Well-being ensures balance and a better work experience

10/11/22

Invest in employee experience

For many organisations, a good employee experience is important. That’s not just because it saves on costs but because it monitors the well-being of staff. Olivier van Urk, Human Capital director at PwC, points out that the elements of the employee experience vary from one organisation to another.

'It’s not something that you can just measure easily, and it depends on how you carry out your work. So you can't just construct all kinds of HR programmes around it. The employee experience represents a multitude of individual experiences that an employee has in relation to the employer. It may involve processes or employment terms that need to be set up properly, but also the employee’s manager.'

Olivier van Urk

Get staff to think about well-being

PwC’s study on 'The benefits of investing in people' revealed that investing in the employee experience ensures that an organisation can achieve gains equivalent to more than twelve per cent of its revenue. A good employee experience means that employees are positive about their work experience, and it also increases their productivity. It also reduces absenteeism and staff turnover, which often represent major costs for employers.

When he looked at the return from investing in the employee experience at PwC, Van Urk noticed that positive well-being boosts productivity. 'We find that well-being provides balance. And if staff are not in balance, you see it in their performance. It’s the same in elite sport too. Top sportspeople are very concerned with their well-being because they realise that if they aren't comfortable with themselves, they can’t perform well. The same is true of an organisation like PwC. That’s why we pay such a lot of attention to well-being', says Van Urk.

'You can't say that if everyone talks to the same coach or does the same training then everything will be fine. Well-being is something personal. To invest in it, it must come intrinsically from within yourself. There therefore needs to be a sufficient budget for workers to explore what they need for themselves. Working at PwC sometimes demands a great deal from people. We deliver top performance and we operate at the highest level. Let me give an example: PwC staff can get a tracking device to keep track of how many steps they take in the course of a day. That makes them start thinking more and more about their health, and they’ll perhaps set a target for the minimum number of steps a day. It’s a way of triggering them.'

Daring to take decisions

Van Urk argues that companies shouldn’t just be complacent when they invest in their employee experience. 'Organisations can't just upload a well-being programme online and expect it to start rolling. You need hands-on leadership. This kind of programme sometimes poses dilemmas. For example, if a client wants you to arrange a one-hour meeting in London every week, it takes up a lot of energy. You then need the leadership to take the decision that the meeting should be via a video call. You can think up a nice well-being initiative, but you also have to implement it in practice.'

'Staff turnover is increasing in all sectors of industry'

What’s also noticeable is the way staff turnover is increasing. At PwC, it was about 18 per cent last year, whereas the target is fifteen per cent. Van Urk thinks organisations will need to expect an increase in the period ahead.

'Staff turnover is increasing in a lot of organisations. A figure of about fifteen per cent a year is good for PwC because it ensures through-flow and opportunities for employees to grow. In the past year, there’s been higher staff turnover in all sectors of industry. That’s partly an element of the ‘new normal’. And if I take a look at similar organisations, we at PwC have a significantly lower staff turnover rate. So did we have extremely high turnover, or perhaps – given the circumstances – actually low staff turnover?'

Interestingly, PwC's worldwide employee satisfaction survey showed that employees are satisfied with their job, but that staff turnover is nevertheless increasing. Van Urk: ‘In general, you’d expect higher job satisfaction to lead to lower staff turnover. But a new turnover standard has been established, meaning that the former standards are no longer attainable.'

High workload increases staff turnover

An increase in staff turnover is partly due to a high workload. In such cases, absenteeism and staff turnover soon rise. 'The work can’t just be brought to a halt', says Van Urk. 'An increase in workload has two effects: people either call in sick or they leave. The problem then keeps on building up.'

He observes that organisations can't immediately find a good replacement for someone who leaves. 'In a tight labour market, it’s not an easy matter to find someone. The problem with absenteeism is that it takes a lot of time to make an impact on it. It builds up. Nobody is off sick for a long period just for fun. But if they are, then dealing with it takes time. You therefore need to forestall it by talking about it preventively so that you know what the employee is struggling with.'

According to Van Urk, the COVID-19 pandemic has made people go looking for a different job. In the US, they refer to the higher number of workers who have voluntarily left their job since the COVID crisis as the 'Great Resignation'. Van Urk: 'The pandemic has led to a lot of people making different choices, even if they are still really satisfied and committed to their work. Working from home has meant they have less desire to spend two hours a day in traffic jams. But they've also started wondering whether they actually like their work enough.'

But how can an organisation make sure it spots the warning signs in good time and anticipate an employee perhaps leaving? Van Urk: ‘You need to think about what your employees care about and keep monitoring that. Employees’ needs differ from one sector to another. So you have to ask employees what problems they keep coming up against and keep engaging with them. Smaller organisations can do that on a one-on-one basis, but larger companies often do it by means of surveys. It’s important that you continuously explore what employees think is important. Flexibility is a key issue for staff nowadays. We also saw that in our ‘Workforce Preference Study’. As an organisation, you need to see what opportunities you can seize to provide that flexibility.'

Attention to customised employment terms

What the employee experience will look like in a few years' time is still uncertain, but Van Urk does have some idea of what will be relevant at PwC. 'I’m thinking particularly of the terms and conditions of employment. Balancing them is very important. We want to tailor them more to particular target groups. When you consider someone’s phase in life, you see that their needs change. Let’s say you’re a recent graduate, you're single, and you live in the city centre. You'll have very different needs to someone with a young family. Terms and conditions of employment are currently too much of a “one size fits all” model. That’s becoming a major topic within the employee experience.'