Suzanne Deeming, co-founder and CEO of WorkScore, explains why building a strong working environment means investing in a positive workplace culture
Suzanne Deeming, co-founder and CEO of WorkScore, explains why building a strong working environment means investing in a positive workplace culture
Given the central role work plays in many of our lives, it seems logical that companies should invest in creating a positive working culture.
After all, a positive culture has immediately tangible benefits in the wider workplace, leading to higher-performing employees, greater team cohesion and a better customer experience, with more profits as a result.
Suzanne Deeming, co-founder and CEO of WorkScore, says a positive workplace culture is essential to the success of an organisation.
Given the effect that it can have on a company’s ability to recruit, engage and retain talented employees, it makes sense to invest properly in this area.
“In a positive workplace culture, there is a strong sense of belonging and teamwork,” says Deeming.
“This correlates with employees feeling less down or depressed, less anxious, more engaged and more productive.”
On the flip side, she says, you can see a negative impact on employees when there isn’t a positive culture.
This isn’t just hyperbole either – recently, WorkScore published The 2019 Wellbeing Report, the results of a study investigating the importance of workplace culture.
Deeming points to its findings as integral to the wider conversation around the issue.
The 2019 Wellbeing Report
This report was designed to investigate the effects of work culture on a variety of employee and business outcomes, Deeming says.
“We surveyed more than 12,500 Australian workers across a broad variety of industries,” she says.
“The findings were remarkably consistent, with a third of those surveyed indicating that work had a negative impact on their wellbeing.”
Within this group of negatively affected employees, 78% also indicated that they frequently experienced stress at work.
Accordingly, they were also less happy and more anxious than employees who worked in an environment that had a positive impact on their wellbeing.
Results across other areas make for compelling reading, too.
Gender matters
The results of the survey also indicated that women in the workplace tend to be more anxious than their male counterparts. More women reported higher stress levels (65%) than men (51%).
While the majority of men (68%) and women (79%) surveyed said they frequently experienced stress at work, there were significantly more females who struggled with stress.
Wake up to sleep issues
What does sleep have to do with work performance? As it turns out, quite a lot.
“We found less than one in three employees are getting enough sleep each night. Not getting enough sleep is a significant contributor to increased stress at work,” says Deeming.
Boost healthy mindsets
Employees who rated their diet as healthy were more positive, better able to deal with problems, and had fewer instances of mental health conditions than those who had an unhealthy diet. Specifically, more fruit and vegetables and less sugar increased positivity and general wellbeing; eating more than five serves of fruit per day (compared to one serve) increased their wellbeing rate by 10% and positivity by 13%.
The fitness factor
While there’s a high correlation between regular exercise and being focused at work, 21% of people surveyed said they didn’t exercise at all in an average week. Alarmingly, people who didn’t exercise also rated themselves as having low concentration at work, and as highly stressed.
Creating a positive workplace culture
However, Deeming has good news – namely, that more employers are realising the need to focus on employee wellbeing. “Many businesses don’t yet fully understand the needs of their employees or the benefits of investing in wellbeing programs, but the interest is there,” Deeming says.
“It’s up to HR to help steer the wider business in the right direction.”
Importantly, this is backed up by the data: of the respondents who felt their workplace cared about wellbeing, 78% rated themselves as engaged at work.
“In workplaces that are rated as caring about employee wellbeing, there are 3.8 times more employees who are engaged at work, compared with workplaces who are rated as not caring about employee wellbeing,” says Deeming.
HR has an integral role to play in developing a more positive workplace culture.
Listening to employee feedback, balancing employee needs versus management expectations, and driving change from behind the scenes are all crucially important to achieving this.
But to undertake cultural change HR leaders themselves need to have the right knowledge and the correct tools available.
The first place to start is by measuring the key indicators of a positive workplace culture. According to Deeming, these are:
• happiness at work
• engagement at work
• concentration at work
• sense of teamwork and belonging
This can be done in a variety of ways, including through a formal or informal survey of employees, or through general observations and staff discussions. WorkScore provides a platform that enables HR managers to track the overall wellbeing of employees. As WorkScore collects weekly data on a real-time basis, the platform delivers instant and ongoing insights into employee engagement through the vital lens of wellbeing. “Waiting for a biannual or annual engagement survey to check in with your people is fast becoming a thing of the past,” says Deeming. “Instead, we can use WorkScore as an indicator of employee wellbeing. It enables us to provide companies with real-time data on employees across a number of key areas, including work, body, fuel, fitness and mindset.”
Five simple steps
Based on the findings of The 2019 Wellbeing Report, Deeming and her team have put together five simple steps to improving employee wellbeing and creating a culture of wellness.
To better understand the particular pressures employees are facing and their areas of importance, Deeming encourages businesses to undertake a wellbeing survey. “Once you’ve done that, you can build your wellbeing policy around the key areas that are identified,” she says.
An awareness campaign should communicate to employees the importance of wellbeing and adopting a healthy lifestyle. “Importantly, bosses need to communicate their commitment to wellbeing with a formal policy,” says Deeming.
Ideally, a wellbeing program will be multifaceted, incorporating a variety of different features.
These may include initiatives such as mental health training and programs; providing healthy food options (for example fruit, healthy vending machine snacks); and fitness or sporting activities for employees.
“Depending on your workplace, this may also include providing workplace flexibility in hours and location,” says Deeming.
“And for those in the office, it’s important to improve the ergonomics of workspaces and provide proper equipment to support overall wellness at work.”
Deeming is quick to point out that leading by example is a multifaceted undertaking. Employee achievements must be recognised, and team-based activities are encouraged.
However, she suggests that the most important thing is to encourage a healthy work-life balance.
Leaders across the business should be visibly involved in the wellbeing program and role-model the work-life balance.
“There are a number of ways to do this, including by encouraging regular breaks and full lunch breaks for employees,” Deeming says.
“Additionally, let people switch off by reducing work calls and emails outside working hours.”
Touching base regularly with employees allows HR to monitor the dynamic wellbeing of staff.
Regular discussions, check-ins and encouraging open feedback are all of great value.
It’s also important to remember that these programs are not simply ‘set and forget’ undertakings. “Employees are living, breathing and changing individuals,” Deeming says.
“So you need to adapt your programs to cater for their changing needs.”
