Why companies fall down on their wellness programmes for employees

Greenwashing has become the shorthand for describing organisations that make all the right noises about being environmentally friendly – but in reality are not. New to the lexicon is a sister term, “wellbeing washing”, which is when organisations huff and puff about their corporate wellness credentials but don’t deliver on them.

An example of how this plays out in practice might be when an organisation claims to care about people’s work-life balance. However, as the organisation has no clear policy on the right to disconnect, employees’ personal time continues to be disrupted by non-urgent emails and texts out of hours.

There’s nothing new about employers looking after their employees. But the pandemic pushed the issue of employee care centre-stage and broader wellness programmes (often in addition to existing employee assistance programmes) became common, if not in all companies, then certainly in the bigger ones. These programmes went from “nice to have” to “must have”, and not everyone was happy when the bills started rolling in, as participation levels were often poor.

In many organisations, attention has been focused too much on activities that typically only resonate with those already demonstrating health-seeking behaviours

—  Tom Curran, Lockton

In July, a survey by Lockton People Solutions (whose business is employee benefits) cited lack of relevance as one of the main reasons why employees were not taking up the benefits on offer. “By focusing too much on wellness ‘activities’ they failed to consider employees’ actual needs and often missed the target as a result,” says Lockton’s head of wellbeing, Tom Curran.

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“Wellness and wellbeing mean different things to different people, and will vary depending on life stage, career stage and lifestyle choices – all of which are constantly evolving. In many organisations, attention has been focused too much on activities that typically only resonate with those already demonstrating health-seeking behaviours. So, the healthy and well get rewarded, while those most in need of better health outcomes are often not engaging in the activities at all,” Curran says.

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While some companies are clearly dishonest about their wellbeing programmes, or over-hype them, Curran does not believe the majority of employers are deliberately ignoring the needs of their workforces. Most, he believes, are simply “swept up in the corporate tick-box exercise of providing wellbeing programmes because it’s the right thing to do, but they haven’t thought to measure the success of their programmes to see if they are driving any real change. The net result is, employers are not keeping up with the pace of change in workplace dynamics and employee preferences,” he says.

Asking people what they want is one way of coming at the problem, and when the Irish arm of the Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company Novartis asked its employees for input, health screening was high on the list. Demographics may have played a role here as just over 40 per cent of employees are in the 36-45 age bracket, a life stage when issues such as health and financial planning begin to assume greater relevance.

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Novartis already covers the cost of staff health insurance, but on foot of employee feedback it is now augmenting that with individual screening for Lipoprotein (a), which is not widely available or normally included in standard lipid tests, despite being a key marker for increased risk of cardiovascular disease. The screening has been offered to all 1,000 employees and is being carried out by the Irish health-testing-from-home company, LetsGetChecked.

Two hundred people signed up for screening within a week, an uptake that Dr Catriona Walsh, who heads the company’s operations in Ireland, says is a good start. “As a scientific company, we are very invested in the health of patients and our employees. We are privileged to have access to a lot of health information, and we share that with employees as much as possible,” she says.

People want things that support a strong work-life balance to safeguard their mental and physical health, and they want flexibility, even within hybrid working

—  Dr Catriona Walsh, Novartis

“We believe our programmes should be taking their lead from employees, and this is where our steering committee and employee resource groups come in. We implement initiatives common to Novartis globally, but there’s also a huge amount we can do locally, and this screening initiative is an example.”

Cost is often cited as one reason why companies don’t bother with wellness, but while Novartis is not short of a few bob to fund its programmes, Walsh emphasises that some of its most successful initiatives have been low- or no-cost. She gives examples of the company’s sea swimming group, its commitment to walking meetings, and an occasion where two employees, a musician and Irish dancer, hosted an Irish dancing lesson in the canteen for colleagues.

“There was standing room only for a breast cancer awareness event earlier in the year which clearly struck a chord with people, and that’s where you need to be with these programmes,” she says. “People want things that support a strong work-life balance to safeguard their mental and physical health, and they want flexibility, even within hybrid working. Our ‘ask’ is an average of 12 days a month in the office – which can include meetings and travel – in order for teams to get together and connect. We accept that 9-5 is gone, and want people to work around what suits them.”

Those who express frustration at the prevailing entitled attitude to wellness benefits believe the pendulum has swung too far. “I wouldn’t be in that bucket,” Walsh says. “I feel we all have to work together on this because the post-Covid world is still characterised by disruption and uncertainty, and it’s important to support people and show empathy where we can.”