The concept of Work-life balance is evolving to work-life synergy as today’s workforce look to feel supported, engaged and meaningful. For this reason, businesses now have to make more of an effort to ensure the well-being of their employees. But according to a new report from 15Five, only 41% of managers check in on the well-being of their employees regularly.
Why is this important? Because moving forward supporting the whole employee will become part of the ecosystem. With proper implementation, it will benefit both the employees and the company by improving productivity and retention rates. According to 15Five, having a human-centric culture in your organization significantly increases the performance of your employees.
For small businesses competing against large companies with hiring, adopting a human-centric culture is a great recruiting and retention tool. Especially in one of the strongest markets for workers in decades.
In the emailed press release and report 15Five offers great insights into the workplace of the future. Titled, “The Next Generation Workplace” the report highlights the links between employees and their managers along with professional development.
The co-founder and Chief Culture Officer of 15Five, Shane Metcalf, explains how research in psychology and human development supports this evolution.
Metcalf says, “Employees are indeed human beings who are driven to grow, develop, and fulfill a greater purpose. They have complex internal worlds and when managers and leaders address the hidden aspects of their experience, like values, beliefs, mindsets, and emotional well-being, we will see a major leap forward in how people achieve their potential at work, and the levels of success that businesses achieve as a result.”
Study Results
The data for the report comes from a survey of 1,000 full-time U.S. workers and 500 U.S. managers. The goal of the survey is to gather insights into the landscape of today’s workplace. To that end, 15Five asked questions to help it understand the support requirements of employees. As well as their relationships with their leaders and their future plans.
Employee Check-Ins are Key
The report says, “Miserable people don’t make good employees.” If you can figure out why this is so, the overall culture of your business will improve.
In the survey, 90% of employees say they perform better when their company supports their emotional wellness. Managers also agree, to the tune of 94%, emotional wellness reports are just as important as job performance reports.
However, only 41% of managers make it a point to ask about emotional wellness in 1-on-1s. And more than 50% of employees have never brought up personal matters with their managers. But when an employee check-in program is in place, 43% of employees take advantage of it.
So, there seems to be a disconnect between the importance of emotional wellness and taking steps to improve conditions. And not surprisingly the change is coming from young employees.
Three in four of Gen Zers will ask for advice during a 1-on-1 meeting with their manager. But it goes all the way down to 23% for baby boomers. Accordingly, if there is a program in place 73% of Gen Zers will take advantage of it. Again, a noticeable smaller percentage of baby boomers (24%) will use the services if a company offers it.
The key is having regular manager-to-employee check-ins and 1-on-1s to create a culture of transparency and trust. Because the fewer of these meetings take place, the less trust there is. And the report says these meetings have to be treated as priorities.
Creating a Human-Centric Workplace
Take a look at the graph below to see how this approach benefits businesses. In the case of 15Five, it has delivered a high retention rate.
Metcalf says, “We have only had a handful of people leave in our eight-year history as a company, and it’s encouraging to see in these results that practices like check-ins and 1-on-1s significantly impact retention.”
Conclusion
Creating a workplace in which employees are happy takes effort. But once this is achieved, it keeps on delivering higher productivity levels, longer employee retention, recruitment and a better working environment for everyone in the organization.
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