Human Sustainability
Building an Environment of True Wellness at Work
The term wellness is nothing new; it’s an idea that’s been poked and prodded, morphing along with history as key societal structures like labor laws, industry standards, mental health perceptions and gender equality have been challenged and changed over time. Wellness in the workplace, specifically, has a long history – from the slow decline of 10-hour workdays to 8, popularized by Ford Motor Company in the early 1900’s, to the rise of “wellness” as a concept in the second half of the 20th century.
Today, though, the evolution of wellness has reached new heights. Though it’s grown over time at the intersection of medicine, politics and work, the unexpected emergence of a world pandemic provided a spotlight for mental and emotional health on a global scale in a way we’ve never seen before. For the first time ever, perhaps, we were under such a monumental amount of collective stress that we were forced to ask ourselves what true wellness looks like – and what the cost is for not prioritizing it.
Though wellness has increased in importance over time, it has been a slow climb, and even with the increased clarity that came with the pandemic, we still see trends today that suggest a decrease in how employees perceive their wellbeing is prioritized at work, along with an increase in loneliness at work, particularly for emerging generations.
With these persisting trends, we might ask why we haven’t found more lasting solutions to increase and sustain wellbeing in the workplace. And though there’s likely many answers to that question, with each having its own nuances and disclaimers based on different industries and teams, one thing that consistently drives most companies is the idea of the elusive bottom line – an all-encompassing figure that tells you if you’ve successfully met your profit goals after covering all of your expenses.
The bottom line is not a bad thing – it’s an inherent aspect of business, and is one metric that helps determine the success of our companies. But the bottom line alone can also, often, be a short-term view of things. The truth is that the bottom line is always changing, it’s always variable. Once one is met, another pops up the next quarter or year, and it shifts with the needs and resources and desires of the times. And because it’s always shifting, and can do so on a whim based on the market, politics, consumer sentiment, hostile weather patterns, or a number of other things, it’s important to remember that the bottom line relies on a vital resource.
People.
And if we’re thinking of people as a resource (albeit an inherently valuable and worthy one, as opposed to how many resources are treated), we have to remember that they can be exploited and used up if they're not supported properly.
In that same vein, an article from Deloitte Insights shares a term: human sustainability. In the article, they define this term as “the degree to which an organization creates value for people as human beings, leaving them with greater health and well-being, stronger skills and greater employability, good jobs, opportunities for advancement, progress toward equity, increased belonging, and heightened connection to purpose.”
In order to set ourselves up for success and to meet our ever changing bottom lines, regardless of the factors that affect and define them in the future, we must therefore have a foundation built on true wellness that sustains the resource that is our people. And when we do this, a whole host of studies show an array of benefits that can be hard to measure in theory, but that have the tendency to be reflected in bottom line results. Benefits like increased resilience and adaptability, more alignment with team values, stronger support networks at work, and increased happiness in the workplace.
So how exactly do we build a workplace environment that sustains people, thereby supporting consistently resilient and positive teams that can better meet or exceed goals amidst changing climates?
Redefining Access to Wellness at Vail Resorts
One organization that has made great strides to answer the call is Vail Resorts. By all accounts, Dr. Corey Levy, Psy.D. is an experienced leader in his field. As the Wellness Director for Vail Resorts – which owns and operates some of the most renowned destination resorts in the world along with regional and local ski areas outside major cities – he’s spent nearly a decade creating and managing a comprehensive wellness program for Vail Resort’s 55,000+ employees across 42 locations. With a focus on community based initiatives that are scalable, proactive, and – most of all – accessible, he and his team have created a wellness program steeped in the complex field of clinical psychology but delivered with the thought and sensitivity required to actually engage people.
With employee wellness being a major challenge for organizations of all sizes, it can be difficult to imagine how a wellness program for such a large organization operates, let alone makes a true impact on employees across departments and levels of responsibility. One might think it takes a complex web of strategy to even begin to build such a support system for this kind of team, but Corey’s approach is surprisingly simple in theory: offer people things that provide the benefits they need, create as much access to them as you can in as many ways as you can, make wellness a community effort, and – last but not least – take care of people.
“We’ve grown the program by thinking about how to care for people like we would friends and family,” he says – which is decidedly not the academic or clinical perspective one might expect. Care, as Corey defined it over the course of the conversation, is really all about making space for people to address their mental and emotional needs – which is something that every human has, and therefore something we should connect over, rather than ignore or be shamed for.
And this is where the community aspect of their wellness program comes into play. While many companies now offer some form of wellness support by way of an EAP and/or other health benefits, Vail Resort’s approach is unique in that it is community-forward, equipping “people leaders” – managers and other team leaders – with knowledge and tools to support others when they see signs of mental or emotional distress.
