Total Rewards - Well-being PDF

Well-being effectiveness is grounded in a philosophy of respecting people for who they are as well as for what they do for the organization. This philosophy recognizes every worker's need to be appreciated as a contributor to the organization's success. Productivity is enhanced when the organizatio...

Well-being effectiveness is grounded in a philosophy of respecting people for who they are as well as for what they do for the organization. This philosophy recognizes every worker's need to be appreciated as a contributor to the organization's success. Productivity is enhanced when the organization supports employees in their efforts to manage their overall well-being. This supportive environment leads to an improved ability to attract, motivate, engage and retain the workforce. Well-being -- The state of a workforce that is productive, comfortable, happy, and healthy, considering physical, emotional/ mental, financial and environmental factors. Total Rewards professionals influence this state through organizational strategic influence and building programs that support workforce success inside and outside of work. Well-being effectiveness is composed of offerings in the total rewards package that address the unique individual needs of the employee. These offerings are important to the employee but may be less tangible than compensation and benefits. To understand the difference between traditional compensation and benefits programs and elements of well-being effectiveness, consider the needs that the programs satisfy. For example: - Compensation satisfies a financial need for income. - Benefits satisfy protection needs, such as insurance and retirement security. - Well-being programs satisfy intrinsic needs, such as control over one's work environment. - Recognition satisfies the need to receive acknowledgment for achievements. - Development satisfies the need for workforce planning as well as personal challenge and growth. Well-Being Portfolio The well-being categories below can help organizations create a collaborative relationship between employers and employees in order to optimize business outcomes. These categories of support for well-being address the most important intersections between the worker, his/her family, the community and the workplace. They include: 1. Supporting health and wellness 2. Creating workplace flexibility 3. Caring for dependents 4. Financial support programs 5. Community involvement programs 6. Culture change initiatives Supporting Health and Wellness Definition -- Health and wellness initiatives focus on reducing absenteeism and improving productivity by supporting healthy lifestyle choices for employees and their families. An organization supporting health and wellness may provide opportunities for its employees to enjoy: An absence of disease and infirmity An awareness of an active progress toward maintaining proper diet, exercise and personal habits A balance in all aspects of life -- physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual and social Resiliency -- A step above health and wellness, resiliency in an individual is the ability to recover readily from the adversities of life such as stress, illness and loss. This is manifest in the workforce as employees who are fully engaged and more productive. Stress reduction -- A focus on reduction in stress-related illness holds great promise for reducing escalating health care costs. Examples -- The supporting health and wellness category may contain, but is not limited to, the following: Employee assistance programs (EAPs) -- programs that provide counseling or referral services to employees. Services vary by employer but may include assistance with chemical dependency, as well as psychological, financial, legal, family and career counseling. Family and medical leave -- programs that provide paid or nonpaid leave for employees to manage a major family event such as: - The birth and care of an employee's newborn child - Placement with the employee of a son or daughter for adoption or foster care - Care of an immediate family member (spouse, child, or parent) with a serious health condition - Medical leave when the employee is unable to work due to a serious health condition Proactive wellness strategies -- Instituting wellness strategies helps employees to lower stress levels as well as lowering their own and the company's health care costs. These may include fitness center affiliations and discounts (off-site or near-site), on-site fitness programs and centers, on-site medical clinics, health and wellness seminars, and on-site yoga, Pilates and treadmills desks. Creating Workplace Flexibility Definition -- Workplace flexibility is a variety of flexible work options that enable greater customization over when, where and how work gets done. The three most common full-time options are flex time, telecommuting and shift flexibility. The three most common part-time options include regular part-time work, phased return from leave and phased retirement. The way organizations define workplace flexibility will continue to evolve as this area of well-being effectiveness advances. For many organizations, flexibility is an evolutionary process as the graph below illustrates. It may start out on a case-by-case basis and evolve into an embedded cultural strategic advantage that organizations utilize in attracting and retaining talent. Examples -- The workplace flexibility category may contain, but is not limited to, the following: - Flexible work arrangements (FWAs) -- a central tool for implementation of workplace flexibility. It includes a variety of work options that enable greater customization over when, where and how work gets done. - Common full-time options include flex time, telecommuting/telework, shift flexibility and compressed workweek. - Common less-than-fulltime options include reduced schedules, phased retirement and job sharing. - Workplace flexibility has become an oft-debated and widely discussed topic after the COVID-19 pandemic forced organizations to adapt rapidly. Organizations that were able to swiftly adjust their operations and transition to remote work showed the importance of agile human capital strategies to align with changing business goals and environmental conditions. For example, organizations provided more flexibility and understanding for workers who suddenly had to home-school their children or become caregivers for ill family members. Creative new work arrangements, such as remote-first or