3-Pronged Path to Assess Your Employee Wellbeing Risk

Stresses compounded by workplace and social pressures have moved employee wellbeing from being a “nice to have” to a business essential. Nearly three in four employers say mental health is the most important wellbeing issue of the moment, with 52% saying work-life balance is the second priority, particularly as many employees have become accustomed to working where they live.^[1]

Meanwhile, on the risk side, studies have also shown mental health issues can lead to higher absenteeism and attrition rates, lower productivity, and overall morale issues for companies—not to mention lower company performance.^[2]

At the same time, having a robust employee wellbeing program can help attract and retain talent and show a company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) values, which are becoming increasingly important to employees. Indeed, employees who feel a sense of satisfaction are more productive.^[3]

Companies can use the same risk assessment process to assess workforce mental health and wellbeing resilience as they would for many other traditional exposures. Here are three ways you can quantify and mitigate your company’s wellbeing risk.

3-Pronged Path to Assess Your Employee Wellbeing Risk

The first step in quantifying the risk of an organization’s employee wellbeing is to understand its impact and potential losses that may occur. Understanding what and who are essential to the organization can help organize thoughts around the potential risk.

Also, look at the availability of trackable metrics that can serve as leading and lagging indicators. Perhaps data shows there is attrition in worker productivity during the summer. Also, keep an eye on include absenteeism rates, employee health costs, employee engagement surveys and injury rates.

Now it’s time to map out potential scenarios. For example, if you’re a large retailer and you can quantify that poor employee wellbeing leads to 30% turnover, you can then model what that 30% would cost in terms of the hiring of replacements, onboarding, productivity lags and revenue losses.

The key is to make connections among the various types of risk factors on individual and organizational levels. One company may see higher turnover, while another firm may see poor employee wellbeing surface in something such as employee fraud.

Building workforce resilience around the risk of employee wellbeing must begin with a mindset shift. Leaders who understand that poor mental health is as much of a risk as other catastrophic exposures will help set up their employees — and their company — for success.

A strong broker may help companies understand what employees want out of their careers and how to go about changing company culture to improve employee wellbeing and productivity. The broker also can help identify gaps in specific offerings that may trip employees up.

^{[1] “6 Strategies to Improve Employee Wellbeing,” Aon}

^{[2] “2021 Global Wellbeing Survey,” Aon}

^{[3] “Five ways that ESG creates value,” McKinsey & Company}