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Diagnosing The Workplace: Not Just An HR Podcast
Diagnosing The Workplace: Not Just An HR Podcast
What Are Small, Practical Things We Can Do To Improve Employee Well-Being?
In this episode, we examine some practical DOs and DON'Ts when it comes to understanding and improving employee well-being.
Our prescription for this episode is to realize that is not off-the-shelf programs and initiatives that will have the greatest impact, it is gritty, everyday efforts that will improve employee's mental and emotional health.
Statistics Referenced:
- 83% of employees would consider leaving their employer due to a lack of well-being initiatives.
- 88% of employees value workplace well-being as much as their salary.
- 89% of employees will only consider companies prioritizing well-being when seeking new opportunities.
- WellHub. The State of Work-Life Wellness 2025 (2025)
Past Episode Referenced:
Season 3 Episode 13: What Is Transformation Fatigue And How Do We Overcome It?
Season 3 Episode 10: Initiatives For 2025, Finding Qualified Talent, Using Mission, Vision, And Values - Answering Listener Questions
You can reach out to us to talk more about diagnostic tools and resources, just reach out to us at info@roman3.ca or through our LinkedIn page at https://www.linkedin.com/company/roman3
Don't forget to sign up for our New Quarterly Newsletter that launched this fall!
About Our Hosts!
James is an experienced business coach with a specialization in HR management and talent attraction and retention.
Coby is a skilled educator and has an extensive background in building workforce and organizational capacity.
For a little more on our ideas and concepts, check out our Knowledge Suite or our YouTube Channel, Solutions Explained by Roman 3.
Breaking down everyday workplace issues and diagnosing the hidden sickness, not just the obvious symptom. Our hosts, James and Coby.
[COBY]:Did we lose a patient?
[JAMES]:No, that's just my lunch.
[COBY]:Hey, thanks for joining us. I'm Coby, he's James. Let's get started with a question. What are some small practical things we can do to improve employee well being?
[JAMES]:Yeah, I'm quite excited for this conversation because there actually are some fairly simple foundational things that I see, a lot of businesses continuing to fail to provide and can. They will make a big difference in terms of employee well being. But what, what I find funny is I'm sure there are folks who are listening or who are looking at this topic and asking why are we still harping on employee wellbeing? Right. Like it has been a big topic for a while. For number of years, ever since COVID it's been a. And a lot of companies have taken a lot of actions around it. well, this simple answer to the question is it's important and it hasn't improved. So we have to keep talking about it.
[COBY]:Yeah. And it's not even just that it's not necessarily improved. It's that it's almost like people are. It hasn't improved, but people are also kind of more focused. Like the employees are more focused on it. It's impacting employee well being and employee wellness is impacting a lot of the stuff that businesses are still struggling with. Because even the ones that have, okay, we implemented stuff, we've checked that box, we've moved on. you know, unfortunately, employees are still like, well, this is still number one priority. This is still the focal point of it. So even though you may have moved on business, we haven't.
[JAMES]:It's as important as salary, it's as important as the other programs and supports that you offer. And it is a major decision, influencer in decision to stay or leave a company. the amount that you provide for employee well being, the way in which you provide for employee wellbeing, the way that you actively try to support and build employee welling has a direct impact on your attraction and especially your retention efforts.
[COBY]:Yeah. So I mean like, so if, if any, if you listening, if you're of the mind of why are we still talking about wellness? Haven't we all moved on? Or if you work with people who are like, you know, we checked that wellness box, we moved on, then this is an important episode to listen to. And I think that actually a great place to maybe even do some of Your own homework on was there was a state of work life wellness report for 2025 issued by WellHub. I put, I'll cite it, in the show notes. But there was some interesting stats from this state of work life wellness report. And so one of them is that 83% of employees would consider leaving their current employer due to lack of well being initiatives. And that's a pretty big thing of. They're like, if they're not really taking my wellness seriously, they're not seeing me as a whole person, then I'm out of here.
[JAMES]:Well, we've seen a major shift in expectations, since COVID five years ago. Right. We've seen it grow, we talk about it a lot in terms of whether or not things are competitive, sufficient and equitable. And from a wellness perspective, if you are not providing, well being wellness supports that are competitive, sufficient and equitable that are actually accomplishing the purpose of improving a person's health and well being, then what was it? 83%. That's a massive.
