Delphine Supanya Berger
Managing Director & Happiness Cultivator
Managing Director & Happiness Cultivator
Well To Work Pte Ltd
Why are Companies Interested in Wellness?
“Why would workplaces take more responsibility for the wellness of employees?” she asked me, a fair question I thought. “It’s in their best interests to take more responsibility for work-related stress,” I said, “productivity increases and costs for sick leave reduce dramatically with wellness programmes, improving the bottom line and the top line. On top of that it’s a retention issue. One of my clients, a top global company, had a staff turnover of 54% amongst millennials and the average length of stay with the company was just 6 months. Millennials now account for almost 50% of the workforce.
Imagine if one quarter of your staff left every 6 months –
companies can’t operate like that and they know it.
“The gig economy also means employees can choose entrepreneurialism, which means corporates have to compete better on workplace culture. Ironically, technology has simultaneously given corporates ways to invade an employee’s personal time and given employees a way to cut the electronic leash between their desk and their private life. It makes things much more precarious for companies, they cannot afford to take liberties with people’s time and energy. Companies must regulate themselves better and avoid the temptations and pressures that can turn round-the-clock work into the norm.” I’ve stunned her with that statistic from my client, I can tell.