“Most people think to themselves, I want to help, but I’m afraid I won’t have the answer,” Corey says. “But [we found that] most people will engage with others [who are going through something challenging] if they have a fall-back, such as tools to reference.”
By identifying their “champions” and equipping them with tips and knowledge about the array of wellness tools available to all employees, Vail Resorts is able to engage its leaders as another layer of support and as part of the infrastructure of their wellness-focused environment. Their teams even have a peer-based support app, which makes accessing this kind of support as easy as picking up your phone. In addition, 20 of their 42 resorts utilize “wellness captains”, who work to raise awareness of and increase accessibility to their wellness offerings. In this way, employee wellness becomes a whole community initiative, creating an eternal loop of employee feedback and engagement so that the program is not only poised to reach more people, but also able to improve over time. By taking this approach, Vail Resorts is able to make their team’s health a priority that’s supported by the larger community, as opposed to being one department’s initiative on paper, making it something that lives and breathes and changes with peoples’ needs.
Another noteworthy aspect of Vail Resort’s wellness efforts is the multitude of options employees have to access the care they need: clinical sessions, on-site therapists, chat and text-based therapy, coaching sessions for various life needs, the aforementioned peer-based support app, access to a third-party wellness app, and more make up the roster. Access, as Corey notes, is one of the most vital aspects of what his team does. With such a large group of employees, and an ambitious goal to offer wellness support to all of them, making resources accessible in multiple ways is paramount, and having options that range from traditional in-person support to virtual options like text, chat, and phone apps has been a great way to grow that access.
And access has indeed grown, along with actual engagement. When Corey first started at Vail Resorts, the percentage of employees that utilized their EAP was less than 1%; since then, it’s grown more than tenfold, even as their number of employees has grown exponentially. And during their Epic Wellness Month events in January (which has been an annual event for the past 5 years, by the way – talk about inspiring!), they had more than 160,000 engagements across 82 on-site events that ranged from fun wellness missions to simple communications.
When we think about the concept of truly sustaining people as a resource, it’s hard not to find Vail Resort’s approach not only appealing, but supremely hopeful. By providing wellness support that meets their employees where they are, while focusing on engaging employees proactively based on what’s shown to work for them, they’ve created a beautiful case study for the power of supporting your teams with intention and adaptability.
Wellness by the Numbers
The Though exciting and often appreciated, statistics over the past decade have shown us that true wellness isn’t about perks like gym memberships and healthy snacks in the break room. True wellness is about prioritizing your infrastructure – the policies, procedures, values, and support networks that reflect the needs of peoples’ lives — and allowing people to have enough space, energy, and connection to produce the impact your company needs to thrive.
And though wellness needs might differ for every company and organization, there’s plenty of research to back up the importance of investing in employee wellbeing. As noted in research conducted by Gallup on employee wellbeing, “The impact of wellbeing extends far beyond how people feel -- it affects the number of sick days employees take, their job performance, burnout and likelihood of leaving your organization.” Their studies found the following:
75% of medical costs are accrued mostly due to preventable conditions
It costs companies 15-20% of total payroll in voluntary turnover costs, on average, due to burnout
It costs companies $322 billion in turnover and lost productivity globally due to employee burnout
In addition, Gallup used their “five elements of wellbeing” to compare employees who are engaged but not thriving with those who are both engaged and thriving, and found the following amongst the former:
61% higher likelihood of burnout often or always
48% higher likelihood of daily stress
66% higher likelihood of daily worry
Double the rate of daily sadness and anger
You would never build a facility that creates a product without making sure it works properly, has regular maintenance, is cleaned often, and has a plan for long-term care. And yet, people and the communities around them have not historically been treated the same, regardless of the fact that they are the foundation for everything else.
As leaders building the future of the workplace every single day with our choices, it’s time we changed that.
Integrated Growth has been developing leaders, mobilizing teams, and transforming organizations since 1998. Founded by Gretchen Reid, their team of highly skilled consultants and executive coaches are known for building award winning leadership development programs, facilitating strategic planning and team development initiatives, and providing executive coaching to help you achieve your greatest mission. We invite you to schedule a free consultation or visit www.integratedgrowth.com for more information.
AUTHOR – Gretchen Reid is the Founder and Chief Change and Leadership Architect for Integrated Growth. She has spent over 25 years coaching leaders and creating award-winning Leadership and Talent Development Programs, directly contributing to multiple awards for her clients, including Fast Company’s 50 Most Innovative Companies, Forbes America’s Best Employers List, Forbes Best Employer for Diversity, and ASTD BEST. She is an Adjunct Professor of Change Management in the Strategic HR Masters Program, Denver University, University College. (MS, Career and Human Resource Development, Rochester Institute of Technology, BA, Psychology & Business Management, University of Rochester)