[COBY]:It is, yeah. Majority. It is. Well, and an even bigger number going back to a statement that you said about wellness being as kind of up there with salary. According to this study, 88% of employees value workplace well being as much as their salary.
[JAMES]:As much as their salary. Yeah.
[COBY]:That's almost all like saying, yeah, it is not just a, kind of a hyperbole statement that wellness and salary are comparable. 88% of employees of this like, of this study were like, yeah, it's as important.
[JAMES]:Well, and I don't find it that shocking considering how often, like especially in recent conversations that we've had, some of the projects that we've been running, some of the client conversations we've been having around, work life balance is how it's often framed from the employer perspective. Right.
[COBY]:Often talk.
[JAMES]:What's that?
[COBY]:Definitely more than that. But that's how the employee.
[JAMES]:Well, that's usually how the conversation arises. Right. That's usually how it's perceived from an organizational perspective is that really what people are looking for is work life balance. And you know, operationally we can't accommodate work life balance. Well, if operationally you can accommodate work life balance, you've got 88% of people who value that component as highly as the salary that you offer. Right. So it's worth investigating. it's not a nice to have for businesses anymore. It's something that people are evaluating equally with the amount of money that they earn to support themselves and their families.
[COBY]:Yeah, I agree with you. Although I think what you were saying is a bit misleading. You're saying if you can't provide work life balance, any percent employees are going to be a problem with you. Work life balance is a bit of the catchphrase for wellness well being, that businesses grab onto because it's a little bit more tangible than the idea of wellness or well being. So it's a bit of a catch all statement. But what I don't, I don't want people, someone listen to what you had said and say if you can't let people work from home, any percent of your employees are going to leave. Right.
[JAMES]:And you're right. Work life balance is not remote, is not merely remote work. It's not merely one element. It's the culmination of everything that you provide to them to support their well being.
[COBY]:Absolutely. There's a lot more, there's a lot that every single business can do to support better well being. To get you up.
[JAMES]:Yeah, that wasn't my intent but I can see how that would be the perception.
[COBY]:Right. So the last step that I just want to talk about briefly is, and this one's Even more, it's 89% of employees will only consider companies prioritizing well being when seeking new opportunities. So it's the idea when employees are looking for new companies to work for, they're really only looking for ones that understand employee wellness and well being doing, putting their money with their mouth. Business is. And they're actually putting it as a high priority, not just a nice to have.
[JAMES]:Which is interesting because that to me lends the obvious question of what are you doing in your recruitment process that highlights employee wellbeing. Is there anything in on your website, your boat section when people are looking at your job postings. Not that you have to have a giant detailed explanation in a hosting but some mention probably wouldn't hurt. When people are interested in your opportunities and they kind of do some basic research on who you are, your company, your values, you, that would be an excellent place to really restate your commitment to employee wellbeing and then make sure that you're following through on the experience. When people actually get into the role.
[COBY]:Yeah still just say it, actually do it. But actually I think I might be able to just kind of summarize the importance of this. So they're saying 83% of employees would consider leaving their current job due to a lack of well being. It's as important as their salaried 88% of employees and 89% of employees would only work for a company that prioritizes it. So going back to your first thing, why are we still talking about this? It's because you're right, it's important and it's still important. It's important in 2025. So what this is why, you know, especially we're talking about talent attraction and retention are, if those are important to you, well, being is important to you. But I think as far as one of the small little things we can do to improve at least the kind of the messaging around our employee wellness is going back to what you kind of just said, maybe even in the job posting. Because I mean, if your company really only understands well being and wellness as work life balance, and you're just referencing that, that is a bit of a sign to people that understand. Do you just mean I can work from home once a week? That's your whole wellness plan. So showing that you understand what wellness is and what well being is beyond just the one phrase of work life balance. Maybe even in your job posting or somewhere prominent, the job seekers would find putting something down like we understand well being is more than just one day working from home. It's more than just, you know, sales in the break room and actually talk about what it actually is. Again, two or three bullets max could be a game changer in your recruitment process to get those 89% of employees the show that you understand and you prioritize well being by stating what it actually is and not just grabbing the buzzwords that most step seekers go. They don't really get it. They're just trying to say something to sound good. So I think that might actually be a small little thing that could be.
