'I don't really see my stress being in any way reduced by listening to somebody talk about stress'
Workers are stressed out these days and many are looking to their employers for help through wellness programs and other benefits.
And yet many aren’t even aware that the organization has something available, according to a survey.
Thirty-two per cent of employees said they wanted more resources but only 15 per cent knew what was on offer and only 23 per cent had even used the services.
The 2022 Alight international workforce and wellbeing mindset report heard from 10,004 workers in five countries (U.S., U.K. France, Germany and the Netherlands) between February and March.
Even when asked if they feel like their company truly cares about their wellbeing, only 47 per cent of those in the U.S. truly feel that, says Laine Thomas Conway, vice-president of communication solutions professional services at Alight Solutions in Warrenton, Va.
These negative feelings contrast with the big investments many organizations have done recently, she says.
“Companies are really investing in wellbeing, they’re doing tremendous things in terms of investing in programs and vendors and platforms, to help address employee wellbeing and yet less than half of people feel like a company really cares.”
This has resulted in more than half (55 per cent) of respondents thinking about leaving their current employer while 73 per cent said they have experienced moderate to high stress at times.
Ask questions
So, why are so few employees actively accessing wellness benefits? Employers aren’t actually asking employees what they want.
“They’re just realizing, ‘We need something, we don’t know what it is, we just know we need something’ and so then they do that thing where they throw spaghetti at the wall and try and see what sticks,” says Tarin Calmeyer, CEO and founder of Remote Team Wellness in Los Angeles.
“[Some] HR people are working in a silo or just working with their own individual HR core team and not speaking to any other team about what they’re actually trying to implement. That’s the first place to start.”
In not canvassing the workforce before investing in wellness, it leads to low utilization, she says.
“Probably 90 per cent of people I speak to have not even surveyed or asked their employees what they need, or what they want and that’s where the main disconnect is, is that you’re trying to provide all these services for the employees without even asking what services they need.
“Obviously, in some cases, people won’t really know but they would definitely be more active and involved in the process if they were included.”
In addition, the messages around wellbeing are often lacking, says Conway.
“Probably employers are not telling a good enough story. They’re not connecting the dots for people, they’re not saying, ‘Here’s all these benefit programs, these wellbeing programs,’ and they’re not connecting it to their values or their purpose, or ‘Here’s why we’re doing it and here’s what it means.’ People need to be told a story, they need to see that linkage.”
Managing stress
In order to help combat high stress levels, 52 per cent of employees said employer-sponsored stress management programs would be valuable and of those who did use them, 93 per cent said they are highly welcomed.
But simply offering these types of programs misses the real problem, according to Calmeyer and more should be done to tackle the reasons behind high anxiety.
“I would like actual tangible ways to reduce the stress that I’m feeling in order to feel as though I’m on top of my stress, to feel as though I can actually move forward with my day without stress overwhelming or affecting every decision, every conversation, every interaction.”
Read more: How to help parents struggling with burnout
HR should offer employees “reduction techniques, rather than theoretical, logical ‘This is what you can do to manage your stress,’” says Calmeyer such as guided meditation or breathing exercises during the workday.
“I’ve been to stress management sessions before, and it’s usually just a talking head on Zoom talking about what stress is, and how it affects your body. I don’t really see my stress being in any way reduced by listening to somebody talk about stress,” she says.
And when good programs are offered, simply sending an email advising about it is the wrong way to educate employees that they exist, says Conway.
“You can’t just display programs, you have to promote them, you have to market them, and then you have to figure out how to activate them — and when I talk about activation, it really is about ‘How do we get people to try things out and feel like, ‘Hey, I’m going to give this a shot’?”
When people do access these programs for themselves, that makes them more effective, she says.
“The value of it goes up 13 points on average and I think that’s the next frontier for wellbeing programs: not just what we offer but making sure that people are using them and taking advantage.”
