Workplace well-being should be a must-have - but we must constantly design and re-evaluate to make it so.
This is a well-structured framework from the US Surgeon General that can serve as inspiration to include in your own workplace.
It is comprised of 5 key essentials:
1) Protection from Harm: -Prioritize workplace physical and psychological safety -Enable adequate rest -Normalize and support mental health - Operationalize DEIA* norms, policies, and programs
2)Connection and Community
-Create cultures of inclusion and belonging -Cultivate trusted relationships -Foster collaboration and teamwork
3)Work-Life Harmony
-Provide more autonomy over how work is done -Make schedules as flexible and predictable as possible -Increase access to paid leave -Respect boundaries between work and non-work time
4)Mattering at work
-Provide a living wage -Engage workers in workplace decisions -Build a culture of gratitude and recognition -Connect individual work with organizational mission
5)Opportunity for growth
-Offer quality training, education, and mentoring -Foster clear, equitable pathways for career advancement -Ensure relevant, reciprocal feedback
As I have shared and written often, a behavioral science lens can help you re-evaluate your current approach to well-being, understand the enablers and barriers to some of the elements, and help you design better outcomes.
This guide provides a nice starting point for most, to get some of the basics right, to re-evaluate and understand in what areas you may be lacking, and to know where you need to do more work.
Every organization is different of course and will have different contexts, so some of the steps may need to be expanded, but taking into account some basic principles is a great first step.
What do you think of the elements? what is missing?
Happy to share the link to the PDF if you are interested in reading the whole guide (it is about 30 pages but that includes an introduction