[JAMES]:Of helpful already and backing it up with more detail on your website. Because one of the things, this is getting a little off topic, but one of the first m. one of the early questions in an interview, is usually something to the effect of what do you know about our organization? Right. Has somebody actually taken the time to even investigate and learn a bit about your company? Because if they haven't, then, you know, that's a bit of a, not necessarily a red flag, but it's not a great look. so being able to reinforce that on your website and then have people talk about that, you know, as part of the interview, like it just, it provides a bit more tangibility than just, individual statements.
[COBY]:Yeah, no, no. And that's a good piece of advice too. So, yeah, so we're already providing some small practical things that companies can do around wellness. But, one of the things, the structure we were thinking for today's episode was we wanted to mostly talk about a few don'ts and then in regards to employee well being. And then we also wanted to have a few do's, like the actual practical things that we can do to improve employee well being. So that was kind of a little.
[JAMES]:Extra bonus one, the long preamble rambling into it because. Yeah, well, that's what you sign up for.
[COBY]:So I think that as far as some of the big don'ts that we want he lies to, to avoid is, one of the, one of the big things that we, we really try to, I mean we harp on this all the time is the idea of looking for easy answers, looking for quick fixes.
[JAMES]:And that really is an article on LinkedIn about Try these three simple steps. It's garbage, right? It really is garbage. not that the people who are writing these are intentionally trying to mislead and not that necessarily the programs that they are recommending are completely ineffective, although sometimes they are. really it's, as you said, it's looking for easy answers. It's not doing your homework and not figuring out what actually needs to exist for any of these things to be successful. Because there's a whole host of programs of supports of technology that businesses are inundated with and you have sales people calling you and you know, reaching out to you. Buy this piece of technology, it will fix your problem. Well, no, it's probably not going to. Not unless you've actually done the foundational work to make sure that things are ready for new initiatives.
[COBY]:Yeah, well, I, and this kind of brings you back to kind of, a part of a conversation that we had in our first episode of 2025 where we talked about. It was one of our Q and A episodes we talked about. One of the questions was what's some great cultural work, organizational culture initiatives that we should implement in 2025? And our advice to those kind of questions is don't do something new and shiny and fancy and chase the newest fad. Do the hard work to build the foundation so anything that you do later on will be effective. Because he's flashing the pan. Solutions are why you're not having, getting the traction that you want to get on the goals that you're trying to achieve. They're the distraction of the actual hard work to actually, you know, put in the efforts. You actually measure where you're at and then have a tactical Solution to actually resolve the causes of your problems rather than seeing the symptoms and buying a shiny new object in order to address that one symptom.
[JAMES]:If you try building a house without a foundation, it's not going to stand very long. Right? Which is why we talk about, like, we'll get into the what we want, what we want you to do. but really the important thing to consider, and I mean, how many times have we harped on this one question of just whenever you are looking at doing something new, please take the time to consider what needs to exist first for this to be successful. And there's a lot of like, I'm not, we're not here to say that everybody who is contacting you about these, programs, technologies, whatever, that they are trying to scam you, because a lot of these, resources are quite effective if you have the foundation for it to be successful, if you have the key elements that need to exist first for this to be successful. The problem that we see in our practice is that people don't take the time to ask themselves that question. They want an easy answer to a very complex problem. So buying a piece of technology is an easy answer if it's not cheap. And you might not think of it, and the implementation of it may not be smooth and you may not think of it in an easy way, but if you haven't done the basic work, the foundational fundamentals, then, yeah, it's not going to work the way that you want it to.
[COBY]:You're right. And sometimes it really does take that critical reflection just to see, are we ready for what we want to do. So again, like going back to kind of, you mentioned like the three simple step articles. I mean, I remember, actually I read one recently and it was like the three things were employee health challenges, mental health supports and rewards and recognition programs. Those are not bad. There's nothing wrong with those. But you can't insert those into a workplace that's not ready for it. Because if you try and do those three things, let's pick on those three things just because it's what I mentioned. But if you try and do those free things without asking the question what needs to exist first for this to be effective, that's you're not going to have the sustained success that you want because you're just kind of dropping it in and hoping for the best. Because that's kind of like if you, like, imagine your business was in like a rural area with like spotty Internet and you was like, you know what? We're going to move to a total cloud based, you know, operating system. Everything's going to be stored on cloud servers and all of our customer experience is going to be done through, you know, done virtually. Well, that might be a great package that, you know, you're seeing is the.
