Well-being@Work By investing in employee well-being – their experience at work – companies can increase their performance.
nef consulting’s employee audit tool launches the nef Centre for Well-being’s innovative research on assessing people’s well-being – in the work context. The Centre for Well-being is an integral part of nef (the new economics foundation) – an independent think and do tank that combines research, consulting and advocacy to develop practical initiatives and tools to build an economy that is socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable. 3 Jonathan Street, London SE11 5NH, United Kingdom T: +44(0)20 7820 6364 F: +44(0)20 7820 6301 www.nef-consulting.co.uk
Increased Organisational Performance Most organisations understand that one of their most important assets is their staff. nef consulting’s research shows that the well-being of its employees is paramount for the proper functioning of the company and its ability to not only maximise its potential, but also minimise its costs related to absenteeism and staff replacement. With this in mind, nef consulting offers an exciting new online analytical audit tool that provides companies with the means to accurately identify levels of employee well-being. All too often, employees are asked to fill in job satisfaction surveys at work with no prospect of seeing any action taken as a result of their recommendations. Conscious of this problem, nef consulting’s Well-being@Work product is designed to provide information directly to teams and individuals within an organisation. This helps them understand how they could improve their own well-being at work. In this way, the tool aims to provide everyone within an organisation with a common language with which to discuss issues together. Often with staff surveys, Human Resources (HR) departments are left with weighty reports that tend to get left on the shelf. nef consulting’s Well-being@Work provides an interactive well-being management information system (WMIS) that intuitively shows how people are faring within the organisation. The tool aims to highlight where things are going well in the organisation and where they are going less well; to identify internal best practice to build upon; and to understand negative trends that need attention. All of this is achieved in a fully automated online product accessible at www.well-beingatwork.net where an HR director can access their organisation’s results and information, easily managed to best identify issues around well-being.
Why Well-being@Work Matters Employees’ well-being at work is really shorthand for the quality of their experience at work. The Well-being@Work tool differentiates between the feelings people experience whilst working and their own assessments of how well they are functioning in the work environment. These two components – people’s feelings and their functionings – are key to organisational performance. At times, work has received a bad press when it comes to its impact on well-being, with it being dismissed as a necessary evil to enable people achieve well-being in other areas of life. But evidence suggests that work itself can make a significant contribution to people’s well-being. In addition, promoting well-being at work is not only good for employees; it is also in employers’ direct interests. • Research into the functioning of work teams highlights that a good balance between being supportive and being challenged broadens the creative potential of the whole team. This in turn builds their resources, leading directly to increased productivity, profitability and customer satisfaction. This potentially creates a virtuous cycle of increasing well-being within the organisation, while simultaneously stimulating enhanced personal and organisation outcomes. • Recent evidence, from the CIPD1 working life survey, demonstrates why employers should take well-being seriously. The impact of positive emotions (such as enthusiasm, optimism, contentment) on a range of key performance indicators from engagement to loyalty and performance are much greater than the impact of negative emotions (tension, worry, unease). While one wouldn’t advocate ignoring negative feedback, organisations might create more impact by promoting a climate that fosters positive emotions at work. • nef have recently produced a report for NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) on the links between well-being and innovation. Whilst evidence is still thin, there
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is a strong reason to believe that elements of well-being at work, such as autonomy and creativity, directly support the innovation-generating process. What is less clear is whether innovative re-structuring of organisations supports well-being at work or undermines it, nor what the implication of these changes might have on organisations’ short and medium term profitability. • Well-being is not only the key to high performance at work, but it is also critical to reducing costs that may arise from low employee well-being, for example: • Overall Recruitment costs can reach £10,000 to £15,000 per employee (source: CIPD). It takes an average of 10 weeks to fill a vacancy, there is a loss of productivity and extra pressure on other employees as new employees take time to ‘get up to speed’. • Overall Absenteeism costs can also range from £10,000 to £15,000 per episode (source: CBI and HSC).
About nef’s Centre for Well-being nef consulting’s Well-being@Work product operationalises the nef Centre for Well-being’s internationally recognised innovative work on assessing people’s well-being — their experience of their lives — in a work context. The Centre for Well-being is an integral part of nef (the new economics foundation) — an independent ‘think and do’ tank that combines research, consulting and advocacy to develop practical initiatives and tools to build an economy that is socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable. The Centre for Well-being advances thinking in the field by conducting high quality research and consultancy, informing public policy and bringing the well-being agenda into the mainstream of organisational practice. The centre’s founder Nic Marks is a recognised expert in the field who has led nef’s well-being programme since 2001. The Centre is recognised as a policy shaper as a result of its ongoing work with a range of partners, including European institutions, government departments, Regional Development Agencies, Local Authorities, Local Strategic Partnerships, private sector companies, charitable trusts, community groups and voluntary organisations.
