Beyond Hedonia: 5 Keys to Enhancing Workplace Well-Being at Scale (original) (raw)

2019, American Journal of Health Promotion

The Importance of Well-Being at Work E ven though we spend the majority of our waking lives at work, for most people, work is not a primary source of happiness. In fact, recent data on the ways work can compromise health and well-being is alarming. Work now ranks as the fifth leading cause of death in the United States due to work-induced stress, 1 and workplace stress has also been found to be associated with cardiovascular disease and depression. 2 Employee well-being isn't just good for employees, supporting it also represents a significant opportunity for organizations. Research suggests that the relationship between happiness and success isn't just correlational, it's causal. 3 In other words, employee happiness positively impacts performance, job satisfaction, and overall career success 4 and even reduces health-care costs for organizations. 2 More recently, organizations have started to catch on to these potential benefits and are investing in employee well-being. However, despite spending nearly US$8 billion on employee well-being in 2018 in the United States alone, 5 data on stress, burnout, and loneliness show that we have a long way to go. 1,6 So, while the importance of happiness and well-being is not in doubt, developing effective practices that positively move the needle in today's workplace remains a largely unsolved challenge. In this article, we share how we conceptualize well-being at work, define 5 specific drivers of workplace wellbeing we have leveraged within organizations, and offer a broad view of some of the interventions we use with employee populations. We also share our research to date on the impact of our interventions on employee well-being as a way to demonstrate the strides that can be made in employee populations within a relatively short period of time. We conclude with generalizable best practices for practitioners who share the mission to support the health and well-being of employees everywhere.