[JAMES]:Big trend that people are very effective in some companies.
[COBY]:but if you, if you don't have the Internet bandwidth to make that happen, that's just as, you know, bad of an investment as these employee health challenges, mental health supports and rewards recognition programs without having the culture and without having to kind of the, you know, the stability of like, you know, of like employee wellness as a foundation to even make those things effective.
[JAMES]:Well, and it touches on two other things that we talk about frequently and recently. it creates chaos. It's a chaos solution. Right. When you drop one of these, when you drop a program or a solution into your organization without having figured out what needs to exist first, it's going to create chaos. and what that often leads to is the second piece, which is transformation fatigue. People get tired of constantly having to change and try new things and transform and not working out. It is exhausting on your employees and on your leadership. Right. From an organ. It is tiring and it's frustrating to have these really programs that are designed with the best of intent that we really want to support our employees and make sure that they are getting the level of support that they need to be successful in their jobs. And it not working out is an incredibly frustrating piece for an organization to experience. It ah, leads to them getting tired of trying.
[COBY]:Yes. And I think that probably the best example we can give of that is something that's on every, you know, organizational wellness, workplace wellness kind of like, you know, advice is rewards and recognition programs.
[JAMES]:Yeah.
[COBY]:And that's probably one of the most kind of common sources of transformation fatigue in many, many businesses. Everyone knows recognition is important. Everyone knows organizations need to do more to recognize employees. Everyone understands the connection between recognition and kind of like wellness and emotional mental health. And those are undisputed.
[JAMES]:You're not going to hear us say that recognition is bad.
[COBY]:Exactly. But though programs are the equivalent of cloud based solutions with poor Internet. If you're implementing a recognition program in a culture that is not ready for it, that has not secured the foundation to, to make sure that people will actually use a properly trust it feel that it's actually doing its job. I would go as far to say that probably a huge portion of transformation fatigue that many businesses are experiencing, especially when it comes to workforce culture is probably heavily involved or, affected by, recognition programs in reward programs. I do think those are probably a great example of a major source of transformation fatigue when we're talking about organizational culture.
[JAMES]:Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, we do a lot of work around recognition in our practice and programs are great. But what you need to. The key element around recognition is that it needs to be timely, authentic and appreciable. Right? It needs to be done. Recognition should happen in the moment. it shouldn't be. So a common mistake that we see is waiting until the annual Christmas party to give out rewards and recognize, people for their efforts over the year. In and of itself, not a bad thing, but it's not timely, right? Like it doesn't do anything in the moment to. If people have to wait, you know, six months, eight months to feel like their work has been appreciated, then you lo. You've lost a massive opportunity in that timeframe to really boost, performance and morale. and I know this is not a recognition, episode, but. So I won't harp on it. But keeping those three things in mind will be a simple way that you can start to evaluate and improve if you have recognition programs that are not being effective. tangent. Okay, what I do actually want to, like we've talked a bit about the don'ts don't just plug and play. Ah, rarely works. Boxed solutions rarely work. Things need to be customized and you need to understand what needs to exist first for these things to be successful. So even though I just said you three simple steps is absolute garbage. We're going to talk about practical things.
[COBY]:You can do we nothing if we're.
[JAMES]:Not hypocrites, I guess apparently. But no, there are four things that I think are fundamental, elements that you need to get right if you want, any other initiative, program, plan, technology, solution to be optimized and to actually get the return on the investment that you are supposed to have from it. So the first one is consistency, and this is huge. We're talking about consistency from a manager perspective. We're talking about consistency from how the organ. From an organizational perspective. Is the organization consistent in the way that it communicates with us? Is it consistent in the expectations that it places on us? Is my manager consistent in the expectations that they have for me? Are they consistent in their communication with me, in their treatment with of me all? the consistency of the experience that people have in your organization on a daily basis is fundamental to making anything else work. Because if you are trying, especially like, let's keep on the recognition. example, if you're trying to recognize people, authentically recognize people for the work that they do, and you have a manager try to show recognition, but they are completely inconsistent. And I don't know, walking into my office one day or to the next, whether my manager is going to be my best friend or is going to ream me out for something that, they praised me for the day before. Right. Inconsistency has a huge impact on people's, mental and emotional health.
[COBY]:Yeah. Yeah.
[JAMES]:Sorry. I. I can, I can go off on this for a while. I've got stories.