hybrid models, became a reality. With return-to-office (RTO) mandates surging, organizations are grappling now more than ever with evolving definitions of workplace flexibility and utilizing them to attract or retain talent. Caring for Dependents Definition -- Caring for dependents includes resources and referrals that assist employees in managing dependent care responsibilities. Well-being programs began in many organizations in response to the growing need of dual-income parents for child care resource and referral services. These services have greatly expanded over the past decade to include elder care support, long-term care insurance and emergency backup dependent care services for both children and elderly relatives. Examples -- The caring for dependents category may contain, but is not limited to, the following services: - Child care - Child care resource and referral services - Child care discount program at national providers - Emergency backup child care service (two options: center-based and in-home care) - Elder care - Elder care resource and referral services - Long-term care insurance - Emergency backup elder care service Financial Support Programs Definition -- Financial support programs are voluntary financial benefits programs, resources and referrals that assist employees with managing their financial responsibilities. Examples -- In the area of financial support, Well-Being is primarily concerned with gaining approval for and helping implement these programs: - Voluntary financial benefits programs - Long-term care insurance - Domestic partner benefits - Financial planning services (retirement and health care) - Tuition assistance - Adoption assistance - Resources and referrals - Legal referral program - Group insurance discounts (for automobile, homeowners) - Financial resource and referral services - Financial seminars - Employee discounts - Credit counseling services - Housing counseling Community Involvement Programs Definition -- Community involvement is the way organizations get involved with the external community through monetary donations, volunteer programs and partnerships. Community involvement exists under the broader initiative of corporate social responsibility. These initiatives are typically housed in the human resources department. - Corporate social responsibility -- In the past, organizations focused primarily on the concerns of their shareholders, clients and employees. Today, due to societal concerns and an ever-growing global workplace, companies are paying attention to a wider audience that might include providers or subcontractors, the government, the community in which they operate and even the environment. As a result, organizations must also pay attention to the impact their operations have on this larger audience. It usually lies within the public relations or executive level of an organization because of its wide reach within the organization. Once an organization determines how to address corporate social responsibility, it becomes clear that the community involvement programs support not only the social responsibility goals, but the goals of employees and community stakeholders as well. Examples -- The community involvement category may contain, but is not limited to, the following: - External outreach - Community volunteer program - Matching gift program - Cash contribution -- A company contributes money to a nonprofit entity where an employee volunteers. Most have application processes. The contribution is based on a specific number of hours the employee volunteers. - Executive-on-loan programs -- Executives are "loaned" to worthy organizations, e.g., United Way, for a period of time. The executive gains additional real-world experience and the receiving organization benefits from the executive's expertise. The value proposition is leadership development. - Internal sharing - Shared leave program -- donating personal/vacation time to others facing emergency situations - Disaster relief fund - Catastrophic leave Culture Change Initiatives Definition -- Culture change initiatives are interventions designed to eliminate specific barriers to inclusion and full productivity. The goal within all well-being initiatives is to remove those barriers through strong, supportive cultures that are dynamic, flexible and respectful of the whole person. - Strong leadership in culture change -- Creating support for well-being at all levels of an organization is often difficult and requires strong leadership in the areas of culture change. This often requires new types of management training to create a collegial, flexible work environment. - Core of well-being effectiveness -- Workplace culture is the core of well-being effectiveness. It is one of the most difficult targets to focus on because it requires a strategic, long-term, sustained commitment by a company. Therefore, it often does not have the senior management commitment needed for long-term success. - A company may have lots of well-being programs and still be a poor place to work because utilization of well-being programs can be discouraged by individual managers, peers, or senior leaders (role models). Additionally, the culture may promote "all the time work" as a means to improve profits, regardless of stress and burn-out. Examples -- The culture change initiatives category may include, but is not limited to, the following: - Diversity/inclusion - Providing equal opportunities for all - Sponsoring diversity awareness fairs - Expecting diversity to be respected - Women's advancement - Removing the "glass ceiling" - Opportunities for career development - Mentoring - Encouraging successful employees to mentor less-experienced employees - Work redesign to reduce work overload and burnout - Deliberately structured approaches to identify and reduce the primary sources of work overload and burnout - Team effectiveness strategies - Helping employees learn to work successfully in team environment - Providing team leadership opportunities - Work environment initiatives - Reinventing specific cultural, behavioral and physical elements of the work environment - Creating a compelling workplace that attracts, motivates, engages and retains the talent required for organizational success - Management flexibility training - Educating managers for success in creating an optimally collegial, flexible work environment Older worker initiatives - Valuing, engaging and keeping older workers on the job in some youth-oriented cultures presents significant challenges.