Productivity and the Pursuit of Happiness: How Compatible?

BY Emily Nonko | September 29, 2020

In the six months since COVID-19 forced us into remote work spaces, the digital workplace “happy hour,” where the intention is good, but interactions are awkward, has become a mainstay.

There’s a good argument to scrap that digital happy hour altogether. Replicating past workplace habits for our new socially-distanced lives isn’t necessarily the best way forward, according to experts who have studied productivity and well-being in the midst of the pandemic. “The replication strategy doesn’t work,” said Elena Grotto, SVP of business transformation and employee experience at Edelman. “What does work is a reinvention strategy. We know that this makes sense coming out of a trauma.”

Grotto was joined by four other experts for a conversation on “Productivity and the Pursuit of Happiness” at From Day One’s September virtual conference. Moderated by Alana Semuels, senior economic correspondent for Time, the speakers had plenty to discuss, given that remote workers now operate without traditional workplace boundaries and have plenty of demands and distractions at home. The group discussed the best “reinvention” strategies to promote both output and well-being, new opportunities for technology in the digital workplace, and the contested role of surveillance tools.

Above all, there needs to be “intentionality” in the new digital workspace, according to Adam Weber, chief people officer and co-founder of Emplify, which provides employee-engagement software. “What happened in moving remote was that the workforce turned very transactional,” he said. “The subtleties of relationships started to dissipate and it felt very business-focused.”

That attempt to throw together an all-employee digital happy hour, for example, could be replaced by randomized one-on-one interactions or thematic-based groups, he suggested. “It’s adding intentionality to make things feel very human.”

Speakers on the panel about productivity and happiness at the September virtual conference (Image by From Day One)

Weber shared other findings from Emplify regarding employee well-being during the pandemic. Nearly 70% of the workforce is feeling burned out, the company found in a survey. Edelman’s Grotto shared research from her firm to back up that sentiment: employees now navigate a 5% increase in internal emails and a 13% increase in meetings, with more attendees in each meeting. Parents spend an additional 27 hours a week on chores, childcare and education.

A lot of burnout stems from disorientation, lack of role clarity in the workplace, and increasing demands of home life while feeling guilty about taking time off. Given that Emplify’s move to a four-day workweek was widely noted, Weber suggested companies need to be more assertive about employees taking time off. Forced PTO, as opposed to flex or optional time, is one strategy, as well as setting “no-meeting blocks” and investing in manager-employee relationships. “One small thing we’re recommending is that employees write down their priorities for the week, share them with the manager, and have the manager re-rank the priorities,” he said.

Amie Major, head of talent management for E*TRADE Financial Corp., explained how the company leveraged internal communications to organize and distribute resources that could benefit employees during their transition to remote work. “We’ve always provided resources around counseling or stress management,” she said. “We did a lot of work to curate, bubble up, and tap into those resources we had and drive more frequent communications around it.” For example, the company created new website pages focused on work-from-home content to centralize timely information and resources to support employees through change.

Besides keeping employees informed through channels like Slack and weekly newsletters, E*TRADE has also replaced the traditional water-cooler chat with “virtual coffee chats” in which employees opt in to be matched with someone who has similar interests.

Employers are showing plenty of openness to new digital platforms, said Rob Ryan, senior director of strategic development for LumApps, which provides a social and collaborative intranet platform for companies. LumApps found that clients who already had a “pro-social digital workplace” prior to the pandemic were able to “meet that challenge head on and get out urgent news and communications around policy changes in a personalized approach, which of course drives engagement,” he said.

Responding to the pandemic era, LumApps provided new tools and solutions addressing onboarding, mentoring, training and virtual networks–all while trying to maintain the “working out loud” fashion many employees enjoy about in-office work. Virtual lunch corners, for example, allow employees to see who is in certain lunch groups, join, and engage through posts and questions.

Sysco Corp. got equally creative, according to Janet Duncan-Rumsey, regional VP of human resources. Sysco, which sells and distributes food to restaurants and other clients, created entirely new tools to help its sales people engage potential clients. Rumsey called it “virtual prospecting,” which means to develop a value proposition through seminars and relevant information to pitch and engage clients digitally. That shift happened as the company offered employees daily sessions on education and mental-health support.

Discussion of changing the way we work while maintaining productivity led to the question of surveillance tools. Most panelists spoke out against Big Brother-style surveillance and monitoring, as Weber put it, as it poses a threat to employee well-being. “We all want highly productive environments, and yet the old way of productivity was to command, control and force more velocity,” he noted. “But when you listen to what everyone is saying it’s the opposite–it’s talking about the whole person, well-being chats, it’s ways to create rest.”

“Creating systems that are thoughtful for the employee and acknowledge their current experience is the way to unlock productivity inside of a person,” he emphasized.

