Defining Well-being in the Workplace: A Critical Component of Human Sustainability

As a human sustainability leader, I have always emphasized the importance of defining well-being in the workplace. With the rapid changes and challenges we've faced over the past 12-16 months - from economic downturns and widespread layoffs to the war in Ukraine and the rise of AI - it's more crucial than ever to understand what well-being looks like in a work setting.

The concept of well-being in the workplace is multifaceted, encompassing components of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. These aspects are intricately linked to factors such as purpose and meaning in one's work and personal life. Research has consistently shown that having a sense of purpose and meaning significantly impacts an individual's overall health and well-being. In the workplace, this means understanding how our jobs contribute to our broader lives and fostering environments where employees can find fulfillment.

In my work, we started focusing on well-being in the workplace about eight years ago. At that time, much of what we did centered around providing tools, resources, and education on topics like movement during the day, nutrition for optimal health, and rest and recovery strategies. While these foundational elements are still crucial, our understanding has evolved significantly since then. We've come to realize that work itself plays a critical role in determining an individual's well-being.

Recent research has identified three key factors that significantly impact well-being in the workplace: the relationship between employees and their leaders, work design, and autonomy over one's job. The first factor - the quality of our relationships with leaders and direct managers - is perhaps the most significant driver of positive or negative well-being outcomes. Trust, support, and respect are essential components of a healthy work environment.

Work design is another critical aspect to consider. Are we working in an environment that allows us to be productive yet sustainable? Do there exist too many barriers hindering our ability to effectively complete tasks? Our ability to get work done efficiently can greatly impact our overall well-being, and it's essential to recognize when we're facing insurmountable obstacles.

Autonomy - the freedom to design and make decisions about one's own job - is also a vital component of well-being in the workplace. In today's fast-paced work environments, employees often feel micromanaged or undervalued. Recognizing the importance of autonomy allows us to build trust with our teams and foster environments where individuals can thrive.

The pandemic has accelerated this understanding. Through extensive research, we've come to realize that we've traditionally overlooked the impact that work itself has on an individual's well-being. We've learned to appreciate the value of creating holistic environments where employees not only feel supported but also empowered to excel in their roles.

