Working Well: Nabila Salem Of Revolent On How Companies Are Creating Cultures That Support & Sustain Mental, Emotional, Social, Physical & Financial Wellness
An Interview with Karen Mangia
…. Wellbeing solutions within the workplace. With the pandemic exacerbating certain long-standing challenges around mental health and emotional wellbeing, I’ve seen a lot of employers invest more seriously in resources and digital health solutions — and I think it’s something that is long overdue, so I’m really looking forward to seeing where that goes.
The pandemic pause brought us to a moment of collective reckoning about what it means to live well and to work well. As a result, employees are sending employers an urgent signal that they are no longer willing to choose one — life or work — at the cost of the other. Working from home brought life literally into our work. And as the world now goes hybrid, employees are drawing firmer boundaries about how much of their work comes into their life. Where does this leave employers? And which perspectives and programs contribute most to progress? In our newest interview series, Working Well: How Companies Are Creating Cultures That Support & Sustain Mental, Emotional, Social, Physical & Financial Wellness, we are talking to successful executives, entrepreneurs, managers, leaders, and thought leaders across all industries to share ideas about how to shift company cultures in light of this new expectation. We’re discovering strategies and steps employers and employees can take together to live well and to work well.
As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Nabila Salem, President, Revolent.
Nabila joined the Board of Tenth Revolution Group in 2020, and as Group President of Revolent is responsible for leading on the creation of talent. Nabila previously worked at FDM Group and IBM and has accrued over 15 years of leadership experience in professional services, tech recruitment, and marketing in the UK and USA. Nabila plays an active role in encouraging, supporting, and promoting diversity in the workplace and has received multiple awards for her achievements.
Thank you for making time to visit with us about the topic of our time. Our readers would like to get to know you better. Tell us about a formative experience that prompted you to change your relationship with work and how work shows up in your life.
I wouldn’t say it was a single “formative” experience, but over the course of my career I’ve learned a lot about balancing my personal and professional life. Namely that the idea of a “work-life balance” is — quite simply — wrong. In fact, they’re inherently contradictory.
In my opinion, we don’t have “work” and “a life” as if they are two separate things. Instead, we have one life. And we have to choose how much work we want to be part of that life, depending on our needs and context.
For me, it has always been important not just to do a “good job”, but to do the best job I can. I have sacrificed a lot in my life to get to where I am now which has been my choice, however, as my career has progressed, I have also learned that it’s a fine balancing act and one that should not come at the expense of your own wellbeing. If you get the balancing act wrong it can quickly spiral out of control.
Harvard Business Review predicts that wellness will become the newest metric employers will use to analyze and to assess their employees’ mental, physical and financial health. How does your organization define wellness, and how does your organization measure wellness?
Wellness means different things to different people. At Revolent, we primarily measure employee wellness through our communication tools with employees which enables us to gather feedback from them. We look at wellness, happiness, stress levels, and a bunch of other factors — to see what can be improved in our organization.
For example, in the past, our surveys highlighted a consistent and pervasive desire for more flexible working arrangements. So, we implemented a hybrid working policy that also allows employees to alter their work hours according to their needs, and we introduced our “Work from Anywhere” policy, which encourages employees to work from anywhere in the world for up to ten days every year (which do not count towards any annual leave allowances!)
Based on your experience or research, how do you correlate and quantify the impact of a well workforce on your organization’s productivity and profitability?
There’s a lot of research that shows a happy workforce is more productive — and therefore more profitable. For example, we now know that improved wellbeing in the workplace can reduce cases of presenteeism and absenteeism — two things that cost the UK economy £73 billion each year.
But, as a business leader, it’s more simple than that. Do you want a collection of people that are unhappy and unfulfilled in their work leading on your business projects? Or do you want people who feel happy, empowered and valued in their role?
The obvious answer is the latter. My job, as I see it, is to create a workplace that engenders happiness and wellness, and to create an environment that ensures my employees genuinely enjoy coming into work every day (whether that be at an office or virtually). The three most common descriptors that resulted from our last survey in regards to how employees are feeling were: valued, committed and enthusiastic, which is exactly the type of feeling we wish to retain through regular and continuous improvements.
Even though most leaders have good intentions when it comes to employee wellness, programs that require funding are beholden to business cases like any other initiative. The World Health Organization estimates for every $1 invested into treatment for common mental health disorders, there is a return of $4 in improved health and productivity. That sounds like a great ROI. And, yet many employers struggle to fund wellness programs that seem to come “at the cost of the business.” What advice do you have to offer to other organizations and leaders who feel stuck between intention and impact?
