Relevance of Chief Wellbeing Officer

Employee well-being has started to become top priority for lot of corporations given that there is a blurred line between personal commitment & professional obligations. As such, employee wellbeing & health goes a long way in enabling employees to be more engaged & productive. It also leads to satisfied & loyal customers.

Total well being of employees & taking care of people has become a new normal now. Besides CEO, CFO & CMO have been considered most important leadership roles since decades, roles such as chief analytics officer, chief learning officer & chief wellbeing officer are slowly picking up importance.

Chief well-being officer has a specific focus on wellness of employees. Growing organisations have started focusing in transforming lives of people through their well being as a part of their employee development & welfare strategy. As a result, a lot of corporations such as Global Audit & Advisory Firm-Deloitte have started appointing Chief Well-Being Officers(CWBO). Appointments of CWBO are going to speed up given that C-suite & board are looking to meet enterprise wise critical needs of their most important resource-people.

However, it is important to note that majority of corporations, facing pressure of reducing cost, increasing revenue & creating value for customers, do not think that appointment /creating such positions at apex level will give them any handsome returns. Corporations that focus only on the physical health of employees do not create value or deliver health outcomes in the long term.

Research by Gallop indicates that focus on five elements of wellbeing- career, social, financial, physical & community allow employees to lead a healthy life. However the onus is on the corporation to design employee well-being strategy based upon its culture, strategy & market position. A chief well-being officer is a strategist, operator and change leader who can shape culture, drive enterprise transformation and empower workers to be successful on their own wellness path.

Whether corporations are investing in wellness/well-being or appointing /creating such positions in leadership or combination of both, they should consider the following:

1. Integrating well being in organisational culture DNA: Instead of considering work as a top down approach, focus on developing a culture that  involves encouraging every employee to contribute towards fostering the well being of enterprise as well as their own. To kickstart, review organisation culture & operational climate & seek employee feedback. Then the organisation can explore opportunities & build on integrating its total well-being into cultural DNA. Ideally organisation has to be transparent to engage & involve the entire team in such innovative endeavor.  
2. Develop a well-being roadmap: Review your strategic plan, products & programs to evaluate how well-being can help achieve a corporation’s mission. The SBU & department heads should map the recommendations given by various employees(during the cultural DNA assessment) & take appropriate actions to move towards successful deployment of well-being strategy.  This essentially involved reviewing & altering policies, benefits, productivity norms to ensure that strategic communication both internal & external reinforce five elements of well being- career, social, physical, financial & community
3. Integrate total well-being through experiential learning.: Since total well being focuses on encompassing a comprehensive approach to wellness with focus on career, mind & body, managers & leaders should take care of employees by innovating through planning & cultural integration. The first step towards this is developing an experiential learning curriculum focused on integrating total well-being into program, policies & daily work of employees 

The best example of total well-being implementation at national level is a proposal being pursued by Finland prime minister Sanaa Marin to a 4 day workweek or six hour workday.