The changing nature of work

Is the wellbeing agenda a passing fad or does it signal a fundamental shift in workplace design and practices? We invited three industry experts to a learning day in London to share their insight into how the workplace is transforming and the benefits of making organisations healthier and happier places.

On the panel…

Dave Cheshire

With 20 years’ experience in making buildings greener, Dave is a Director of Sustainability at AECOM, specialising in the built environment. He has written best practice industry sustainability guidance and is a chartered environmentalist.

Ashley Wickham

Ashley is The Estée Lauder Companies’ Learning and Talent Development Manager for the UK and Ireland. She has extensive experience in learning and development, specialising in management and leadership development programmes. Ashley has played an integral part in the Estée Lauder Companies’ recent workplace transformation programme.

Dr Joanna Yarker

Dr Yarker is Associate Professor of Occupational and Business Psychology at Kingston Business School and Co‑director of Workplace Health Consultancy at Affinity Health at Work, London, focusing on leadership and health. She develops workplace change strategies with organisations and has had papers published in academic and practitioner journals.

Is the workplace wellbeing agenda here to stay?

Dr Joanna Yarker: Absolutely. Studies into ill health and positive working from around 2005 onwards show that poor working conditions are a top cause of absenteeism, while poor working relationships and lost productivity cost UK and global businesses billions each year. We’re also seeing a dramatic culture shift in people’s expectations of their job, and signs that they want more control over how and where they work — a major component in workplace wellbeing. We’re also seeing more people with dual careers. A lot of these things come down to wanting to better manage our personal lives and interests alongside our jobs, and are becoming even more central to managing work. It’s worth saying though, that organisations are at different stages of maturity when it comes to wellbeing — some are still tackling basic health and safety policies while others have moved beyond this, and are investing in strategies that don’t just keep people safe but promote healthy behaviours.
Ashley Wickham: Yes, definitely. Health, happiness and wellbeing are integral to The Estée Lauder Companies and our headquarters at One Fitzroy Place were designed with this in mind, including flexible spaces and in-house services, to create an environment that promotes wellbeing. Some of the ways we’re utilizing agile spaces include piloting on-site yoga and Pilates classes, which are proving very popular, especially with our Milllennials. We are also introducing a wellness programme at our Hampshire office. Additionally, we have brought in summertime hours where people can leave work an hour and a half early on Fridays. It’s a small change but it’s empowering. And we don’t say work-life balance anymore — we call it work-life harmonisation, because it’s a blend, a choice and about how we fit things into our life.

What role do managers play in creating environments where people want to work?

Dr Joanna Yarker: It’s more complicated than just a leadership issue, but research shows managers need the right skills and knowledge to spot when someone isn’t performing as well as they usually do — and know how to help. Saying hello in the morning or suggesting team drinks are small gestures that can lead to big problems if they don’t happen. At Affinity Health, we have conducted a seven-year-long project looking at the role of managers in workplace stress and in creating a positive work environment. The results show that most people feel that managers have a responsibility to reduce workplace stress and are pivotal in making the work environment more enjoyable.

Ashley Wickham: We believe that recognising different perspectives, experience and knowledge are all essential to enable an inclusive culture and create an environment where everyone feels valued and recognised — a good idea can come from anyone in the business. Our corporate induction programme focuses on ensuring our employees have the opportunity to discover our brands and functions and understand not only what leadership at The Estée Lauder Companies UK and Ireland looks like, but also their own role in creating a successful working culture. Our UK executive and leadership teams are mostly in their early 30s to late 40s. They’ve got kids, they’re still juggling everything. We’re mindful of each other and encourage people to work according to their particular lifestyles.

Is the wellbeing agenda changing the way the industry designs buildings and manages people?

Dave Cheshire: It’s starting to. In the 90s, when developers and occupiers were mostly concerned with energy efficiency, the Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) — the world’s first sustainability rating scheme for the built environment — was developed, and included an entire section on health and wellbeing. So, it was actually thinking ahead of its time. Health and wellbeing took a bit of a backseat, however, when the environmental and sustainability agenda started to grow from around 2006 onwards. From a building design perspective, interest really started to pick up again in around 2014.

Today, the WELL Building Standard is receiving a lot of attention. It rates how a building affects a person in relation to air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort and mind. It’s really taken off in the US, and now also in the UK. We’re receiving lots of enquiries about it from clients — mostly developers, and occupiers looking to refit their current office spaces. In fact, we’ve had more enquiries about it than any other new building design product since around 2011.

It’s often said that work is good for us, but it needs to be varied and well designed. What are your thoughts?

Ashley Wickham: I agree — work is good for us — but we need to think about how jobs are designed and tasks are organised and managed. For example, I think short-term stress can actually be positive. It can give us an adrenalin rush to work to our optimum. They say you’re at your most efficient the day before you go on holiday but it’s not sustainable to work at that level all year. We work with the Human Performance Institute, which speaks about the importance of filling in time between work with different kinds of emotional or physical energy. It isn’t necessarily about how long you’re in the office, but enjoying what you’re doing and having variety in your work.

Is there a business case for investing in health and wellbeing?

Dr Joanna Yarker: There are formulas, turnover statistics and absence data that we can use to estimate the impact of implementing health and wellbeing initiatives in the workplace, but many organisations find it incredibly difficult to evaluate the overall return on investment. Because change is so complex, takes time and impacts different teams in different ways, it’s difficult to systematically assess the impact. But there’s a lot of evidence to suggest that even tiny changes in a workplace’s wellbeing offer can link to aspects of improved performance or turnover.

Ashley Wickham: Based on AECOM’s workplace surveys of our new office, I would say yes, there is a direct correlation. A very high percentage of our people would recommend working for us, which gives us an idea of how well people feel in our workplace. Productivity, creativity, innovation and the ‘feel-good factor’ have also increased across the business, because we’ve been investing in our physical workplace and strategies to improve them since November 2014.

Dave Cheshire: I’ve always been a bit wary of directly linking physical environmental health and wellbeing issues with productivity because there are so many other factors involved in how productive we are and how good we feel about the work we do. It’s almost the other way around — we’re pretty resilient in workplaces as human beings but in actuality, we’re perhaps in danger of being undermined by our environments. Do we have to tolerate noise? Do we have to tolerate poor air quality or heat? Are we working harder to compensate for a poor working environment? There’s an argument there, definitely.

How important is control in the workplace and how can organisations manage change?

Dr Joanna Yarker: For a lot of people, things like flexible working and being in control of when, where and how they work are good things. But a lot of people find change hard: changing the design of a workplace, for instance, could make someone who is more resistant to change feel anxious.

People who prefer tried and tested ways of doing things, moving offices or even discussing a new layout, for example, may provoke strong resistance. Instead of saying ‘this is our new way of doing something,’ organisations need to have conversations with their employees to guide and support them through change. Building resilience and change readiness within organisations is vital for overall wellbeing.