[COBY]:Be honest, I was kind of surprised you didn't. I was like, oh I wasn’t.
[JAMES]:I'm trying to hold back.
[COBY]:But You're. You're so right. And we've said this phrase before, we use it all the time, even with clients, that inconsistency looks like insanity.
[JAMES]:Yeah.
[COBY]:And it absolutely does. But I mean, it's the idea of, you know, when we're talking about, you know, mental and emotional health, it's, you know, there really is very few things that are going to be as powerful at kind of leveling out people's mental and emotional health at work. Then consistency. People know what to expect. People can you feel of their stability when they show up for work and how, you know, stuff happens and when stuff is done. Because people can do really well when they can predict what's going to happen. Right.
[JAMES]:And honestly, I would much rather have, work, with a manager, supervisor, leader who is consistently bad than being inconsistent. Because at least if you're consistently bad, then I know how to handle you. Right. I can make a plan and I can adjust and I can work within that. The inconsistency piece is just. It is so exhausting to, be in that environment on a regular basis.
[COBY]:Well, we've talked about this before and. But like, one of the things that I think that you know. So you listening right now? Think about your top three least favorite bosses, like the ones that you really did not like. I bet you if you put some thought into it, the ones that you know were not very good bosses are probably not in your top three. I'm sure your top three are the ones that you're just like, they're hot one day, they're cold the next. You know, they're my best friend day one. They're my worst enemy day two. I’m sure that those are probably going to be who are in your top three worst of all time. Is the inconsistent ones over the consistently bad ones because your right you can kind of like all right, this is just how they are. I get them, I understand them, I can work around them.
[JAMES]:I may not like them, but at least I know what to expect from them.
[COBY]:yes, exactly. They are predictable. Theres some stability in predictability in how they’re going to react. And that is something that I think is one of those things where, you know, when you have that then it doesn't drain you emotionally when you, when you're, you know, when you're dealing with someone that has some stability or has some predictability, it doesn't, you know, drain your emotional tanks. The same way someone that is just absolutely can total roll the die how they're going to be today. Because that is so mentally exhausting. Even before you show up, you're already exhausted.
[JAMES]:Well, it's the anxiety, on your commute m into work, of all right, what am I in for? The unknown is stressful.
[COBY]:Absolutely.
[JAMES]:And it tees up nicely to the second thing that I want to talk about which is making sure that you are providing clear expectations. Clear expectations along with consistency can go a long way to improving the employee experience. It's foundational to making sure that we have success with more complex or other solutions. So when we're talking about clear expectations, we're talking about making sure that they are formalized somewhere. So an easy way to do this or one of the ways that we often recommend to do this is that we really like to evaluate and work with clients to build fairly robust job descriptions. Making sure that the expectations are clearly laid out in that document, that it becomes more of a living document that people can refer back to that there are clear expectations or indicators of success. Whether you use the term KPI or some variant of it doesn't matter. But those measurements for people knowing how you are going to be measured, what success looks like in this role and how you are going to be measured on your performance in this role. Those types of clear expectations set out from the organization is essential. And then having that reinforced consistently by the manager is the other part of that. Right. It, it becomes the cornerstone of what becomes your performance management framework. Right. If you can start building those two elements, they go hand in hand. They and it'I know these are not complex, you know, brand new world altering, m recommendations that we're making because they're fundamental. Re still getting them wrong.
[COBY]:Well, it's so funny because you're right. These are not like groundbreaking, but it's know. I mean the first few years we were kind of recommending people start here. We were a little surprised because we're like, you know, we're coming in to kind of help say something kind of cool and new and something that will.
[JAMES]:Actually kind of build your employee experience. So let's start with yes.
[COBY]:So we're like, well, but the problem with expectations, you're getting these things wrong. And what's so. Because what's really funny is as you're saying that consistency is, you know, is reliable communication. You know, you know, managers who are prepared to understand the impact of being consistent and online, even the way we. Things like accommodations, collect feedback, you know, that's what consist he looks like. Clear expectations is that we're transparent, we communicate what we want. And I think what's funny though is that we're saying those two things are in the vast minority when it comes to most businesses that we've, that, you know, that we've engaged with or that we've assessed or whatever. But why it looks like when they're not there, managers that have conflicting, priorities and say one says one thing, you know, this says another thing. Communication is just, if you, if you weren't in the room, we didn't get it, or if you weren't on the list or, or you know, it's a real crap shoot whether you're going to get it. We're not clear about what we want. We don't kind of spell it out there. We don't really tell people a lot of stuff. That's what it looks like when you don't have it. And that's, and that is so exhausting and so hard to imagine businesses function in that environment. But that is what we're telling you, the norm in so many businesses. And it's. And which is why we say you got to do those two things if you want anything else to work. Any kind of recognition program, any kind of employee wellness challenges, any kind of like people using mental health supports, those two things have to exist first before any of those can become effective.
