In the midst of the Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting, 21% of employed Americans are doing the bare minimum according to an August 2022 ResumeBuilder.com survey, and 5% say they do less than they are being paid for. Additionally, according to a survey conducted by SHRM in August 2022, 51% of HR professionals indicated that quiet quitting was a concern, with almost 36% of those surveyed saying it was currently occurring in their workplaces. The reasons behind this vary, however eight out of ten people surveyed by ResumeBuilder.com say they are simply burned out. Now is the time for employers to really focus on the health & well-being of their workforce. The toxic workplace environment and the lack of work/life balance is no longer being tolerated and leading to a mass exodus for plenty of employers.

Employers nowadays cannot just think about providing their employees the bare minimum when it comes to perks and benefits. The typical offering of medical, dental, and vision is just not enough. There is a very prevalent need for employers need to make a concerted effort in providing the benefits and support their employees need and value. In order to do that, employers need to take time in establishing a proper health & well-being strategy to assist them in making consistent and proper decisions as it relates to the well-being offerings for their organization.

This may feel like a huge undertaking, but once you determine whether you want to lag, meet, or lead the market, the process should become more manageable. With regards to lagging, meeting, or leading the market, you want to think about it the same way you do compensation offered at your organization. Taking this type of stance, provides you a baseline for determining what type of health & welfare benefits you want to offer your workforce. Unless you are a startup or a large tech company, that can afford to offer everything under the moon, most organizations look to be competitive enough to meet the market.

Now that you have determined your stance, you need to decide what benefits and/or perks you want to offer. At this stage, we highly recommend you collaborate with your broker in doing a benefits analysis to see how you compare to others in the market. This will give you a better sense of where you are and how far you need to move the needle in order to be competitive. This is the time to be very intentional with your offering. Be sure to include benefits that your employees will value, i.e., overall wellness benefits to help combat stress, anxiety, and overall burn out. Take a look at your overall employee demographic and consider what the workforce will look like three, five or 10 years from now. This is what will drive and shape your benefits offerings in the future.

The next step in creating your health and well-being strategy is determining what cost impact would be palatable for your organization as you decide which benefits to offer. You will need to be able to strike a good balance between offering impactful benefits, and not breaking the bank. This again, is where your broker can assist in negotiating with vendors to ensure you are providing the best benefits at a reasonable cost.

Do not feel discouraged if your organization does not have a large budget for benefits. There are still many ways you can be impactful and show your workforce that you care about their overall well-being. For example, establishing no meeting Fridays, in order for employees to have a day to focus and catch-up on emails and work they just cannot get to during the week, or four-day work weeks, allowing for employees to take care of personal appointments without having to take PTO. Even paid mental health days, in addition to vacation and sick time, are an added benefit that employees would appreciate. With any one of these options, you are showing your employees that you care about their overall well-being and want to help combat burn out and allow for more flexibility.

As you can see, establishing a proper strategy will not only require an HR perspective, but you will also need the perspective of your employees, your broker, and other leaders within the organization. In order for this to be successful, you will need to gather as much information as possible from different parts of your organization and gain the support of your leadership. You will also need to ensure that your leadership team has the same vision, in wanting to provide health & well-being benefits that support your employees, and to keep them engaged and retained.

Once you have established your health & well-being strategy, this will now become your rule book moving forward. This is not to say that you should not deviate or change your strategy along the way. I highly recommend revisiting your strategy every couple of years, as it will be inevitable that the market will shift and your workforce will change, however, once a strategy has been established, it makes it easier for your organization to make consistent decisions year over year as it relates to your health and well-being benefits.

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