Keeping employees well at work

Duvet days, limitless holidays and at-desk massage? Like so many innovative workplace practices, they all made their debut in the US. So what’s next?

Physical wellness

Wellness programmes include all sorts of components, from healthy eating options in canteens to smoking-cessation and weight-loss programmes. “There is a global Sun Life Wellness programme but culturally you need to have a local flavour to it, so that’s what we created,” says Edel Spillane, human resources director at Sun Life in Waterford. “We may be a big US multinational but because we don’t sell in this market, our brand is less well known here, so we too are up against the Googles and the Facebooks when it comes to attracting talent. Wellness programmes act as great a differentiator.”

Financial wellness

Research by StateStreet Global Advisors found that 61 per cent of US workers aged 21 to 65 were moderately to severely stressed about their finances. Fretting over bills, mortgage payments and retirement savings – or lack thereof – doesn’t help an employee’s overall sense of wellbeing. The multigenerational nature of the workforce means there is no one financial solution for all. Financial wellness programmes allow everyone in a workplace to choose from a menu of benefits the ones that best meet their needs. For Millennials, reimbursing tuition costs might count for more than help with daycare costs, or making greater pension contributions. For employers, it’s about promoting those benefits that have most meaning to employees, both existing and prospective.

Growth mindset

A new departure in HR is to ensure people aren’t ‘limited’ by their perceived talents. “It’s all about the growth mindset at Symantec. We encourage a ‘be curious’ approach that enables people find out about more than just their own career path, but what different teams and people in different jobs do,” says Marie Ronan of Symantec. Enabling people to think outside their own silos helps encourage innovation to the benefit of all.

Coaching coaches

Time was when only top executives – and professional athletes– could expect to get the benefit of coaching in the workplace. In Symantec, coaching circles have been formed. “It grew up organically, set up by three qualified coaches we had in the organisation,” says Marie Ronan. “They have now trained up more than 20 qualified coaches on site, which offer their coaching services in-house, pro bono, to other staff. It’s not just coaching about careers but about life. The result is incredible engagement because employees can see it’s not something that is being fed back to management, and not something that is being done for ROI. It’s totally for their benefit.”

Family friendly

Bring-your-kids-to-work initiatives have already become well-established in many US-based companies, designed as a way to show employees their family commitments are recognised and valued. Now parents are joining in. Bring in Your Parents day was piloted by LinkedIn’s EMEA HQ in Dublin in 2013. The aim is to help parents understand what their children do for a living, and to say thanks to parents for the support they give them. Forged in Dublin by Irish mammies, and daddies, it’s now an annual event taking place in 17 countries, from China to Brazil.