard financial metrics as well as stock market performance.”
Indeed Introduces the 2024 Work Wellbeing 100, Ranking the Top Publicly-Traded Companies for Work Wellbeing in the U.S.
Yahoo Finance
Fueled by the world’s largest study of work wellbeing and in partnership with the University of Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, Indeed’s Work Wellbeing 100 reveals that public companies with higher work wellbeing outperform the market. These recognized companies prove wellbeing is not just better for people, but better for business.
