Wellbeing is a vital consideration for employers. Employee wellbeing factors underpin engagement and productivity, and can influence an 11-15 percent uplift in company performance, as Aon’s Global Wellbeing Survey 2023 found.
Given the potential benefits, it’s not surprising that organisations are prioritising wellbeing. But are they taking the best approach? Is the data they use to drive wellbeing strategies and determine the support needed to implement them always sound?
Aon’s recent HR Future Focus Survey explored HR professionals’ attitudes to wellbeing, reward and DEI. Using a next-generation listening tool that combines neuroscience with technology to provide a true reflection of respondents’ views, the survey revealed what participants really felt, and not just what they were prepared to say.
When it comes to wellbeing, understanding whether your strategy is right and how effectively it lands with employees is vital to its success. Our survey found stark differences in some cases between respondents’ replies and their true beliefs.
For instance, using the traditional scoring methodology, HR respondents scored 65 percent when measured on whether their organisation encourages its employees to live healthily. When we look at the Neurotech® score, however, this figure rises to 85 percent.
What might be the reason for this discrepancy – one of the largest in the survey? Why might HR professionals downplay their efforts to encourage healthy employees?
Perhaps because they know that the intent is good: their strategy is in place to encourage healthy employees…but they also know that people managers need more support and wellbeing tools to deliver it at ground level. Perhaps, thinking shrewdly, they talk down their successes to garner resource to continue their projects or are lacking the data to confidently express their opinion.
Similar results were seen when respondents were asked how far they agreed with the statement ‘We do enough to support employee financial wellness’. The traditional score was 59%, while the neuroscientific score was much lower at 20%.
This significant gap of 39% indicates that, deep down, HR professionals feel that not enough is being done to help employees manage their financial commitments.
This gap is echoed when the survey delved further into the issue of financial wellness: when asked to respond to the statement ‘Our employees are coping with the cost of living crisis’, the traditional score was 53%, with the Neuroscientific score 24%, a difference of 29%. And when faced with the statement ‘Employees feel confident about their financial future’, the traditional score was 51% compared to a Neuroscientific score of 20%, a difference of 31%. Understanding the differences between the true picture of wellbeing, and the one we choose to acknowledge and share, can be vital to addressing some of the barriers to success. A wellbeing strategy that isn’t based on data, or isn’t implemented effectively, will not deliver the impact needed.
Similarly, when it comes to understanding employees’ views, using Neurotech® to gain a true picture can be illuminating. Financial wellbeing, for instance, is often overstated for reasons of embarrassment or reluctance to admit people’s true position. Wellbeing programmes can’t address employees’ challenges unless they are known, and the strategies built to tackle them are based on fact.
By basing their wellbeing strategies on data and accurate insight, rather than anecdote and gut feel, companies can truly transform the wellbeing of their employees – and as a result, their own performance.
Read the findings from Aon’s HR Future Focus Survey.
Find out more about Reflection, Aon’s next-gen employee listening tool.