The birth of eQi

Wellbeing as a concept has been around for 100’s of years. Why are Organisations struggling to create and implement effective Wellbeing solutions that deliver a return on investment (ROI) to the business?

While 80% of Organisations agree that workforce Wellbeing is important only 12% feel that they are ready to address the issue (Source: Bersin). That is partly driven by the fact that Wellbeing as a concept over the years has become an increasingly nebulous term but also because many businesses are rolling out disparate tactical activities in a scatter gun approach without truly understanding their varied workforce wellbeing needs. This results in cooking classes, discounted gym memberships, exercise sessions at lunchtime and EAP services being actively promoted. But will little strategy and co-ordination of these activities businesses are often spending money that is truly not adding value to the workforce and quite often participation is low due to the lack of tactical activity alignment with the individual’s needs.

From my experience in assisting companies across the globe with Wellbeing the lines are blurred between individual and business ownership of Wellbeing and that further muddies the waters in this space. Neither are mutually exclusive however there are clear points of ownership with both parties and if the individual is not seeking to own their wellbeing the business can only do so much to support them. The old adage ‘you can bring a horse to water but you can’t make it drink’ rings true in this instance. Therefore it is important the business and the workforce are clear as to where the corporate wellbeing responsibility ends and the individual responsibility kicks in. Is allows for truly effective Corporate wellbeing solutions that the workforce find effective for their needs.

After pondering this common issue I have realised that all of the disparate tactical activities only address the symptoms and not the casual factors of negative wellbeing. To drive sustainable and truly effective behaviour change the cause of the disruption to wellbeing has to be identified (sometimes much harder than it sounds) and then tailored solutions created according to specific workforce cohorts. Organisations realise the 41% reduction in absenteeism alongside a 17% increase in productivity (source: Gallup) positive wellbeing provides is very beneficial to the bottom line and is not something that should be put on the backburner any longer.

Designing tailored and effective Wellbeing solutions allows the business to measure the ROI and the positive impact on the workforce. To achieve this objective the Organisation needs to have data from across the business to inform a strategic and targeted wellbeing approach that maximises business/leadership effort to truly solve the issues causing any problems. This method is the foundation of eQi and allows for effective identification of levers the Organisation and individuals can pull to increase wellbeing that has a direct correlation to increased business performance.

eQi was borne out of the experience I have working with Organisations across the globe that care about Wellbeing but haven’t designed an approach that will drive sustainable behaviour change and ROI.