I feel that lot of well-meaning business leaders get excited about a new wellness initiative or program that has taken off in another country, sector, or business. They’ll spend a lot of money to bring that initiative into their own business, because they genuinely want their employees to be happier, and more productive. And because, like you say, there’s a potential of $4 ROI for every $1 you invest.
But the truth is, there is no magic recipe for getting wellness and wellbeing right. Every person is different, every country is different, and every organization is different. Just because something works in one context, does not mean it will work for your context.
I think the best way to introduce initiatives and gain more traction (this applies to more than just wellness initiatives) is to create genuine, reflective, and open lines of dialogue between employees and business leaders. You simply need to start by asking your employees what they need, then — where possible — you should implement it.
Speaking of money matters, a recent Gallup study reveals employees of all generations rank wellbeing as one of their top three employer search criteria. How are you incorporating wellness programs into your talent recruitment and hiring processes?
We believe in transparency and any new initiatives that we introduce internally; we’ll strive to make externally visible as well — particularly in our hiring and recruitment processes. We recently launched ‘Revolations’, an initiative where employees are rewarded for coming up with ideas that make the business a better, more innovative and happier place.
We’ve all heard of the four-day work week, unlimited PTO, mental health days, and on demand mental health services. What innovative new programs and pilots are you launching to address employee wellness?
As an organization, we prioritize two things: listening to our people, and empowering them.
We conduct regular research to try and understand what would help our employees to be happier in their roles. The one thing that came up, time and time again, was flexibility. So we implemented a new flexi-working policy.
Fast-forward to today and our employees can work flexibly (around a core set of hours) so that their work can fit around their life — not the other way around. We don’t count hours, either. We know that our employees will get the job done, and feel tracking their hours is insulting, considering the hard work they put in for us.
All employees are encouraged to finish early on a Friday to enjoy longer weekends every weekend. We also have a “Work from Anywhere” initiative, that allows employees to work from anywhere in the world for a period of 10 days, entirely separate from their annual leave allowance.
The main goal for all of these has been to improve flexibility for our employees and to make them happier. And — so far — our feedback shows that it is working!
Can you please tell us more about a couple of specific ways workplaces would benefit from investing in your ideas above to improve employee wellness?
The initiatives we have put in place are working for us, because we based them heavily off feedback from our own staff. While they may work for us, that does not mean they’ll work in every other organization. This will depend on where you hire, who you’re hiring, what your sector is and so on; there are just so many factors to take into consideration.
Rather than looking for initiatives in other organizations, I’d fully recommend that you do one simple thing instead; listen to your staff. What we have at Revolent was based on our employees’ needs and constant feedback, once you have clear lines of communication that engender these kinds of conversations, you can start building your own initiatives out from there.
How are you reskilling leaders in your organization to support a “Work Well” culture?
We have an internal leadership training program called “Elevate”, which is designed to train leaders in various aspects of leadership, including employee wellbeing, giving feedback, and situational leadership, among other things.
The aim of the program is to take the great people we already have, and turn them into great leaders. This not only allows our leaders to improve professionally, but also ensures they are fully capable of supporting our employees — it’s a win-win, really!
Ideas take time to implement. What is one small step every individual, team or, organization can take to get started on these ideas — to get well?
At all levels, from individual all the way to organizational, I would say the best way to get started is to start asking questions, and collect feedback. Any great employee initiative has to come from the people it’ll impact most — your employees. So start by asking them “What’s most important to you at work?” and build from there.
What are your “Top 5 Trends To Track In the Future of Workplace Wellness?”
Certainly, one thing I’m keeping an eye on in 2022 is wellbeing solutions within the workplace. With the pandemic exacerbating certain long-standing challenges around mental health and emotional wellbeing, I’ve seen a lot of employers invest more seriously in resources and digital health solutions — and I think it’s something that is long overdue, so I’m really looking forward to seeing where that goes.
What is your greatest source of optimism about the future of workplace wellness?
My greatest source of optimism is that we know happier employees are more productive. When employees are happy, turnover rates drop, productivity increases, and the organization at large is better for it.
So, as we work towards improving employee wellness, both now and in the future, we know these things will inevitably be impacted as well. It’s a win-win.
Our readers often like to continue the conversation with our featured interviewees. How can they best connect with you and stay current on what you’re discovering?
You can find me on my LinkedIn, where I post regularly!
Thank you for sharing your insights and predictions. We appreciate the gift of your time and wish you continued success and wellness.
About The Interviewer: Karen Mangia is one of the most sought-after keynote speakers in the world, sharing her thought leadership with over 10,000 organizations during the course of her career. As Vice President of Customer and Market Insights at Salesforce, she helps individuals and organizations define, design and deliver the future. Discover her proven strategies to access your own success in her fourth book Success from Anywhere and by connecting with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.
