Employees are the most valuable aspect of any business and the success of any organization depends on them. As their performance is heavily affected by their health and wellbeing, so it is important for organisations to observe employee wellbeing as a KPI [1] in order to assist both their workers and their business.
In the words of Karen Williams, Chief Product Officer at workforce management software company Halogen Software: ”A key reason you want to be focused on your employees’ wellness and wellbeing is engagement.” A ‘well’ organization has ‘well’ employees, she added during her interview with CIO whilst suggesting how focusing on wellbeing has a significant impact on your employees, and how that leads to better business outcomes for your company.[2]
Key Performance Indicators can help businesses promote employees’ wellbeing and work satisfaction by including the right metrics to observe trends and ultimately measure performance. Organisations though, need to use KPIs as indicators against company goals and objectives and not as a means to mindlessly chase numbers, as often, this behaviour is proven to reduce employee and company’s performance and leads the way in creating a toxic workplace environment. [3]
Businesses that want to guarantee that they are valuing the physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing of their employees, should leverage KPIs, as they are a sustainable means of measurement, and serve as a useful tool for highlighting any potential areas for improvement. [4] Key Performance Indicators are important to make sure that the optimal level of health and wellbeing are reached within the organisation as well as offer a more tangible method of measuring employee satisfaction.[5]
Measuring Wellbeing
Although typically used in business strategies and operations, KPIs can also be used for measuring employee health and wellbeing. Performance indicators can offer insights into workplace culture, employee satisfaction, and an organization’s overall success. Employees, who are the most essential component of any company’s growth, then play a key role in the effectiveness of any health and wellness programs.
Typical employee wellbeing indicators usually belong to macro groups such as employee satisfaction, employee retention, employee motivation, management satisfaction, and peer satisfaction. [6] These groups are all based on tangible indicators as well as intangible aspects so before we can measure these intangibles, it is important to define them and make sure that they work and are the right ones for the organisation where they’re applied.
Happiness in the workplace is something everyone strives for, but how do you go about defining happiness, or wellbeing, and to select the right metric?
Choosing the Right KPIs For Employee Wellbeing
Initially, the overall objective of the KPIs needs to be established. [7] The objectives often intersect with HR goals and purposes, aimed to implement wellbeing strategies and company policies, making it easier for departments to work together. [8]
Subsequently, after the goals of these indicators have been defined, a business must discuss their implementation and review the following results on either a weekly or monthly basis, depending on their performance. These KPIs must be actionable and subject to future updates, depending on their overall performance. It’s crucial to not only develop valuable KPIs but to establish the right ones to boost wellness programs.
in order to achieve results, the organization’s values must be defined and measured in conjunction with their overall business goals. These indicators must therefore be attainable and quantifiable. For example, if the goal is to boost employee job satisfaction by 20% by the next quarter, KPIs will help employees maintain a clearer vision of what they must set out to accomplish. This, in turn, helps them feel more valuable to the organization as a whole says Charles Benayon on HRREporter [9]
At T-DAB for instance, we have developed a toolkit that allows businesses and employees to identify the right ones, understand the meaning of these indicators. This toolkit will also make sure that their trend is available in real-time and from anywhere, an important aspect especially as many employees are in working from home mode. Find out more HERE
How to find the right KPIs?
Usually, the most simple and straightforward way is to ask employees about their wellbeing directly. Collecting answers and feedback on how they feel and on overall or specific aspects of their work-life is fast and effective. At the same time, it requires a significant effort from the HR teams and it is often time-consuming as the answers can be quite detailed. Chatbots and virtual assistants are now leading the way in collecting real-time feedback on live events or sudden changes in their work lives.
With the right tools, HR managers can observe and act in real-time on the overall wellbeing of the company, still allowing privacy and anonymity to their employees. Through sentiment analysis and NLP, the management team can, for instance, observe how individuals are responding to certain changes, initiatives, programs, and the like, and you can ‘zoom out’ to see how sentiment is faring by the department. A broad and general information gathering with the express purpose of assuring your employees’ continued happiness and wellbeing in line with privacy is crucial to make the most of the KPIs that the teams have identified and are leveraging on for their decisions
“The amount of activity your employees engage in can be indicative of larger wellbeing trends and can point to correlations with happiness and wellbeing. People who are happier and healthier tend to be more engaged, and the reverse is also true: a higher level of activity could lead to better feelings and better happiness,” K. Williams
Click here to learn more about our mental wellbeing analytics toolkit