[JAMES]:And I would say equally important is accountability. And it's funny because there's a perception from some, that employees or that people don't want to be held accountable. I firmly believe the opposite is true. As long as they are being held. As long as you are clearly articulating what's expected of them. Them. Right. We let people know what's expected of them in advance. We are. And we are consistent in our expectations of them. Accountability is a great thing. It builds trust. It's a system for making sure that good performance is rewarded and poor performance is not. And there is nothing that will drive talent out of your organization faster than not supporting good performance and letting poor performance or undesirable behavior slide. accountability is something that your top performers want. If your bottom performers don't want accountability, well, okay, yeah, we will gracefully invite you to leave the organization. But accountability, one of the best tools that I've personally discovered. Use whatever. I didn't discover it that I found that to help build accountability is really the idea of creating professional limitations. Create a fence around what people are not allowed to do. Create the broad overarching as here we know what your account what you are expected to perform to, you know, the KPIs, whatever language you use. And we know the rules around, don't break these rules. Everything else in the service of meeting those expectations that we set out is on the table. It provides people with more freedom and we can clearly hold them accountable for reaching or not reaching their expectations or adhering to or not adhering to the limitations that we set on.
[COBY]:Absolutely. And I mean, and you're right. Is that a lot of times, you know, we do hear people, it's kind to say, well you know, accountability is something that the business leaders want but employees don't. But you're wrong. People want to know what they're, you know, kind of like what's expected of them. And they want, and they want their good behavior. They want to be held accountable for their good behavior. Right. Because accountability is not a negative thing. It's a neutral thing. Accountability for good stuff we all want, you know, and accountability for bad stuff is something that is necessary.
[JAMES]:We all, all want people, whether you're talking personal or professional lives, want. We intrinsically believe that bad behavior or undesirable behaviors will say should not be rewarded solely, and that's where an accountability framework comes into place.
[COBY]:And you're right. And the impact of accountability for all people, consistent accountability across organization is, can be amazing when it comes to employee well being because it's clear that undesirable behavior won't be tolerated. That people who are not pulling their weight, the people who are kind of skating by and putting and piling the work onto other people not is not going to happen. There's an accountability for what you bring to the job and what the company and your coworkers can expect from you. That plays into consistency, that plays into clear expectation and like. So one of the things that we're always like, we always really like doing is we have a program that we call the Autonomy Freeway. And we keep saying we're going an episode about that and we keep pushing it down the road. But we will at some point. But it's a phenomenal program for creating accountability in your organization because it largely does what James Kind say. It's about developing clear expectations and developing kind of limited freedoms while providing the accountability of the professional limitations to allow you to have a lane that you can work in and do your job and be held accountable for the good work that you do and not have to see enough to tolerate others not being held accountable for undesirable behavior. It can be a very powerful. It's not very complex, but it can be quite powerful and it can do amazing things. It comes to talking about kind your emotional and mental health.
[JAMES]:Yeah. And it's funny because so much of what we talk about is very, very, very important. But also simple in concept, but difficult in application.
[COBY]:Well, complicated an application Say difficult. It's not simple. Quick fix it and forget it. One and done.
[JAMES]:Yah.
[COBY]:It's consistent.
[JAMES]:It's complicating your daily behaviors. Yeah. It, there's an accountability on you, the leader, manager, whomever, that you are consistent in your expectations. And it's. And I think that's why there is some resistance to some of these foundational pieces. Because it's not a single piece of technology that we can implement that we can once we pay for it. It's doing the work for us. This is work that we have to do ourselves. Nobody else can do this work for us. If you are a manager or a leader of a team, you are the only one who can provide that consistency to your team. Even if you're not getting it from your supervisor, manager or leader, if you can provide that to your team, it's still going to have a significant impact on your team's emotional mental health.
