Employers have recognized that health and well-being are tightly tied to worker satisfaction and productivity. It’s no surprise that many companies are taking a whole-person approach to their employee strategies. One way to do that is with a well-being council.
This curated group of employees representing different levels and departments of a company—such as HR, safety, communications, finance and Employee Resource Groups—can help develop an inclusive, detailed, and evolving definition of who you’re trying to serve and what would best support them.
To ensure focus and acceptance, councils generally start by crafting a charter to guide their work, recruit cross-functional membership, clearly state their role as supporting HR functions rather than replacing them, and ensure they operate with senior leadership’s buy-in and support.
Whether you are just forming a committee or want to make yours more effective, these 5 principles can help the council meet your goals.
1. Aim higher than a people strategy
Consideration: To be successful, the council’s initiatives need to track to your organization’s business strategies. And as a bonus, integrating them can supercharge the effectiveness of both.
Action: Ensure decision-makers consider the impact on employees whenever they’re making broad strategic choices. Companies that apply a well-being mindset more broadly are twice as likely to report better human capital and financial outcomes.
2. Encourage a culture of shared ownership and accountability
Consideration: More and more, overall well-being is seen as a shared responsibility between employer and employee. Making company leaders and managers broadly accountable for this will help drive engagement.
Action: Recruit council members from across the company to ensure a “whole person” perspective. Acknowledging that employees may be caring for small children or elderly parents, volunteering in the community, or handling other responsibilities outside of work will help you find opportunities to support workers in ways that matter—and help leaders and managers see that caring about their team is core to their role. Also consider including this aspect of your culture in hiring and annual review materials to help reinforce it.
3. Expand cross-functional collaboration beyond HR and benefits teams
Consideration: The growing emphasis on employee recognition, mental health, managing for psychological safety, and even design of work makes it clear that true employee well-being extends beyond physical health. Awareness and access are key to your success.
Action: Empower your committee to engage and partner with operations, safety, and IT to help HR boost effectiveness at the organizational level. For example, aligning workplace drug testing with mental health, health coaching programs, and support for managers may return valued employees to work more reliably and safely after substance-related incidents.
4. Balance the needs of the few with the many
Consideration: Some employees travel while others work from a single location. Some might have intensely physical roles while others spend their days at a desk. Today’s solutions need to solve for multiple workday realities.
Action: Identify the workplace needs of different cohorts to define your requirements for flexibility and personalization. Recognizing and supporting different needs will improve engagement, satisfaction, and outcomes.
5. Let your committee experience the future
Consideration: These long-term goals won’t work with a set-it and forget-it mindset. As HR teams, especially HR IT specialists, explore and review new options, early feedback can help them make better decisions.
Action: Support your HR professionals by inviting council members to learn about the latest advances, review and test new HR tech, and provide feedback that can help make employee rollouts more effective from Day 1. Then, set those committee members loose to help drive excitement and convert employees into early adopters.
According to the World Health Organization, employement is a major social determinant of health2—and therefore employers can have a significant impact on the health outcomes of their populations. Companies that are serious about taking their employee support to the next level will find that a well-being council can help them get there.
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