Ultimately, defining well-being in the workplace is essential for understanding how to foster sustainable work cultures and promote human sustainability. By recognizing these critical factors - relationships with leaders, work design, and autonomy over one's job - we can create spaces that support both individual and organizational success.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: engiven your work as a human sustainability leader and you know when you built the case for um what well-being looks like at deid um I think now more than ever it's really important to Define what well-being uh looks like you know I mean just in the past 12 six months 16 months sorry we've experienced so much change and stress from an economic downturn uh widespread layoffs especially in the tech industry the war in Ukraine currently the war in the Middle East um economic and security implications right the rise of AI and we're going to talk about that and how it challenges organizational culture individual skill sets um there's been a lot of uncertainty and cause for stress even outside of work you can have a high performing job or role that gives you a lot of stress but then you have these added external factors that provide a lot of that stress so you know as a first question I'd love to learn here how you define well-being in the workplace and what do you think are the key components for driving wellbeing at the workplace yeah I mean I think yeah the definition or Frameworks for what well-being in the workplace or well-being in general means um there's many of them but I think the the key components really are components of you know your physical mental emotional you know spiritual health there's you know which can be linked to things like purpose and meaning in the work that you do purpose and meaning in your life we know that that's a big influencer to your your um health and well-being and so I I think that there's a lot of consistency when it comes to kind of this definition of well-being I think when it when it comes to the workplace what we have um you know when I started eight years ago or nine years ago focusing on well-being in the workplace a lot of what we were doing was helping people you know providing tools and resources and education in many respects around things like you know movement during the day um nutrition and not nutrition from the perspective of weight loss loss and weight gain but just how nutrition affects you know our physiology and our psychology and how we show up um we talked a lot about rest and Recovery including sleep but not just sleep and taking time off and all of those things are foundational but I think what we have since learned and there's probably a lot of people listening that are going duh why did it take you so long because I you know because I'm saying that but what we have since learned and perhaps as a result of the of the pandemic is that we never actually um considered the the the impact that work itself has on our well-being and certain specifically certain components or certain things about work and so what we have since learned through a lot of research here at deoe is there are kind of three significant factors right is the relationship that I have with my leader and kind of my direct manager right and so is it toxic do they trust me do I trust TR them right and so you know that is the number one driver for either positive or negative well-being outcomes in the workplace the other one not surprisingly is work design right what are the be like how easy or difficult is it for me to actually effectively and efficiently get my work done and be productive are there a ton of barriers in the way of me getting my work done and then third is really linked to kind of autonomy and decision making around how I get my work done right and so you know we often say that the people do like you know with leaders I tell leaders all the time like you know they're like well what should I do and I'm like well talk to your people because they're the ones doing the work so they can probably tell you 10 ways to get the work done better right you know because they're the ones doing the work and so how much autonomy do I have to design and quite frankly redesign how I get work done um and and and those decision making right around how I do the job those are the top three things that are impacting at least right now more negative outcomes from a well-being perspective in the workplace than they are positive um well-being outcomes which I think leads you know as I started to get deep into this research that's what led me to more kind of looking at more sustain what ises sustainable work and human sustainability look like and so that you can kind of start to see that Trend playing outgiven your work as a human sustainability leader and you know when you built the case for um what well-being looks like at deid um I think now more than ever it's really important to Define what well-being uh looks like you know I mean just in the past 12 six months 16 months sorry we've experienced so much change and stress from an economic downturn uh widespread layoffs especially in the tech industry the war in Ukraine currently the war in the Middle East um economic and security implications right the rise of AI and we're going to talk about that and how it challenges organizational culture individual skill sets um there's been a lot of uncertainty and cause for stress even outside of work you can have a high performing job or role that gives you a lot of stress but then you have these added external factors that provide a lot of that stress so you know as a first question I'd love to learn here how you define well-being in the workplace and what do you think are the key components for driving wellbeing at the workplace yeah I mean I think yeah the definition or Frameworks for what well-being in the workplace or well-being in general means um there's many of them but I think the the key components really are components of you know your physical mental emotional you know spiritual health there's you know which can be linked to things like purpose and meaning in the work that you do purpose and meaning in your life we know that that's a big influencer to your your um health and well-being and so I I think that there's a lot of consistency when it comes to kind of this definition of well-being I think when it when it comes to the workplace what we have um you know when I started eight years ago or nine years ago focusing on well-being in the workplace a lot of what we were doing was helping people you know providing tools and resources and education in many respects around things like you know movement during the day um nutrition and not nutrition from the perspective of weight loss loss and weight gain but just how nutrition affects you know our physiology and our psychology and how we show up um we talked a lot about rest and Recovery including sleep but not just sleep and taking time off and all of those things are foundational but I think what we have since learned and there's probably a lot of people listening that are going duh why did it take you so long because I you know because I'm saying that but what we have since learned and perhaps as a result of the of the pandemic is that we never actually um considered the the the impact that work itself has on our well-being and certain specifically certain components or certain things about work and so what we have since learned through a lot of research here at deoe is there are kind of three significant factors right is the relationship that I have with my leader and kind of my direct manager right and so is it toxic do they trust me do I trust TR them right and so you know that is the number one driver for either positive or negative well-being outcomes in the workplace the other one not surprisingly is work design right what are the be like how easy or difficult is it for me to actually effectively and efficiently get my work done and be productive are there a ton of barriers in the way of me getting my work done and then third is really linked to kind of autonomy and decision making around how I get my work done right and so you know we often say that the people do like you know with leaders I tell leaders all the time like you know they're like well what should I do and I'm like well talk to your people because they're the ones doing the work so they can probably tell you 10 ways to get the work done better right you know because they're the ones doing the work and so how much autonomy do I have to design and quite frankly redesign how I get work done um and and and those decision making right around how I do the job those are the top three things that are impacting at least right now more negative outcomes from a well-being perspective in the workplace than they are positive um well-being outcomes which I think leads you know as I started to get deep into this research that's what led me to more kind of looking at more sustain what ises sustainable work and human sustainability look like and so that you can kind of start to see that Trend playing out\n"