Since the start of the 2020 pandemic, there’s been a rise in wellbeing conversations at work. Data from Clear Review showed that since March 2020, wellbeing as a topic has shot up in check-in conversations.
(Source: Clear Review)
We hope going forward this surge in wellbeing conversations normalises talking about wellbeing in organizations and that a focus on wellbeing remains an integral part of working life. However, to ensure that you are prioritizing wellbeing, there needs to be a shift in the way organizations do things. Managers are key to ensuring employee wellbeing. Organizations and HR must train managers to prioritise wellbeing in their team, to ensure this is not “another failed initiative.”
Types of managers and how they can support wellbeing
Employee wellbeing is heavily influenced by their immediate team and most importantly their manager. But not all managers are created alike. Ranging from inspiring leaders to accidental managers, your organization most likely has a mixture.
Why does this matter? Considering all managers will have a different level of confidence and expertise in managing wellbeing, we cannot just simply apply a one-fits-all thinking to improving wellbeing. We find that most of your management population will fit into three buckets.
The Accidental Manager
How to identify them?
This is someone who has become a manager due to tenure or because someone ‘had to do’ the job. They are not necessarily natural leaders and haven’t been trained to be managers either. Managers who ‘don’t have time for non-core activity’ or begin conversations with ‘HR told me to talk to you about this’ most likely fall into this category.
Your role as HR:
You will need to coax, cajole, coach and challenge these managers into better behaviour. Explain what is in it for them (WIITFM). People who have high wellbeing levels are more productive and perform better. One Salesforce report revealed that employees who feel their voice is heard at work are 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work. You need to understand whether having wellbeing conversations is something they ‘can’t do’ or something that they ‘won’t do’. If it’s the former, coach them and give them the resources to get them to the ‘can do’ stage. If it’s the latter, use examples of other managers and explain that as a people manager this is expected of them.
Companies that are doing this:
Francis Lake from Virgin Money explains how normalising wellbeing conversations between managers and employees has been critical for them.
“Check-ins should be non-threatening. To do that, the first thing to cover off in your check-ins is whether you are on track. Once that is out of the way, the rest of the check-ins should be about the whole person and wellbeing is critical. We started making wellbeing part of a check in, and our thinking on that is that if we normalise it, then when times are bad, you are more likely to have that conversation. It means it’s okay to have a conversation about how someone is doing.”
One way you could start including wellbeing in your check-ins is by having temperature checks at the start. This is something we do at Clear Review. Temperate checks are a way of employees letting you know how they feel on a scale of 1 – 10. To help talk more about that, you could ask what would make you score one higher? This can help open up the conversation to see what things you can do as a manager to support your employee.
Your tools:
To normalise wellbeing conversations, some of the tools you can use are 1 – 1 Guidance and coaching prompts. This can help give accidental managers the tools they need to start thinking about how they integrate well being into conversations with their employees.
You can also take a look at our webinar on how to have wellbeing conversations.
Download wellbeing prompts for discussion:
The Willing and Trainable Majority
How to identify them?
A large proportion of your managers should fall into this category. They may be new managers or already have experience but they take people management seriously. The willing majority will be looking to you for your help and guidance and will be much more engaged with HR initiatives than ‘The Accidental Manager’.
Your role as HR:
Focus on building their confidence and competence and reminding them why this is worth doing. One way to do this is to team them up with your wellbeing advocates ‘Superheros’ so that they can learn from them. Recognising their work so that they remember why this is worth doing is key. Regular feedback and easy to use and find resources will be your best friend.
Companies that are doing this:
International property consultant firm, Gerald Eve, uses feedback to support wellbeing through coaching style conversations. They’ve done this by using Clear Review to encourage and embrace coaching and mentoring style feedback and conversations, in order to understand their people better. This focus towards improving employee engagement and wellbeing has been celebrated with a win at the EG Awards, wht Gerald Eve winning “Employer of the year.”
Having resources readily available for your managers and signposting them to it is important, according to Beth Samson from Investors in People. In one of our wellbeing webinars, Beth explains how signposting can help direct managers to the right resources so that they can support their team, without relying on HR.
Your tools:
Teaming them up with other wellbeing advocates in your organization
Download self-reflection tool for managers and employees
The Superhero – The Enlightened Advocate
How to identify them?
For the most part you will know who these people are. They see their team’s wellbeing and success as their priority. You will have probably heard great feedback from others about their collaborative and inclusive management style. If they were to ask for something from you it would be ‘Trust and empower me to get on with it”.
Your role as HR:
Trust, release, empower and use them to cross-pollinate great wellbeing practices in the organization. Don’t constrain them with unnecessary process or bureaucracy and trust them to get it right. Celebrate their work and use their methods as company ‘best practice’ and most importantly involve them in consultation and decision making when it comes to new wellbeing initiatives.
Companies that are doing this:
One of the ways you could do this is by discussing with your managers, how you can incorporate wellbeing into objectives. This is something that Wesleyan is doing. They have wellbeing objectives which are part of personal development objectives. This ensures that their teams wellbeing and success is a priority. They use the Clear Review system — which they have internally branded as Thrive — to support wellbeing practices in their organization as well as celebrate their work. For example, within a few months of using Clear Review, they’ve had over 300 well-being objectives set, focusing on maintaining mental & physical health, giving back and improving work-life balance.
Celebrating the feedback these managers get is also a great way to share what these managers are doing. You could hold wellness sessions where these managers share their best practice with the rest of the organization.
Your tools:
Internal Comms – celebrate what these managers do
Involve them in conversations about wellbeing initiatives
Download our wellbeing session for managers to run with their team
What can organisations do to make wellbeing a priority across the organisation?
Although managers are crucial to ensuring employee wellbeing, there are some things that organisations can do to make it part of the company culture. We’ve spoken to multiple organisations about how they are supporting their employees’ wellbeing. Here are some examples of things you could do.
Have a dedicated team that are wellbeing advocates and can support managers
Some ways in which you can embed the importance of wellbeing into the organisation is by having a dedicated team that champions these conversations. At Clear Review for example, we have The Guardians who are made up from one member of each team. They are there to uphold the company’s values and commitments and support wellbeing throughout the organisation. Similarly, Beth Samson at Investors in People talks about how volunteers from their organisation have teamed up to support employees. Each person has at least one other person that they check in with regularly to make sure they are okay.
Talk about wellbeing and hold sessions where people can learn more
Talking about wellbeing regularly as a company is also important if you want your employees to know that it is a priority. You could hold sessions where you discuss wellbeing and how to improve it. Employee wellbeing is really important to us at Clear Review and to help talk about it more, we have monthly Wellness Wednesdays. These are company-wide sessions that we have every month or sometimes twice a month, where we discuss different things that may impact our wellbeing — everything from mental health to things like financial wellbeing.
Offer Coaching
Although feedback is a great way to incorporate mentoring and coaching style conversations, it’s also important to incorporate coaching style conversations in check ins. To help managers have coaching conversations you could go through coaching prompts and run training sessions with them. You could also offer coaching to all employees to help support them with personal development and career conversations.
Learn more about how your managers can get on board with wellbeing conversations
Watch our webinar where our panel of experts will be discussing how managers can get behind wellbeing conversations and support their employees. We will be joined by Natasha Wallace of Conscious Works, AllY Illsley from BT, Daniel Procter from Waltham Forest Council and Emma Foote, from Clear Review.
