Burnout is a top reason for resignation. In a 2021 report by human resource technology company Limeade, 40% of employees left their organisation for this reason. Remote work, social isolation, medical quarantines, and a blurred work-life balance have placed copious amounts of stress on employees. For businesses, it has led to increasingly high attrition rates and reduced employee productivity down by 35%.

With worsening employee health and well-being, the next pandemic of “mental health” seems to be lurking around.

Time for course correction

Needless to say, businesses have missed predicting and preparing for this situation when the pandemic hit us. In 2021, as per Lyra Health, only 22% of HR leaders had recognised burnout as an issue affecting their company’s workforce.​ However, the story for 2022 is far from being the same.

In 2022, for the first time, the majority of employers will have an anti-stigma campaign (57%) and their topmost priority will be to make mental health services easily accessible (76%). Clearly, 2022 will be the year to watch out for the implementation of corporate wellness programmes.

But how do you ensure that the wellness programmes work? Data will deliver the answer.

Leveraging data for customised wellness programmes

In the 2021 Gartner HR Survey, 82% of employees indicated that they wanted their organisations to consider them as people, not just employees. Yet, only 45% of employees believe their organisation does that.​ The need for personalisation in micro-moments is now more than ever. The starting point is a data-driven approach.

Data can help HR teams to develop sustainable wellness initiatives that cater to unique employee needs and identified pain points. A data-driven approach manifests tangible results despite limited time and resources, enabling businesses to retain their operational agility. Companies can design solid wellness programmes, but they also need to communicate their intentions to employees in the right way, at the right time.

Old ways don’t open new doors. When efforts to promote well-being seem stuck, data proves to be the much-needed breakthrough. It opens new doors to employee well-being strategies that can be scaled up and implemented with agility.

Tapping the various people data sources

The next step is to proactively use reliable data sources to identify those at risk of mental health issues. Data related to absenteeism, performance management, productivity, and organisational network analysis (ONA), among many others, can offer rich insights.

In fact, some enterprises have been leveraging the Microsoft Viva Dashboard to see how employees are effectively spending time in meetings, email, chats, and calls, with an intention to proactively identify overworked employees and offer timely support.

However, the story doesn’t end here. After using the right data, HR teams should put in place the right metrics to measure the success of wellness initiatives. If the results do not turn out well, they could also adjust their plans accordingly.  For starters, here are a few HR metrics that will help in measuring employee well-being:

Employee Satisfaction: Employee satisfaction can be obtained through employee listening tools to measure how much employees enjoy working for the company and the extent of their work-life balance.

Time to Service: Relevant for well-being services, this metric tracks the time between the moment an employee requests for help and the moment help is received. It is useful for measuring the effectiveness of the adopted initiatives.

Absenteeism: Companies could monitor the transition in employees’ sick leave days and absenteeism after a wellness intervention. A positive shift showcases the initiative’s fruitful impact, while a negative shift or no change would indicate the need to amend the programme or its implementation.

Benefits galore with a data-driven employee benefits approach

Organisations that have the best wellness practices have 11% lower attrition than organisations that do little or nothing for employee well-being. Apart from a lower employee turnover rate, other benefits include:

Higher participation rates: A key complaint by HR teams concerning wellness programmes is the traditionally low employee participation rates. By leveraging a data-driven approach, organisations can precisely identify employee needs and customise programmes that lead to higher participation rates. This will significantly reduce the cost per employee and make such programmes more viable.

Measure Return on Investment (ROI) accurately: By measuring and analysing specific participation and outcome metrics, organisations can identify the true effectiveness of these wellness programmes and present a stronger business case to the C-suite for future interventions. This data-driven approach brings more accountability, cost-effectiveness and productivity to the activities and engagement.

Draw and retain talent using real-time insights: Having access to real-time data and actionable insights can help organisations make quicker decisions, prioritising the most impactful well-being programmes to draw more talent in joining and staying in the company.

To prioritise employee well-being, HR teams can adopt a data-driven approach to extract profitable outcomes, guard against adverse business impact, and deliver organisational goals. As they say, “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”

The article is an edited version of the first one published in The Business Times.