Listening and empathy is key because the role of the employer is changing. As Grotto pointed out, employer trust increasingly hinges on companies taking a stand on social issues and serving as arbiters of news about the pandemic.

She urged employers not to fall back on past practices while determining the best steps ahead. “Definitions of the pursuit of happiness and productivity have changed so drastically, so the key implication for employers is that as you make changes, your data must be fresh,” she said. “Data [from] before January serves very little purpose now–we need a new benchmark.”

“Be bold,” Weber added as a message to employers. “The world right now needs people who are deeply authentic, who are human, honest and care for the whole employee. This is the time to challenge the status quo.”

Emily Nonko is a Brooklyn, NY-based reporter who writes about real estate, architecture, urbanism and design. Her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York magazine, Curbed and other publications.

RELATED STORIES

How a Leader Brings Clarity to Benefits Offerings

“Benefits, perks, compensation–they’re all taken into account when job offers are made. That’s how you remain competitive. We don’t have to offer every single benefit that’s out there. We just have to offer the right ones.” This is according to Lenka Sloman, the managing director, and head of total rewards at global advertising firm GroupM.Sloman joined the company in September 2023, taking over the company’s benefits offerings and finding ways for GroupM to remain competitive for top ad talent. During the closing fireside chat at From Day One’s April virtual conference, I interviewed the total rewards leader about her strategy for getting the best return on investment for GroupM’s total rewards.Sloman’s challenge will be to balance market demands with individual needs.Tracking the Most Popular BenefitsThere is no limit to the size of benefits packages today. Not only are there innumerable vendors and platforms, the breadth of options is ever-widening.Sloman has been watching the market for the most popular benefits and perks. Right now, it’s all about family planning. GroupM enhanced its family-building benefits recently, adding features like egg freezing, donor services, adoption, paid time off, and parental leave. The company even added milk-shipping services, “so if a birthing parent goes back to work and is traveling, they can pump their milk and have it sent to their homes, so the baby can continue feeding,” said Sloman. It can also be used for surrogacy arrangements.“This is critically important for our employees,” she said. “We want to make sure our employees don’t have to worry about taking time off because they have to take care of a child–or whatever the case may be. If we get it right, they can concentrate on bonding with their newborns or adopted children, and it balances with their professional lives.”And she didn’t forget about those workers who don’t have kids at home. GroupM even offers dog-walking and pet-sitting services. “Pets are part of the family too,” she said.Competing for Talent With Exceptional Benefits PackagesSo, how does Sloman stay abreast of what’s going on in the benefits market?The talent acquisition team gathers information from job seekers about what they’re being offered elsewhere–and this provides helpful intel. But Sloman puts more stock into the data gathered by benefits consultants. “Understanding the benchmarks and getting guidance from our consultants sometimes has a more accurate description as to what our peers are doing. That’s what we base our decisions on. Really, it’s an art, not a science.”Lenka Sloman, right, was interviewed by journalist Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza during the virtual fireside chat (photo by From Day One)Keeping up with what’s happening in the benefits workplace, learning to distinguish between must-haves and nice-to-haves, and annually reviewing GroupM’s utilization plan are the three steps she follows to make the company an employer of choice.When benefits are regularly refreshed and augmented, new hires will be interested and current ones are more likely to stay. But the annual review isn’t necessarily spring cleaning. “We don’t have a policy that says, if no one’s using it, we’re going to get rid of it. We will generally put it on a watch list to revisit it once a year to make sure the return on investment is there.”To keep ROI high, employees have to know what’s available so they can use it. Sloman is persistent in her comms strategy. She holds a weekly call with new hires to review their benefits and answer questions. Existing employees get their own call focused on a specific benefit, often selected for timeliness. These calls are heavily attended, she said. “In February, for example, we wanted to make sure everyone got their receipts for their FSA, so we dedicated time to remind employees.”Sloman keeps an eye on the market, careful to not fall into the trap of fads. Yet she’s also keen on individualization. Work-life balance looks different for every employee, and the way they want to achieve it will vary just as widely. To this end, Sloman likes to keep some perks as flexible as possible.“I think people-first culture and work-life balance right now are top priorities for employees. That’s something we haven’t had before,” she said. But that means something different to everyone. To some, flexible work isn’t an interesting benefit; they would rather have more time off to spend with their families. Others will prefer remote work. The point is that employees could pick and choose their work and benefits arrangements in a way that best fits them. That’s something they’ll likely stick around for.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is a freelance journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about work, the job market, and women’s experiences in the workplace. Her work has appeared in the BBC, the Economist, the Washington Post, Quartz, Fast Company, and Digiday’s Worklife.

Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza | April 24, 2024

Making Benefits More Accessible–and Meaningful

Nicole Cody became the vice president of total rewards at International Paper in 2020, right in the middle of the first year of Covid. “That was an interesting time to come into this space,” she said during a panel discussion at From Day One’s April virtual conference.Cody told moderator Lydia Dishman of Fast Company that the biggest spike in demand she has seen “is perhaps, not surprisingly, access to mental health providers and mental health care.”A majority of Americans say money problems negatively impact their mental health, says Will Peng, CEO and co-founder of Northstar, a comprehensive financial wellness benefit. “Financial stressors are very closely related to other pillars of well-being,” he said.Today’s workers want lifestyle spending accounts, which allow them to allocate benefit funds from their employers for wellness programs they need the most, says Megan Burns, benefits strategy and solutions lead for Forma, an employee benefits platform.Those programs can include physical wellness, social-emotional health, financial counseling, and whatever else the company deems eligible. She noted some studies indicate that by 2025, about 40% of employers will have some sort of lifestyle spending or customizable spending account in place. “It’s definitely become a really trendy benefit.”Stress Management and Mental HealthStress management has become a much-desired employee benefit in recent years, says Alecia Williams-Pierre, VP of total rewards at Atrium Hospitality.“We have been looking at implementing different webinars or meditations just as part of our culture to help associates be able to manage stress overall,” she said.Having access to mental health care providers is an enormous challenge, especially in rural locations, according to Cody.“So, when we were looking at how we could beef up our offerings, we looked at a provider network that doesn’t go through insurance,” she said. “They’re not part of a carrier’s provider network. They’re just mental health providers that get direct payments. And we found a way to process the claims through our insurance plan on the back end.”This arrangement allowed International Paper to get its employees access to care within days as opposed to weeks, says Cody.Helping Employees Manage Financial StressPeng says financial wellness is at the top of everyone’s mind right now because of inflation. “Everything seems to be really expensive now. It’s hard to walk out the door without spending more money than we hoped.”Northstar has a platform to help people manage their finances and provides one-on-one counseling, says Peng. He says creating a personalized plan for each individual life stage is the best form of support. For example, if an employee is starting a family, they must change their budget and decide on their benefits.The benefits and total rewards leaders spoke at From Day One's April virtual conference about "Benefits That Fit Individual Needs Without Busting the Budget" (photo by From Day One)“For what should be an exciting life event, oftentimes, we’re overwhelmed with a ton of logistical and financial decisions that we have to make,” he said. “So, it’s about creating those systems and guidance to help our people feel supported.”Lifestyle Spending AccountsDuring the pandemic, employees became more aware of the need to balance work and life, says Sarah Schutzburger, benefits and wellness manager for Samsung Semiconductor.“Employees would come to us saying, ‘What about this vendor? What about this support program? What about this resource?’” she said.As a result, Samsung Semiconductor recently implemented a lifestyle spending account so workers “can customize what’s valuable to them, and be reimbursed for those types of benefits,” Schutzburger said.Employees value lifestyle spending accounts because “they love choice and they love flexibility,” Burns said. Managing multiple benefits vendors can be costly and time-consuming for employers. However, lifestyle savings accounts are “sort of the easy button,” said Burns.More than 75% of the employers who partner with Forma repurpose existing budget dollars for lifetime savings accounts. “I would say the value is both from an employee’s appreciation of the benefit, administrative time, and direct financial ROI,” she said.Communicating With Employees About BenefitsBenefits only work if employees know and understand them, says Schutzberger. That’s why it’s critical for organizations to have “clear and concise messaging, using simple language to explain the benefits and their importance and avoiding jargon.”Companies should also “tell a story about the benefits,” Schutzberger said. Whether they are new parents or nearing retirement, “they want to know how they apply to them.”Williams-Pierre recommends organizations talk to their employees about benefits all year round using multiple channels such as email, webinars, and mailers.At Atrium Hospitality, communicating these options can be tricky, because benefits need to be discussed in various languages. “We have to have Spanish, we have to have French, we have to have Tagalog. And as our population grows and changes, we have to be more creative and be ready to meet the need.”Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa. 

Mary Pieper | April 23, 2024

Which Benefits Provide the Best Worker Outcomes–and Return on Investment?

