Brand Watch: Why engagement, not fitness apps, is the key to happy employees

September 4 – Nearly four years on from the onset of COVID-19 and the experience of the pandemic continues to throw up unexpected legacies. Many centre on the experience of work, from the “life-stress impacts” on front-line workers to the “participation gap” still apparent in the labour force.

Few impacts have garnered more attention than the rapid normalisation of hybrid working. Despite bosses at high-profile brands such as Amazon, Starbucks and Citi clamouring for staff to return to the office, the habit of flexible working is one that employees seem reluctant to relinquish.

One of the more curious implications of this trend is the blurring of lines between home and work. Enter the world of “corporate happiness”. If it sounds far-fetched, think again. Later this month, over 6,000 attendees are set to descend on the Portuguese city of Porto for a Happiness Camp.

Global brands sending delegates to the event, which is spearheaded by the Portuguese business-park owner Lionesa Group, include Vodafone, Ikea, Lidl, Adidas and Volkswagen, among others.

Despite promises of “festival vibes with a corporate twist”, speakers on the Happy Stage or in the Joyful Corner will approach their subject matter with the utmost seriousness.

Why? Because a growing number of workers now seek in their working lives the contentment once associated solely with life outside the office.

So argues Antonio Pedro Pinto, founder and chief executive of Happiness Camp: “When it comes to happiness, there’s certainly now a balance to be struck between employees’ private and professional lives,” he states.

The search for such a balance has given rise to efforts to a variety of human resource innovations, as highlighted in a recent research paper by market insights firm Gartner. The list includes efforts to create “emotional proximity” with workers (chiefly through the sensation of “feeling seen”) and the fostering of “microcultures” (via the devolution of control within and between teams).

Linking all these trends is the theme of “connectedness”, the paper concludes. Pinto agrees. No longer do many employees “just work for a pay-cheque”, he maintains; increasingly they look to their workplaces for growth opportunities, personal well-being and, of course, enjoyment.

Hence, a renewed emphasis post-COVID on extending traditional wellness initiatives and other workplace perks to life outside the office.

Access to fitness apps, online counselling services and virtual ergonomic assessments are just some of the benefits that brands are now extending to their hybrid workforces – almost two-thirds (63%) of whom say wellness is more important to them now than prior to the pandemic, research suggests.

Corporate happiness, however, is more than just the sum of the individual happiness of all employees – important as this is as a component of the whole.

In part, this is because of the reciprocal nature of the concept. As responsible employers, brands may well choose to ensure their staff feel content in today’s hybrid working environment. But they also know that happy employees are more productive, more likely to endorse their employer to others and more likely to stay.

Another reason for caution is the meaning of the word “happiness” in the corporate context. Walter Susini, a partner at the sustainability-focused venture fund Akha Ventures, echoes a wider disquiet about the temporary and potentially frivolous connotations of the term.

“In my view, it’s not about employees being happy, but about a sense of fulfilment at work, mainly measured through engagement,” he states.

The difference between happiness and engagement marks a subtle but important shift. For one, strategies for engagement are much wider. Trust in team leadership, opportunities for feedback, a sense of wider purpose: factors such as these typify an engaged employee in an engaged organisation, Susini argues.

In addition, the effect on the wider workforce arguably runs deeper, he adds. An engaged worker is more likely to feel the connectedness and “sense of belonging” that the pandemic has left them searching for – and which most workers (77%) have still yet to find, a global workplace survey by pollster Gallup reveals.

Tapping into these deeper connections opens the door for sustainability efforts, Susini continues: “When employees feel the company and themselves are involved in meaningful and purpose initiatives (and) when corporate culture aligns with personal values magic happens.”

The more tangible this alignment, the greater the effect. Volunteering programmes represent a long-standing mechanism for providing employees with precisely this kind of hands-on sense of their company’s values (while boosting their individual well-being into the bargain).

In the post-pandemic workforce, the value of volunteering as a connecting tool has become increasingly recognised, says Jessica White, head of social impact at the networking platform, LinkedIn.

Employees get to create relationships in their neighbourhoods that lie outside their “immediate network”, thus fostering a sense of “social connection”, she argues. Similar bonds can also be built organisationally when volunteering is undertaken with work colleagues, she adds.

Today, employees can structure their working day so as to allow more time for volunteering, White continues: “Previously this may have been limited to activities happening in the workplace (but) now people who are able to work flexibly have more opportunities to support social impact initiatives, including those happening virtually.”

One important implication for brands is to give more thought to knock-on employee engagement benefits when designing community investment activities and other social impact projects.

Another is to explore other ways of incentivising personal behavioural changes that feed back into the brand’s sustainability objectives. Rewards for employee car-sharing schemes or subsidised public transport are cases in point.

Again, Susini at Akha Ventures is cautious. Over-engineer such efforts and the payback may not be as forthcoming as brands hope. Employee engagement is an outcome of “purposeful actions” by companies, not a driving factor, he warns.

“I’ve never seen companies I’ve worked with alter their social impact plan to pursue employee happiness”, says Susini, who counts senior roles at Unilever and Coca-Cola on his CV. “Happiness is a consequence of good practices.”

Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias. Ethical Corporation Magazine, a part of Reuters Professional, is owned by Thomson Reuters and operates independently of Reuters News.