Personalised, collaborative approaches needed, says CEO of CU Health, who will speak at upcoming National HR Summit
Hierarchical systems in workplaces may be negatively impacting wellbeing for many employees, according to an expert, who called for more personalised and collaborative approaches to effectively support staff at work.
Dr. Patrick Aouad, co-founder and chief executive officer of CU Health, stressed that workplaces have a very clear and direct relationship with the wellbeing of their people.
"It's impossible to disconnect the environment that someone works with, and the health and well-being of the individuals that work there," Aouad told HRD in an interview.
"So, I think that workplaces and organisations have a huge responsibility with respect to the well-being of their people not just because they are employing them and it's the right thing to do, but because it really helps the organisation perform at its best."
The issue, however, is that prevailing hierarchical systems in workplaces can hinder organisations from supporting employee wellbeing.
Traditionally, employees are expected to adapt to the vision of employers on how the business operates, irrespective of their own thoughts or views, according to the CEO.
"We've learned over time that when you approach learning and development training and workflow in that way… a lot of people will not respond very well to it because it doesn't take into account their learning styles, their motivations," he noted.
"If there's problems with the way in which management arrange work, problems with the way in which they set up systems and processes, problems with the way in which they engage with employee feedback and so on, obviously that leads to more negative interactions and that reduces productivity. It reduces well-being," he said.
To address the hierarchical issue, organisations need to start thinking about how to collaborate with employees to create workflows and environments that can bring out the best in them.
"Now that can be difficult because you can't cater to everybody, but one of the pitfalls is that leadership teams don't understand this," Aouad said, and have a "one-sided view rather than a collaborative view" on how to manage organisational structure and processes in a company.
He suggested that organisations must adopt a more personalised approach to give employees the best chance at success at work.
"But that can't be one-on-one, it needs to be done at the top and scalable, so you need to think, ‘What kind of employees do we have? What kind of categories do they fall into? What kinds of things are important to them?’" he said.
"Employees every five years will have different priorities in their life. If you can adapt to that in a way that is not reactive but structurally built into the culture of an organisation, you're going to retain more talent."
Personalisation may also apply to wellbeing initiatives offered at work, according to Aouad.
"The first step is to just accept that everybody is different. There are certainly categories of people or common themes that arise, and acknowledging those common themes is important," he said.
But the differences among employees may mean that their demands at work can be wide-ranging. And this is where external experts on wellbeing can offer proactive support to staff.
"It's very important to partner with well-being providers that have inclusive and customisable options," he said. "The offering or the platform or the service that a company engages with needs to basically have in place something that approaches or acknowledges mental health, physical health, family planning prevention, convenient access to services."
Overall, Aouad said employers that look after their organisational and employees' personal wellbeing will unlock the greatest potential in a company.
"It's logical to say that if an organisation looks after its human capital, its assets, its people, they're going to deliver much better results for the company, and they're also going to be much healthier and happier in their lives, both at work and outside of work, which is an energising and important thing."
Aouad is joining the upcoming National HR Summit this April at the ICC Sydney, where he will be discussing how to uplift employee wellbeing.
"I'm very excited about it because, historically, five to six years ago, there was no well-being stage at these events," he said.
"So, this demonstrates that the National HR Summit… they now see it as such a priority that there is an actual stage and agenda specifically focused on employee well-being."
That speaks for how the conversation on employee wellbeing is becoming more essential in HR events, according to Aouad.
"It means that the platform is getting bigger and getting louder and becoming part of the main arena."
