Caring for your people is the fast-track to competitive advantage

Employee wellbeing is often side-lined as ‘soft stuff’ and has a murky relationship with the bottom line. But in the midst of the ‘Great Resignation’, labour shortages, and Australians reassessing their work life balance en-masse, employee wellbeing is set to take centre stage in the coming year, writes Abby Johnston, strategy partner at Untangld.

Here we explore why businesses that win on wellbeing – and effectively amplify it through their employer brand – will win in 2022. 

Wellbeing impacts work

First up, let’s agree that employees are humans, and that their wellbeing impacts their work.

No matter how you cut it, the complexity of people’s lives spills into their work. In many professions it’s their very humanity – their creativity, empathy or care – that matters most to their employment. It’s also what makes them difficult to replace with even the most sophisticated AI.

Employees in knowledge work, healthcare, hospitality and many other industries must bring their full humanity to the job, for better or worse.

It’s difficult to deny that wellbeing has some impact on productivity and work. At its most basic, employees that are too ill to pack boxes, can’t pack boxes. But the spectrum from incapacitated to subtly impaired is more difficult to measure, and so often ignored.

Slipping mental health is far less obvious than physical injury, but can have outsized and long-term impacts on productivity, retention and morale.

We’re living amid a quiet mental health crisis

Our collective mental health undoubtedly took a hit these past two years. One in five Australians reported high or very high levels of psychological distress.

The practical realities of an increasing load of ‘at-home’ labour such as caring for children or the elderly, teamed with the mental load of processing new and complex information about COVID, has left us tired, wired and in many cases anxious and depressed. The natural flow on effect is decreased energy, enthusiasm and focus at work.

It’s likely this mental health strain will continue into 2022. Long COVID and breakthrough infection are still playing on people’s minds, and 77 per cent of people globally are concerned about the emergence of new COVID-19 variants. To add to the COVID overwhelm, 54 per cent of employees feel overworked and 39 percent feel exhausted.

All indicators suggest that the mental health fallout of the pandemic is just getting started.

People are acting on the realisations they had in 2020 and 2021

In parallel with a growing mental health crisis, Australians are more focused than ever on making the most of what increasingly feels like a fleeting and fragile existence. As a new YOLO (‘you only live once’) mentality sweeps the nation, people are seeking more purpose and happiness in their lives.

A wave of pent-up resignations, career changes and divorces in late 2021 indicate a cultural tipping point, in which our collective desire for meaning and joy trumped our need for stability.

In 2022, every moment counts. An empowered workforce is claiming full ownership of their short and precious lives, demanding balance, wellbeing and meaning at work.

So, what does this have to do with your employer brand?

In a tight labour market, skilled workers have choice – and are increasingly choosing balance, lifestyle and ultimately, wellbeing. Employers that bury their heads in the sand on this issue are not only doing a disservice to their employees, but to their business.

The best employer brands are a direct reflection of reality, and the most appealing reality in 2022 is one with wellbeing at the forefront.

Whether you’re a local corner store, or a multinational behemoth, your internal culture also impacts your external brand in meaningful ways. Employees talk, customers feel the atmosphere in your venues, and the output of your employees’ work is your tangible interface to the world.

As our nation emerges from two years of lockdowns, resilient businesses will be built only on the backs of resilient people. Resilient people are emotionally self-aware, physically well and mentally flexible.

In 2022, employers should focus on programs, support and environments that foster resilience in their workforce from the inside out. Then, amplify the reality of their employees’ lived experience through their employer brand.

Businesses that double down on employee wellbeing and authentically reflect this in their brand will win the talent war, retaining and attracting the best and brightest.

But the sweetest returns will be in the compounding daily impact of heightened productivity, innovation and morale, driving up brand equity in all the nuanced ways that only happy humans can.

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