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Ahead of our virtual webinar Amplifying Staff Wellbeing in the Workplace, we spoke with Lotus Yu and Madge Haynes, two of FFI’s Senior Managers of Engagement and Partnerships, on the importance of staff wellbeing in the workplace and what it means to them.

In your own words, what does authentic wellbeing in the workplace look like?

Lotus: I think “authentic wellbeing” may be a misnomer if we understand wellbeing as not something we either have or don’t have - wellbeing is something we’re all striving towards in our actions and behaviors. We’re always trying to meet our needs that are essential for health and hope - be that through relationships or feelings of accomplishment or basic needs. Workplaces can either support our efforts or get in our way, or both. 

A workplace that supports wellbeing is paying attention to how its structures and processes force staff to make tradeoffs that are unsustainable. It also pays attention to how it can create an environment that helps staff be better able to meet their needs both within and outside of the work environment, directly or indirectly.

We’re hearing lots of stories about record numbers of people quitting their jobs right now. Can focusing on wellbeing help you retain your staff?

Madge:  Absolutely! The key is for organizations to understand what their employees need - and that’s not just limited to evaluating titles or wage/salary increases.  If you can adjust your policies to make it worth it for people to remain in your employ, you increase the opportunities for employees to remain.

That said, it would be misleading to claim that focusing on wellbeing ‘guarantees’ staff retention. Your employees are still making tradeoffs at work – some you can influence and some you can’t. Suppose an employee has aging parents who live several states away and they decide they need to leave their position to be near their parents (social connectedness).  If a wellbeing orientation is centered in employer-employee relationships, the employee might share the desire to move away to be closer to their parents; the supervisor might then be able to negotiate a virtual employment situation for the employee, if the organization’s work and policies are flexible enough to allow for that type of support. 

Lotus: While there is no guarantee, we know that all of us are hard-wired to be driven to meet our needs in wellbeing. Anything that a workplace can do to help us increase access to wellbeing certainly improves retention when compared against workplaces that make it difficult for us to have access to wellbeing.

How does FFI support wellbeing and how does that impact your work?

Lotus: FFI is a learner, like everyone else. We have a framework for understanding people that we use, and we do our best to create room for conversations around tradeoffs. For example, when FFI decided to be a permanently virtual organization, staff used tools to reflect on the tradeoffs in all Five Domains of Wellbeing and we had a conversation about it to figure out how best to address those tradeoffs. When we were deciding between health insurance plans, our HR staff put the question out to staff to consider the real impacts of changing health insurance providers. That said, we know we don't always do it perfectly, but we hope a movement towards a country where everyone has a fair shot will help hold not just us accountable, but will make it more possible everywhere if we all understand how we are set up to meet our needs for wellbeing.

What steps can a staff member, supervisor, director, or organization take to implement and practice wellbeing in the workplace?

Madge:  This is a big question - and every response I could provide would be nuanced. I’d like to first clarify that wellbeing is not a model of practice or a program to be implemented - that is a common misconception. Rather, wellbeing is the striving for the needs and experiences we all have to have health and hope. 

A few actions that can be taken involve creating an environment, and the conditions, that allow people to access wellbeing.  In a work context, it is the responsibility of supervisors and directors who can listen and assist staff with navigating tradeoff decisions through their positional power.  If a barrier is identified, the supervisor or director can assess whether or not the barrier can be mitigated or removed to make working in the organization worth it to employees. 

Example: an employee shares that a policy (e.g.,cell phones must be kept in lockers at all times) or a structure (e.g., shift hours from 3 p.m.-11 p.m.) prevents them from having access to their school-aged children while at work. The employee, a single mother, recently had to arrange for a new in-home child care provider who is scheduled to start in the role next week. She is concerned that she will not be available to answer questions and be available to help the child care provider and the children while they become familiar with each other.  The supervisor might revisit the policy or adjust the structure to minimize the tradeoffs the employee might have to make by agreeing to accommodate the need for her to have the phone at her desk and available for a set transition period.

Lotus: I would add that at a minimum, there should be space to have a conversation about the tradeoffs of rules, policies and practices - regardless of whether or not they are able to be changed. Even when they can’t be changed, it can often be possible to do something to mitigate the tradeoffs forced by them.

What is one takeaway from this framework that you’d like our community and partners to share with their own networks?

Lotus: To consider tradeoffs, not just on the individual level, but with rules, policies and other structures. Even desirable rules and policies result in tradeoffs. We may not be able to change the rule or policy, but we have the capacity to do something to make the forced tradeoffs more manageable, more worth it. This has huge implications for staff wellbeing.

Learn more about how you can shift staff wellbeing in your own workplace by watching the webinar here.

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