There’s no end to the list of benefits employers can offer now, from pet bereavement leave to baby bonuses and ketamine therapy. But the books have to be balanced at the end of the year, and company leadership isn't inclined to cut a check for anything that doesn’t demonstrate a return on investment. Caught between job seekers who expect competitive packages and the budget-conscious C-suite, benefits professionals have to make tough choices.During From Day One’s April virtual conference on finding benefits that support individual needs without busting the budget, five benefits leaders with decades of experience gathered to discuss which benefits provide the best worker outcomes–and return on investment.Vetting New Benefits OfferingsKimberly Young is the VP of global benefits at HR tech at Amentum, a government contractor for defense, security, intelligence, energy, and environment projects. The first question she asks to vet a new benefits platform is how it will integrate into the company’s existing tech stack; otherwise, the lift to simply implement it may be too great.“The biggest challenge is how to onboard new technology and integrate it with those existing portals related to payroll, your HR data system, and other feeds,” said Young. “Additionally, we look for ease of administration and implementation. The time and resources it takes to invest and implement new technology is high on the list.”Employers have to know that adding a new benefit or platform will be worth the time, says Devin Miller, co-founder and CEO of emergency savings platform SecureSave. The communications component alone can require a lot of time and resources, so “it has to resonate, it has to be easy to administer, and employees have to like it,” he said. “It has to be cost-effective, and then it has to be provable so that you can stand up in front of a management and say ‘this is the impact we’re having.’”Communicating With a Multigenerational Workforce“As benefits professionals, [communication] is an age-old struggle,” said Elizabeth Chappelear, North American head of strategic benefits at life sciences and biotech firm MilliporeSigma. “Employees don’t care about their benefits until they need them, so we have to make sure that when they do need it, they can find it.”Panelists agreed that the familiar challenge of communicating benefits isn’t made easier by the current makeup of the labor force. “This is the first time we’ve had five generations in our workforce, and that means different preferences,” Chappelear commented. Her team is creating home mailers at the same time they’re posting QR codes in the breakroom, hosting webinars and virtual benefit fairs, and building microsites. “We’re constantly challenging ourselves to evolve that communication to meet our employees where they are.”When Carrie Theisen revamped Fannie Mae’s benefits for the first time in more than a decade, communication was one of the first things she tackled. “I start with communication, because it’s just so critical,” said Theisen, who is the lending company’s SVP of total rewards.Theisen began by surveying all employees. She learned that more than three-quarters of employees were happy with the benefits package, but they also found that workers were requesting benefits that Fannie Mae already offered. “That told me that we had a good, solid package, but we just weren’t communicating it well.”Given the size of benefits packages now, total rewards leaders have to be marketers as well. Theisen’s strategy was to create a value proposition and a brand for their benefits, centered around a five-pillar graphic. “Then we looked to add a lot of low-cost benefits that we could implement quickly, then packaged those two things together. The new branding with the new benefits helped build excitement with employees, and it’s become a key differentiator for us.” In fact, their benefits satisfaction score went from 79% to 91% in a single year.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza moderated the conversation among benefits experts from SecureSave, MilliporeSigma, Spring Health, Fannie Mae, and Amentum (photo by From Day One)For those who need to increase uptake, an immediately applicable benefit can be an easy avenue into broader benefits engagement, said Miller. That starts to tip the scales of the equitable exchange of the benefits–you just got to get them engaged in the process, and finding a broadly based appealing program is an important first step.”Expanding Benefits to Reach an Entire WorkforceBenefits that would have been rare differentiators a decade ago–like mental healthcare access and fertility treatments–are now common features of benefits packages. What’s the next evolution?The next wave is specialized programs for high-touch conditions, says Casey Smolka, head of actuarial analytics at mental health benefits platform Spring Health. By expanding healthcare into specialized programs, employers are able to support workers with often overlooked needs. And it can still be a cost-effective addition, he said. “Everybody has a really solid therapy program, but what are you doing for substance use disorder? It’s a really costly condition, and you may have only a couple of people who need the support, but if you don’t give them the support they need, the cost to your company and to the employee is astronomical.”Some benefits are retention-boosters. Smolka looked at Spring Health’s own workforce and found that those who engage with the company’s mental health benefits have a 22% higher stay rate than those who don’t.SecureSave’s Miller noted that access to benefits isn’t always equally distributed, with white collar workers often “soaking up” the bulk of the benefits budget. Perks aimed at hourly and low-wage workers–emergency savings programs, for example–can be a way to support workers at all levels, from the office to the shop floor.Some panelists acknowledged how challenging it can be to find the right constellation of benefits for some demographics–Young, for instance, is still looking for the right partner to serve Amentum’s LGBTQ+ community. Others talked about having to forgo some popular benefits–like student loan repayment and lifestyle spending accounts–because they’re just too costly.Yet all agreed that the most impactful provisions don’t necessarily have to be budgeted for. Fannie Mae doubled its parental leave from six to 12 weeks, added caregiver leave, catastrophe leave, bereavement leave, grandparent leave, plus added more vacation time and extended flexible schedules.“People want to make more money, they want time off, they want retirement, they want good health care. Those are the table-stakes components,” said Miller. “You want to strengthen those programs, and make sure that people use them and value them, but you really need something that is going to be impactful for your organization.”Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about work, the job market, and women’s experiences in the workplace. Her work has appeared in the BBC, the Economist, the Washington Post, Quartz, Fast Company, and Digiday’s Worklife.

Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza | April 10, 2024