image

Promoting Employee Wellbeing: Change Demands, Remove Barriers

㽶CWF Staff

Published October 6, 2022

September is always a busy month and this year it was particularly busy for the Center and our members. For many organizations, this September has meant a renewed push to return to the office and codify new ways of working - with an eye toward (re)building company culture and social connections and enabling a healthy work-life balance.

High turnover and “” mean a sharper focus on revamping how work gets done and devising holistic learning & development and wellbeing strategies that support each segment of the workforce. Our programming has reflected this with a continued focus on managing burnout and building effective wellbeing programs that employees utilize and value.

In our Distinguished Speaker Series event,Stephen Courtrightoffered the DESC (Demands, Efficacy, Support, Control) model as a practical framework for addressingburnout. Some great takeaways:

  • don’t just reduce butchange demandsby giving employees new challenges;
  • create opportunities that help employees feel like they aremaking progress;
  • create a clear sense ofshared purpose; and
  • be a goodsteward of people’s time.

We also got a glimpse into the comprehensive, creative ways our members are supporting employee mental health. In a member open forum last week, we heard about expanded, free mental health sessions for employees and their households (even roommates!), training top leaders in self-care, and embedding mental health advisors in ERGs to begin to address the intersection of mental health with diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

We look forward to continuing these conversations next month at our hybrid Fall Roundtable Meeting, where keynote speakersLakshmi Ramarajan(HBS) andDarcy Gruttadaro(NAMI) will speak to identities and belonging and innovations in mental health approaches, respectively. We’ll also feature member John Hancock, who will spotlight how they are aligning mental health & well-being and DEI efforts.

Members, check out our packed agenda and. We hope to see many of you in person in a few weeks!