It’s well known that promoting and investing in wellbeing at work helps with engagement, loyalty, productivity and retention.
It may be less well known, however, that good organisational wellbeing must start with laying strong foundations in terms of the company culture and an authentic, supportive leadership ethos. In fact, investing in employee wellbeing can sometimes simply mean focusing on management development.
Instinctively, employers often want to provide things like stress management workshops and counselling support when they think about employee wellbeing. However, whilst useful, these are reactive ‘sticking plaster’ strategies which only help people after the event, rather than addressing the sources of the stress in the first place. Without strong managers - who regulate workloads, enable autonomy, and encourage good 2-way communication and respect – such interventions will do little to improve organisational wellbeing in a long-term, sustainable way.
I'd like to share a podcast from global consultancy McKinsey & Company on the subject.
It's just 24 minutes long, and highlights recent research which demonstrates the major impact that managers have on their people’s job satisfaction.
The research found that – more than pay, perks or how exciting our job is - our relationship with our manager is the most important thing in predicting our job satisfaction. And in turn, job satisfaction is a key factor in our overall life satisfaction and wellbeing.
Given that the global pandemic has led to many of us working in isolation, with fewer opportunities for face to face contact, the authors urge everyone to put in extra effort to connect with their colleagues and ensure relationships remain as strong as possible.
It also provides a concerning statistic – that 70% of people find spending time with their boss the most stressful time of the week! This clearly shows there's room for improvement and presents an amazing opportunity for employers to improve people’s job satisfaction and overall life satisfaction.
The speakers give some sound, accessible advice and highlight some simple things that managers can do to build solid relationships based on trust, empathy and gratitude.
Click on the link below and have a listen during your next tea break!
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