Well-being @ Work Features nef consulting’s Well-being@Work employee audit tool is packed with features which manage to balance simplicity with sophistication: Features Easy access: Clients get a personalised and accessible web page through which the employee survey is conducted. They can also upload extra questions to the core survey. Easy survey – surveying made simple: The Well-being@work software then generates a unique online questionnaire for clients to send to all their employees, and then automatically stores the responses in a secure database. Slice and dice: You can explore the data that comes in using a clear and intuitive management information system. We use a consistent scoring system for all the questions, so results can be easily compared within the organisation and with other organisations outside. Getting personal: You can also access this data on a customised basis, for example according
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to the different components of well-being, such as motivation, competence or job satisfaction, by business unit, or by demographic such as payscale and gender. Anonymity: While allowing HR professionals the ability to analyse the results in different ways (slice and dice), the results of individuals are protected by the system, which prevents results below a certain number of respondents from being displayed. Positive action: This means you will be able to identify success factors that promote staff well-being, as well as tackle any negative trends that need attention. Go it alone: Clients can conduct the audits themselves. But nef consultants are also available to explain the survey process, analyse results and give presentations or run workshops to communicate the results.
Introduction to Well-being@Work nef’s approach to well-being considers not only how people feel (often the approach taken by other measures of well-being) but also how they function. The particular value of this model to companies is that it provides a framework through which issues relating to both the individual and their workplace setting can be captured. By focusing on people’s “lived experience” at work, objective measures can be understood in terms of how they relate to (and affect) subjective feelings.
Methodology Well-being@Work uses an analytical framework that is grounded in the nef Centre for Well-being’s pioneering work on well-being assessment.
Experience of Work (Interest, stress, job and organisational satisfaction)
Functioning well at Work (Creative work, competent work, team and good work)
Organisational Conditions (Climate, management system, job design and threats) Personal Resources (Resilience, home life, motivation and engagement)
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This diagram is best read from the bottom upwards, with people’s experience of work understood as an emergent property of the dynamic fit between the individual and organisational system.
Personal Resources What is being assessed here is about what the individual brings to the job. The survey is currently based on four indicators: • Resilience: Ability to cope with a specific job and ability to respond to challenges. • Work-Life Balance: Do people have an acceptable balance between their jobs and the rest of their lives? • Motivation: Is the employee motivated about their job? • Engagement: Does the employee think the job they do is worthwhile?
Organisational Systems Conditions within an organisation can be enabling or not. The factors include: • The climate of the organisation: this is how the organisation feels. Is it a supportive atmosphere? Can people challenge decisions? Does the organisation have clear, well communicated goals? • The management system: Does the organisation have good feedback systems? Are the line managers helpful? Are demands placed upon employees reasonable? • Job Design: Do people feel fairly paid? How are their career prospects? Are they clear about their job role? Is the job itself varied? • Threats and insecurities: Is there bullying or harassment within the organisation? Do people feel insecure about their jobs? Are people respected?
Good Functioning The domain is about the dynamic fit between the individual, the job and the organisation. It is based on the notion that good functioning is when people’s psycho-social needs are met. Current indicators include: • Creative work: Can the employee express themselves within their own job? • Competent work: Do they feel good at their job? • Team work: Do they have good relationships with other people at work? • Good work: Does the employee believe the job they do is beneficial to society?
Experience of Work This directly assesses people’s experience of their working lives. It builds on a key insight from the science of well-being: the distinction between pleasure/enjoyment and engagement/absorption/flow, in this context operationalised as (not too) stressful and interesting jobs. In addition it includes a
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satisfaction sub-domain, which can be considered as more of a cognitive assessment – people’s “thoughts about their experience”: This domain also pays attention to the experience of the organisation. Currently it uses questions to operationalise what are potentially important links to key organisational issues such as staff retention and attracting new recruits: • Interest: Do employees find their jobs interesting, exciting, rewarding and not boring? • Stressful Job: Are their jobs stressful, frustrating and difficult? • Satisfying Job: Do they find their jobs satisfying overall? • Good organisation: Do employees feel proud of the organisation they work for? Are they advocates? Would you recommend it as a place to work?
Results The results of the survey are based on the five domains described above. The overall well-being score for the organisation can be sub-divided by: • Domain • Organisational structure e.g. by team • Demographics The results are based on a scoring system from 0-10 that is designed to be intuitive. Overall domain scores can be sub-divided down to the individual question level.
Delivering Well-being @ Work Because Well-being@Work is a fully automated product, customers can conduct an entire audit themselves. However, if assistance is desired, either for explanation prior to a survey or analysis of results post survey, nef consulting is available to the customer.
References 1 Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
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