Today at SAPPHIRE NOW, we announced Well-Being at Work, an initiative using technology to support employee well-being, allowing them to reach their peak performance and drive business results.
For too long, companies have focused on connecting employees to their work in our ‘always-on’ society. The unfortunate cost of this was the loss of boundaries that employees had between work and their personal life.
Well-Being at Work is on a mission to support employees in re-establishing boundaries in a way that allows work to positively impact their life. In doing so, companies gain the benefit of employees bringing their best self to work — improving creativity, innovation, and productivity.
Recognizing that every organization and individual is in different stages on a path to well-being and creating a supportive culture, Well-being at Work has adopted a three-pronged approach to promote changes holistically:
- Creating new solutions, such as SAP SuccessFactors Work-Life, which is at the core of the Well-Being at Work initiative: The cloud solution based on the latest technologies from SAP Leonardo helps strengthen employee satisfaction, well-being, and health. With self-assessments, employees can explore aspects of their life that affect their well-being, and get relevant customized insights and recommendations for steps they can take to make improvements. The quick poll capability also helps managers gather feedback on employee sentiment, improving communication and real-time organizational insights to proactively support employees in their well-being journey.
- Embedding well-being features into the SAP SuccessFactors HCM Suite and HR processes: Every day companies hire employees without taking the time to understand what is important to them as people. SAP SuccessFactors has identified simple ways to learn more about employees when they onboard — asking them their preferred working hours, how frequently they like to check in with their manager, and simple questions such as these through an entry interview. This allows managers to better support their employees as it relates to their work and life priorities. Through Well-Being at Work, we will continue to look at recruiting, succession planning, and other HR processes to understand how employers can support their employees’ well-being every day and in every way.
- Curating a partner ecosystem of well-being providers that complement SAP SuccessFactors solutions to deliver unique offerings, such as trainings and change management services, supporting a comprehensive well-being strategy: Central to these efforts, Thrive Global, the market leader in addressing stress and burnout, has joined forces with SAP SuccessFactors to envision and enable the culture shift for our customers. Founded and led by Arianna Huffington, Thrive Global’s mission is to end the stress and burnout epidemic by offering companies and individuals sustainable, science-based solutions to enhance well-being, performance, and purpose, and create a healthier relationship with technology.
Seventy-eight percent of organizations view employee well-being, which encompasses various elements of an employee’s experience at work and at home, as an essential component of their business strategy. Yet work-related stress continues to cost U.S. companies US$30 billion a year in lost productivity. Somehow these things are not adding up. At SAP SuccessFactors, we believe that bringing together a more integrated well-being strategy into a company is the key to bridging this gap.
SAP SuccessFactors President Greg Tomb says it best: “Prioritizing employee well-being is crucial to the health of any company, especially in today’s always-on environment. I believe our approach in this area is unmatched by anyone else today as it addresses the core of workplace wellness in a holistic rather than disconnected way. Employees gain from access to information to help address all areas of life inside work and out, and companies and leaders can learn from insights that can be turned into actions.”
Kristi Sanders is global vice president of Well-Being at Work for SAP SuccessFactors.
