orkplace culture has always played a significant role in peoples’ job choice and has become even more prominent in the post-pandemic times. The COVID-19 pandemic has given a window to people to slow down and re-evaluate their priorities, placing emotional wellbeing at the forefront. The debate over the Great Resignation, which created unprecedented churn in the U.S. labor market, with around 48 million people quitting their jobs in 2021, has placed a spotlight on workplace culture.
The pandemic has altered the nature of work for companies and people. Remote work, hybrid work, quiet quitting, and mental health breaks are becoming commonly heard terms. Employees are still struggling to balance life-work integration, and battling to be better and more adaptive in defining the boundaries, but this is not achievable without their companies coming forward to create a healthy workplace that boosts productivity, and encourages retention. Evidence clearly indicates that organizations need to reinvent their approach to lower their attrition rate. According to the World Health Organization, a healthy workplace is one in which workers and managers collaborate to protect and promote the health, safety, and wellbeing of all workers and the sustainability of the workplace. When employees feel engaged, safe and cared for, they contribute more positively.
Introducing Emotional Salaries for a Healthier Workplace
We understand emotional salary as benefits and initiatives that promote work-life balance, in addition to the traditional understanding of salary. It focuses on the emotional gains that motivate employees, leading to personal and professional growth, and increase the level of satisfaction and wellbeing at work. The types of emotional salary may vary from company to company. They can be health insurance options, medical consultation, caregiving leave, family leave, psychological support, options for additional paid leaves, maternity and paternity benefits and much more. It is important to remember that emotional salary doesn’t substitute traditional salary, but rather complements it.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou
This also applies to workplaces.
The Skill’s Consulting Group’s (SCG) Wellbeing Index 2022 found a strong relationship between satisfaction and motivation, effectiveness, and retention. The evidence generated clearly demonstrates that staff members working without a wellbeing culture are more likely to transition and eventually be unable to create a culture of success both for the employer and the employees. The tech giant Google is one of the most agile companies around, and has a culture of offering a warm onboarding process, perks including health and wellness, workplace flexibility and time off, family support and care, benefits after life and much more. Google has a 4.5 out of 5 rating on Glassdoor, demonstrating the model of “We’ll take care of you while you take care of your work.”
The Role of Leadership in Workplace Wellbeing
As we unravel the intricacies and emerging requirements of workplace culture, the role of leadership assumes utmost significance. Without leaders motivated to promote a healthy and inclusive culture, it won’t matter how many well-being, diversity and gender equality initiatives an organization has. On the contrary, poor and indecisive leaders can contribute to a toxic work attitude, poor staff retention, and loss of high performing employees, and eventually result in spoiling the brand name in the market.
“It's almost a cliché to say that employees don’t leave companies, they leave bad bosses.” – Jack Kelly, Forbes
Fellows at the October cohort of Salzburg Global Seminar shared five transformational leaderships skills that can guide towards a more “Equitable and Inclusive” workplaces:
- Ability to travel beyond a singular “worldview;”
- Track record of co-creating fair and equitable policies, and programs;
- Willingness to experiment with new tactics and approaches;
- Acknowledge failure and receive feedback, and lead with new awareness;
- Commit to truth, reconciliation, and equity and a public-spirited and community-minded mentality.
Given we spend one third of our lives at work, the working environment can have a significant impact on our health and wellbeing. Effective workplace and wellbeing programs not only create a positive impact on worker productivity and performance but also contribute to the wellbeing of employees, families, and communities, while at the same time creating and sustaining a high-performing business. As the world navigates to the emerging demands and changing dynamics at offices, all organizations have to reflect on ways to make these spaces safer, inclusive, and adaptive, and to better reflect the needs of employees.
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Emotional Salaries Will Help Define the Future of Work
Photo via Pixabay.
February 2, 2023
The pandemic has altered the nature of work. Evidence clearly indicates that organizations need to reinvent their approach to lower their attrition rate, and emotional salaries—benefits and initiatives that promote work-life balance—are key to this, write Atiya Anis & Carla Barros.
W
orkplace culture has always played a significant role in peoples’ job choice and has become even more prominent in the post-pandemic times. The COVID-19 pandemic has given a window to people to slow down and re-evaluate their priorities, placing emotional wellbeing at the forefront. The debate over the Great Resignation, which created unprecedented churn in the U.S. labor market, with around 48 million people quitting their jobs in 2021, has placed a spotlight on workplace culture.
The pandemic has altered the nature of work for companies and people. Remote work, hybrid work, quiet quitting, and mental health breaks are becoming commonly heard terms. Employees are still struggling to balance life-work integration, and battling to be better and more adaptive in defining the boundaries, but this is not achievable without their companies coming forward to create a healthy workplace that boosts productivity, and encourages retention. Evidence clearly indicates that organizations need to reinvent their approach to lower their attrition rate. According to the World Health Organization, a healthy workplace is one in which workers and managers collaborate to protect and promote the health, safety, and wellbeing of all workers and the sustainability of the workplace. When employees feel engaged, safe and cared for, they contribute more positively.
Introducing Emotional Salaries for a Healthier Workplace
We understand emotional salary as benefits and initiatives that promote work-life balance, in addition to the traditional understanding of salary. It focuses on the emotional gains that motivate employees, leading to personal and professional growth, and increase the level of satisfaction and wellbeing at work. The types of emotional salary may vary from company to company. They can be health insurance options, medical consultation, caregiving leave, family leave, psychological support, options for additional paid leaves, maternity and paternity benefits and much more. It is important to remember that emotional salary doesn’t substitute traditional salary, but rather complements it.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou
This also applies to workplaces.
The Skill’s Consulting Group’s (SCG) Wellbeing Index 2022 found a strong relationship between satisfaction and motivation, effectiveness, and retention. The evidence generated clearly demonstrates that staff members working without a wellbeing culture are more likely to transition and eventually be unable to create a culture of success both for the employer and the employees. The tech giant Google is one of the most agile companies around, and has a culture of offering a warm onboarding process, perks including health and wellness, workplace flexibility and time off, family support and care, benefits after life and much more. Google has a 4.5 out of 5 rating on Glassdoor, demonstrating the model of “We’ll take care of you while you take care of your work.”
The Role of Leadership in Workplace Wellbeing
As we unravel the intricacies and emerging requirements of workplace culture, the role of leadership assumes utmost significance. Without leaders motivated to promote a healthy and inclusive culture, it won’t matter how many well-being, diversity and gender equality initiatives an organization has. On the contrary, poor and indecisive leaders can contribute to a toxic work attitude, poor staff retention, and loss of high performing employees, and eventually result in spoiling the brand name in the market.
“It's almost a cliché to say that employees don’t leave companies, they leave bad bosses.” – Jack Kelly, Forbes
Fellows at the October cohort of Salzburg Global Seminar shared five transformational leaderships skills that can guide towards a more “Equitable and Inclusive” workplaces:
- Ability to travel beyond a singular “worldview;”
- Track record of co-creating fair and equitable policies, and programs;
- Willingness to experiment with new tactics and approaches;
- Acknowledge failure and receive feedback, and lead with new awareness;
- Commit to truth, reconciliation, and equity and a public-spirited and community-minded mentality.
Given we spend one third of our lives at work, the working environment can have a significant impact on our health and wellbeing. Effective workplace and wellbeing programs not only create a positive impact on worker productivity and performance but also contribute to the wellbeing of employees, families, and communities, while at the same time creating and sustaining a high-performing business. As the world navigates to the emerging demands and changing dynamics at offices, all organizations have to reflect on ways to make these spaces safer, inclusive, and adaptive, and to better reflect the needs of employees.