[COBY]:Absolutely. So let's talk about the last one. So the last of the small practical things. And this really is kind of again, it's really just as simple as fostering human connection. It's the idea of, I mean like honestly, I mean it's kind of the often the way. Way that we talk about the practical realities of recognition. Right. Recognition programs you insert. But actually creating that human to human again, timely, authentic and appreciable form of recognition. And it's about taking the time to get to know people that you work with because people are complex. So like just assuming that, you know, all people fall into simple, easy to understand buckets or you know, that their preferences can be assumed or implied. That's the kind of stuff that really, you know, makes it harder for us to feel like we belong in our workplaces. Yeah. Is when we don't foster that kind of human connection and actually try to understand individuals as individuals.
[JAMES]:And the single biggest mistake that we see around recognition, is that. And it's not really a mistake, it's a natural gravitation towards showing recognition in the form that we personally understand and want to receive it. So if you are somebody who really appreciates a heart felt thank you, you've done a good job. You are more likely to try to show recognition to others by saying thank you, you've done a great job today. And that's not a bad thing at all. It is a great, authentic way of trying to show appreciation to somebody and it can be done very timely. The issue becomes that third element that we've talked about which is appreciable. Is it, are you communicating in a way that somebody else is actually going to appreciate if they're not motivated or not really, as interested in that verbal recognition. Then your sincere efforts may be, will not be having the impact that you think they are and people might not actually feel recognized even though you are attempting to show recognition or appreciation to them.
[COBY]:Yeah. I mean let's first acknowledge the fact again going back to what we're kind of hypocrites that we were saying some of the challenges when it comes to the simple steps of wellness. One of them was recognition. And then we said fostering human connection which is basically recognition. but the difference is kind of going back to what you're saying about preferences is really kind of where the difference lies. Because we talk about rewards and recognition programs. Usually they're pre built established programs where, where one of the things that, that one of the preferences that gets leaned on very heavily is the idea of tangible gifts and rewards and things. And you know, you know those typ.
[JAMES]:Nominate an employee who has done something for you and you both win a gift card.
[COBY]:Exactly.
[JAMES]:A common and not a terrible no recognition program. Right. Like it's about encouraging and recognizing somebody who went above and beyond for you.
[COBY]:Yeah. To some people that will make a huge difference for. But assuming that that method is appreciable to the employees and it's surprisingly not as common that that's a major motivator, or our major kind of preference when it comes to recognition. A lot of times it is more about kind of the human connections, more about, let me do, you know, you know, make me feel like I'm seen and heard and well utilized in the organization. There's lots of other things that we do. But the problem is the rewards and recognition programs that get inserted into the workplaces are based on what is the easiest thing for the organization to, to like to drop in. And rewards and gifts are easy as far as simple, regardless of how effective they are.
[JAMES]:Yeah, I agree with you up to a point. I don't think that, that these programs are actually implemented because I don't think anybody who is going out seeking a recognition program and implementing something is doing it because they think it's the easiest option. I think it's that this is what we know, right? This is what is commonly accepted as recognition. so that gift card program that was very briefly outlined, we've seen it in play and what happens is that there tends to be a very small, population that really engages. And so the gift cards end up going to the same 5 to 7% of people over and over and over again and nobody else, other people don't really care. It becomes more. It almost looks like it's a program just for some. the thing about the difference between a recognition program and showing recognition or appreciation to people is really the difference between Well, it's, it is that human connection. It's the authentically trying. It's communication. It's recognizing that to appreciate someone, I need to communicate what I'm feeling, the thank you, the I appreciate you. I need to communicate that in a way that they are going to understand. And recognizing that communication styles, we need to tailor our message to our audience. Doesn't matter if we're talking about communication in any form. that's kind of the fundamental element that distinguishes building human connection through recognition versus implementing a recognition program.
[COBY]:No, I think that's a really good point. And I think that it's the idea of kind of rights. It's not a. Businesses are like, let's find the simplest thing. It's like let, let's find one thing that will work.
[JAMES]:Because I think a lot of. Bit like a lot of people, the majority of people who are implementing these programs do it because they truly want to show people that they are appreciated.
[COBY]:You're right. But it's the, I think it's the Simplicity of envisioning how it's going to work by that this program does the heavy lifting for you.
[JAMES]:Yes.
