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I often talk about my 3 decades of experience as a software engineer in the corporate world. This is a huge part of my career, and it makes sense to me to include that fact when I suggest ideas and solutions to what corporates are facing nowadays. This experience also gives me a lot of insights into what corporates can do to enhance their employees' engagement and sense of belonging. In this article, I would like to talk about one of the main topics to increase engagement - employee well-being.
Employee well-being has always been one of the focuses of HR in the tech industry. Yet recently it became the main focus, primarily because organizations realized that people are the main engine of their business, and when you keep people engaged and happy, their results will improve. There are different models of well-being programs, yet all of them include two main factors: physical well-being and mental well-being.
When we drill down to what organizations are providing in the physical well-being section, we can find a lot of healthy lifestyle activities and training. For example yoga lessons in the office and on zoom, mindfulness, access to the gym, and so forth. All of these activities can have a great impact on our employees' lifestyle and can contribute somewhat to their engagement and sense of belonging.
In the mental well-being section, we can mainly find mental health-related support and activities. Usually what organizations will do is refer employees to external therapists and consultants, and create a social group composed of employees and their allies at work as part of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts.
All of these services and activities are so important to the employee's well-being, and it is a game changer in both the employees' lives and the company's business results. However, it takes a real effort to "keep the flame" in each of them, because all of them require a good amount of persistence, determination, and time. Take as an example an employee that wants to join the mindfulness lessons. Unless that employee has the necessary motivation and skills to stay in this activity - they will most likely drop in the middle and we will lose our goal to improve their well-being.
It makes sense that these kinds of changes in our employees' lives will need more than the well-being services available. These kinds of changes in any human life need a solid inner commitment. Without that commitment and skills such as persistence, there is a good chance both the employees and the organization will miss their goals, and all the efforts and funds that we put in will be totally wasted.
As a corporate employee and a corporate coach, I can see the two ends of this challenge. In my daily job as a coach, I help people find their personal well-being goals, strengthen the skills they need to achieve these goals, and create a detailed plan to achieve them. This is unfortunately something that is usually missing in most well-being programs in organizations.
We, as employers, have the opportunity to make a real difference in our employees' lives as well as in our company's business results if we provide our employees, with not only the WHAT, but also the HOW. Coaching is a great "how-to" tool that can really help us achieve our goals and create a more engaging workplace.
Coach Perry
Corporate Coach for employee engagement and diversity and inclusion
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