Boosting worker well-being doesn't have to be pricey

Employers are trying to improve worker well-being by allowing more flexibility in work arrangements and in the benefits they offer.

This article is part of "Workforce Innovation," a series exploring the trends and leaders shaping enterprise transformation.

When Peter Montgomery worked in advertising, long days at the office were part of the culture.

"If you left at 6 p.m., the old criticism was, 'Oh, you're having a half day, are you?'" he said.

Now in a role overseeing the creative team at the cloud-based accounting platform Xero, Montgomery can make dinner most nights for his wife and two children.

The flexibility built into his job allows him to head to his home in Wellington, New Zealand, in time to prepare one of his hit meals, like burrito bowls or Thai meatballs with coconut sauce. Cooking gives him a chance to connect with his family and unwind before, on some nights, he logs back on to crank out a bit more work.

"It's really satisfying — gratifying — to actually have the ability to make work fit around the needs of my family," Montgomery, 50, told Business Insider.

That ability to make a career conform, where possible, to an employee's life is one of the simple and often inexpensive ways employers can boost their employees' well-being. Increasingly, employers are looking for novel methods to improve workers' welfare because provisions like health insurance aren't cutting it on their own.

A recent Gallup survey found worker well-being slipped globally to 34% in 2023 from 35% the year before. The decline followed several years of modest gains during the pandemic, when many bosses were quick to check in on workers. In recent years, however, many have reported feeling burned out and stressed by their jobs.

Boosting worker well-being is good for employees, of course, but it's also good for the bottom line. And it's critical for boosting other measures of corporate and worker health — things like engagement on the job.

Helping ease money worries

Erica Golden, the chief people officer at Banyan Software, told BI that perhaps the biggest threat to employee well-being was worry over money. So the company, which owns more than 50 software businesses, is setting up what it's calling an employee resource fund. Workers can ask to tap into it when they face a surprise expense. That could be an unexpected medical bill or an outsize expense related to caring for a family member.

The parameters for what might win approval, Golden said, are broad because the company wants to be responsive to a worker who might, for example, ask to draw $5,000 from the fund to deal with a unique financial hardship. A small number of business leaders review requests to keep the process simple and to respect worker privacy, she said.

"We just wanted them to be able to fill out a simple form and get what they need and feel that relief without a lot of judgment or protocol or their leaders really being involved in a lot of conversations," Golden said.

To start, there's about $100,000 in the fund, she said.

Golden said the company's leaders understood that employees facing crises would not be able to focus on their work. She added that these types of benefits were good for retaining workers. The employee resource fund also represents a modest shift away from big, one-size-fits-all benefits that might not be as useful to all workers, Golden said.

Leaders paying attention to what employees want are finding the questions on people's minds are, "Are you seeing me as an individual?" she said. "And: Would you be there if I was in a time of crisis?"

Supporting employees extends to other areas, Golden said. Part of solving the well-being puzzle involves workers being able to feel they can trust their leaders — including with the direction of their careers, she said.

"Some of that is learning and development. This other piece is, 'I want to be able to make some choices about what gear I shift into for my career,'" Golden said. There might be times when employees need to pull back and take on a less intense role to make room for things going on in their lives.

From legal services to pet insurance

Other forms of flexibility can benefit workers and improve well-being. Bradd Chignoli, head of national accounts for group benefits at MetLife, told BI that many employers were offering more in their benefits packages than a decade ago.

In some cases, workers pay for all or a share of these add-ons, he said. But that's often because these benefits are things workers have asked for in surveys. Chignoli said these offerings included legal services, identity-theft programs, and pet insurance.

Laying out a wider variety of benefits better meets workers' needs — and thereby boosts their overall well-being — by lining up more-nuanced benefits, instead of the blanket approach, he said.

"If I'm Gen Z versus a baby boomer, there may be certain products that are better fit," Chignoli said. "If I'm single versus having three kids, there may be certain benefits that are more appropriate for me. So that's where a lot of that personalization comes in."

For Xero's Montgomery, what works is leaving the office on time so he can prepare those meals for his family. He tries to instill the idea of achieving a personal balance in those who report to him.

Montgomery tells his team the quality of their work can't decline but that flexibility is often possible. Sometimes, they have to work extra time or outside normal business hours, but not too often.

"It's the exception, not the expectation, that we do that," he said. "So there's always a balance."