[COBY]:Is I think where you. It's kind of when I say that it's simpler. It's not necessarily that you have been lazy in trying to implement something. It's that this is a very. These programs with these gift cards sort of thing are very easy to kind of envision and it's all like pre built into like you know, scheduling and.
[JAMES]:Stuff like that and's trackable and there's a budget for it and there's like. I mean it, it makes sense why these things happen. But again what we are really the heart of this entire conversation is that you kind of have to do the hard work yourself.
[COBY]:Yeah. And that's. I said is that. And a lot of companies have tried many of these things and saw that five to seven percent uptick from employees and then they hit that transformation fatigue. They're burned out by trying these new things to improve wellness and to address these problems with talent traction and retention. And then when an actual program comes along like if we were re recommending you know, fostering better human connection and those types of things, they're like ugh, I'm just so tired of that. I don't want this to be a problem anymore. Which is kind of we say the catchphrase of, of the transformation fatigue and transformation burnout. But this is just. It is that you know, it's. These programs are easier to envision and so they seem to kind of get the priority rather than the harsh reality of this stuff takes work. This stuff is hard has you know, and you kind need, you kind of need to assess where you currently are before you can just insert something. You need to know where the sickness is and not just chase the symptoms. And that is unsexy. That is unflashy. That is unshiny.
[JAMES]:That's.
[COBY]:Yes. Just. I've just describe. Maybe that should be our new three word monster.
[JAMES]:No, let's, let's not go there.
[COBY]:but, but really. But that is the, that's the harsh truth and it's not, you know, and it's, you know, maybe not wanted or welcome. We've been kindly asked to not come back when we kind of have said these things to businesses that are not ready to hear it. But this is if you want to actually improve employee wellbeing. That's the method forward.
[JAMES]:Yeah. I think the last thing that I want to say is that there's a reason why like we Talk about these as fundamentals. If you want to reach peak performance in anything, you have to have solid fundamentals. Look at any top tier athlete, I don't care what sport it is. they, even at the pro level, like professional hockey players, basketball players, baseball, they practice the fundamentals regularly because until it becomes muscle memory, until they can deploy and use the fundamentals without really even having to give it much conscious thought. Because when you get to that point, when you understand the fundamentals of your sport intrinsically, then you can start building more complex skills.
[COBY]:Yeah, no, that's really well played Al. Right, I think I'll just do a really quick summary. I think this was a good conversation. So the question was what are small practical things we can do to improve employee well being? Well, there's been some stud research and some stats to kind of say over 80% of employees are, would consider leaving their employer because of a lack of well being initiatives. They place wellbeing as high as salary and they would only consider working for a company that prioritizes well being when they're looking for a new job. The don'ts we suggest when it comes to these strategies to improve well being are don't go after the easy answers. Avoid the simple little steps. You avoid the set and forget it the one and done the stuff it'll be done for you. Those types of things don't work. They're chaotic. And they often are performative because many times these are what people have been chasing over the past five years to try and improve wellness. But it's causing them to fall into transformation fatigue where they're just exhausted with not having the success they're looking for. The dos, the things that we do recommend that you work on if you want to actually improve small practical things, is to be able to improve consistency in your workplace. That includes management training, SOP for things like communication or accommodations or employee feedback. Those types of consistent processes can go a long way as well as kind of pairing that with clear expectations, transparency, strong communication, being able to kind of let people know what's expected of them and let them know how they're going to be measured for success. And then another part of that is accountability. Making it clear what people can't do can often be very helpful. But just holding people accountable for their behavior, good or bad, can go a long way to improving the emotional mental health of your employees. And the last piece is a foster human connection. This is about getting to know the people that you work with, kind of and recognizing people effectively through authentic and timely and appreciable, recognition efforts, but making sure that there's a sense of we see you as a person, we want you to belong here. So we're going to make the effort to foster those kind of relationships. That is going to be what improves people's mental and emotional health. And those are the bedrock of your wellness programs. Understanding employee well being. And if you want to be overt, make sure that you're clearly saying these types of, things in the way that you recruit people. If you really want to not sound like every other company out there, or you don't want to sound like you're just catching buzzwords and hoping that you know the net's wide enough that you'll grab someone actually, you know, knowing what you're talking about when it comes to employee wellbeing can go a long way so that about does it for us. For a full archive of the podcast and access the video version hosted on our YouTube channel, visit Roman3.ca/podcast. Thanks for joining us.
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