The past three covid hit years have not only been a wakeup call to take care of our physical health but also our mental health. It perhaps took a deadly pandemic to make many people understand the importance of physical as well as mental health.
While the worst days of the pandemic seem to be fading now, it has indeed left a lasting impression on some companies about the importance of mental and physical health for their employees.?
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In the post covid era, many companies have been hiring for a new role that didn’t exist much a few years ago- Chief Wellness Officer. As per World Economic Forum (WEF),?Chief Well-being Officers (CWBOs) are responsible for creating a healthy and positive work culture by improving employees' physical, mental, and emotional health.
Professional services giant EY hired a chief well-being officer in 2021, and management consulting firm Aon hired a chief well-being officer in 2022. Even the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) hired a chief well-being officer last year. Other companies like major US airline Delta, which hired a chief health officer in 2021, are pivoting that role away from strictly medical oversight and into a broader—they would posit, more holistic—vision of wellness,? as per Fortune report. Deloitte too has a chief well-being officer.
Companies are turning to this new role as a way to retain workers and help employees at a time when they are faced with the prospect of employee burnout and the widespread mental health impacts of covid.
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In early May, about three weeks after US President Joe Biden signed a bill ending the national emergency designation for COVID-19, the U.S. surgeon general raised the alarm on another public health crisis: loneliness, increasing isolation, and deteriorating mental health.
The preexisting loneliness epidemic, intensified by pandemic lockdowns and subsequent changes to our work and social lives, demands the same level of attention as “other critical public health issues such as tobacco, obesity, and substance use disorders,” Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy reportedly said in a statement.
Rates of anxiety and depression rose significantly during the pandemic. In 2020 they skyrocketed 25% around the globe, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
And a survey from CNN/Kaiser found that rate of anxiety and/or depressive disorder among U.S. adults in February of this year was 32.3%, only a slight decrease from April 2020’s rate of 35.9%. People are now being asked to move on and return to working in an office, but the toll on their collective mental health hasn’t gone anywhere. More adults were in therapy in 2021 than before the pandemic, so much so that psychologists have struggled to meet the demand.??
Anxiety and depression are following people into the workplace. Around 64% of 1,600 U.S. workers and HR leaders surveyed said they struggled with mental or behavioural issues, according to a March report from membership-based primary care practice One Medical. As a result, 91% of that cohort said they were less productive. And employers can’t afford to ignore these issues, according to Gallup, an analytics firm. Failing to invest in well-being equates to a loss of $322 billion in turnover and lost productivity costs per year globally due to employee burnout.??
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Companies seem to be more and more aware that their employees need additional physical and mental health support. But the role of a chief wellness officer is broadly defined, and there’s no clear measurement for how to judge their success.?
HR executives have historically coupled benefit usage rates with employee satisfaction surveys to gauge whether employees are happy at work. But as well-being work continues to evolve, says Jen Fisher, chief well-being officer at Deloitte, there need to be more robust measures for employee health and wellness, along with understanding which policies actually help create a sustainable working culture.?
Fisher, who was hired for her role way back in 2015, sees her job now more than ever as all-encompassing. It includes delivering on company commitments to climate change, as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion goals, as a way of positively impacting employee well-being.?
“Now is a pivotal moment for the people who sit in these varied roles across an organization to really start to come together and understand that these aren’t siloed areas that can be addressed separately. They really, truly need to be addressed together.”
Whether companies need to hire a chief to oversee wellness and well-being is an open question, says McKinsey senior partner Aaron De Smet, an expert on corporate culture who also advises leadership teams. But he adds that addressing employee wellness is important.?
“Make no mistake, while the pandemic put a spotlight on the issue, the importance of it has not decreased,” he told Fortune, noting increased and persisting concerns about its impact on the mental, physical, and emotional health of employees. “Helping boost productivity and performance, ensuring accountability and delivering of results, while at the same time caring for sustainable and flexible lifestyles, positive employee experience, and employee burnout, well-being, thriving, etc., is likely to remain an important topic into the future.”
There’s only so much a chief wellness officer can do, though. The kind of ecosystem that Deloitte's Fisher and other well-being executives envision—one that makes employee well-being and satisfaction the most important aspect through every nook and cranny of the company—is likely to require everyone, from the chief wellness officer to the CEO and down to direct managers, to wave the well-being flag.?
“We need to acknowledge that the way we’re working isn’t sustainable for humans right now. There’s a lot of things about work that need to change that may or may not ultimately be the responsibility of a chief wellness officer,” Fisher says. “These things need to sit truly within the C-suite to kind of relook at work and change systems that have been in place for a long time. Because the way we’re working and the way we want to work are so different. And those are the things that are having a more outsize impact on people’s well-being.”
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