Wellness in healthcare: The problem, why it's important and the path to better wellness

As an especially stressful field, healthcare organizations must be mindful of employee wellness. Wellness is critical to success for both the individual and the organization. 

During a session as part of Becker's Human Resources + Talent Virtual Summit, sponsored by Cornerstone OnDemand, Steve Dobberowsky, Cornerstone's Director of Strategy and Value Services, and Mike Siano, Principal, Strategy and Value Services, discussed the problem of wellness in healthcare and the path to better wellness.

Five key takeaways:

1. Healthcare workers face unique wellness challenges. Healthcare is at the tip of the spear in the fight against COVID-19. The pandemic exacerbated workers' already high stress levels, creating a crisis around employee wellness. One study showed that 96 percent of CEOs believed they were addressing employee wellness, while only 69 percent of employees agreed.

Additionally, citing factors such as insufficient staffing and workload intensity, 22 percent of nurses may leave their current role, and 50 percent of these nurses are looking to leave front-line work. Nurses are experiencing an intense emotional and physical toll. "This is eye-opening and alarming for healthcare," Mr. Dobberowsky cautioned.

2. Organizations should approach employee wellness from a "whole person" perspective. Employee wellness is not just about the individual. It can be broken into three categories:

  • Individual. This includes emotional, psychological and physical wellness.
  • Environmental. This encompasses social, occupational and spatial wellness. It includes having a sense of connection and belonging. It is about the culture of the organization.
  • Contextual. This includes factors such as financial and spiritual wellness.

These elements together provide a holistic view of employee wellness that goes beyond the traditional individual view of wellness.

Whether it comes from leadership or team, asking people what they need is crucial. Use focus groups and assessments to gather data.

3. There is significant return and value in investing in employee wellness.

The more "well" workers are, the more they bring to their work. Unsurprisingly, the same factors that increase employee engagement — autonomy, advancement, praise, productive environment and contributing to organizational success — also correlate to wellness.

Individuals who rank their wellness high have more energy, find work interesting and are more productive. They also see their companies as more customer-centric, creative and diverse.

There is a strong business case for wellness. "For every $1 spent on wellness programs, company healthcare and absenteeism costs dropped by about $3 each," Mr. Siano said.

Championing wellness need not be driven only by leadership. "Any office or patient care team is made up of people from different groups," Mr. Dobberowsky pointed out. "Lead from where you are." Mr. Siano added, "Having a colleague that you can bond with or befriend is critical."

4. The path to wellness includes embedding wellness in the culture and processes.

Organizations need to meet employees where they are to help them achieve fulfillment at work. This means focusing on purpose — from the organization, from work and outside of work. Within healthcare, where employees help others, align wellness with purpose.

5. To embark on a path to wellness, organizations need the right vendor partners, modalities and content.

Delivering effective content to employees that accommodates learning differences is critical to wellness success. Vendors like Cornerstone OnDemand, which has over 80 million users, can match an organization's strategy and offer user-friendly, cost-effective wellness resources. Cornerstone offers a mental health and wellness content collections for its customers, as well as free resources available to all. "Develop wellness programs and tools that help employees get to a place where they are 'maximally well,'" Mr. Dobberowsky said.


To view the session OnDemand, click here

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