3 Shifts for a Wellness-Centered Workplace: A Mutineer’s Demands

On September 21, 1797, the crew of the HMS Hermione carried out one of the most violent mutinies in the history of the British navy. Angered and beleaguered by the cruel and unfair punishments of their captain, Hugh Pigot, the mutineers took control of the ship, murdered 10 of the officers on board, and set sail for modern-day Venezuela. In one brief evening, the fate of the HMS Hermione had been altered forever.

Thankfully, mutinies like this were a relatively rare event. That said, multiple studies of maritime rebellions have revealed one undeniable consistency: Mutinies almost always occurred because of reasonable and avoidable grievances toward leadership. They occurred because the wellness of the crew was being actively neglected.

It’s National Wellness Month, which means it’s the perfect time to talk about how to keep your employees happy and healthy.

Fortunately for us, modern-day business is nowhere near as cramped and distressing as 18th-century naval life. However, the global workforce of the 21st-century has much higher expectations for compensation and personal wellness, and those standards are only increasing. Leaders who don’t prioritize the wellness of their workers might not end up with a mutiny, but they will end up with low levels of retention and a sicker, more costly workforce.

Today’s leaders need to put wellness at the center of their working culture. For starters, this means establishing a wellness program for those organizations without one. Even more important than that, though, you need to make certain shifts to your leadership style to send a clear message that employee wellness is a top priority. What’s more, this message of wellness needs to be one that can be felt and understood by a highly diverse staff with a wide variety of wants and needs.

But how? After over two decades of advising some of the most successful executives around the world, I’ve discovered three simple shifts in leadership that can help you build a workplace centered around employee wellness.

1. Support open communication about mental and physical health.
   Worker health, both mental and physical, has massive impacts on every industry. Globally, an estimated 12 billion working days and $1 trillion in productivity are lost every year due to depression and anxiety. For the United States alone, the American Psychiatric Association estimates that unresolved depression accounts for a 35% reduction in productivity across all economic sectors. On top of that, nine out of ten workers report working while sick at least once in the last year, and up to one-third of workers report that they never take sick days no matter what.

   The impacts are big — and often quite obvious. Still, mental and physical health continue to be taboo subjects in the workplace, though open communication is really what’s needed to address the problem. In America, the vast majority of full-time workers say it is important to discuss mental health at work, but only three out of ten senior-level employees have received workplace training to facilitate those conversations. This is why the best executives make it a priority to equip their leaders and middle managers with the tools to support constant and clear communication about wellness.

   And that communication isn’t just about mental health. Your workplace needs to be just as comfortable in discussing and supporting the physical health of its employees. Inter-industry studies of physical activity in the workplace repeatedly reveal that exercise and general health promotion can lead to improvements in individual health outcomes, reduced absenteeism, reductions in sick leave, and an overall positive return on investment.

   One more fact to consider:  The percentage of employees who think their company cares about their well-being is on the decline. That percentage peaked at 49% during the COVID-19 crisis.

2. Get hyper-conscious about what your workplace is consuming.
   Negativity is an undeniable force in today’s workplace. Industries might not be carrying out their own mutinies anytime soon, but the discontentment of many employees is an undeniable truth. In fact, studies show that approximately half to three-quarters of U.S. workers are pessimistic about their jobs and their work futures. Additionally, 80% of workers say they are willing to leave their companies for a more empathetic employer — and are confident they can find one.

   As a leader, you have two means of addressing this negativity. One method involves creating a day-to-day way of doing things that uplifts and inspires your workers, and those methods are thoroughly discussed within the first and final leadership shifts of this article. The second method is to be hyper-conscious about what your workplace consumes and promote media and entertainment that is fueled by positivity. This method is a bit more passive in its approach to creating a positive community, but it can yield big changes in your working culture.

   Inspiring media can and will inspire others, especially if that media is housed inside the feedback loops of an organized workplace. Likewise, negativity in the workplace can spread like wildfire, which is why the most successful leaders make a conscious effort to promote media consumption and enterprise social media (ESM) communities designed to have a positive impact on the viewer.

   Do you start meetings off with a song? Make it an upbeat tune that encourages dancing. Do you send out industry-related videos through email or an ESM? Take that opportunity to “pump up” your workforce and share something that kick-starts creativity.

   One more fact to consider: More than half of workers report their emotional distress has hindered their ability to do their job well in the last year.

3. Visibly reward those who lift up their co-workers.
   Charles Dickens is considered by many to be one of the first “modern celebrities.” For a period in the middle of the 1800s, he was perhaps the most recognizable name in England and the most famous writer among his contemporaries. Then, a theatrical and drama-filled tour of the United States in 1867 elevated him to the role of international superstar.

   At the same time, Dickens was a passionate advocate against child labor. And part of that activism shines through in one of my favorite written lines of all time: “No one is useless in the world who lightens the burdens of another.”

   If we concede that workplace negativity can “spread like wildfire,” then it stands to reason that emotional support and uplifting relationships can have the opposite effect. So, the question becomes, “Who is starting your fires, and what sort of fires are they starting?”

   Workplace friendships are becoming increasingly critical for retention and optimized productivity, and positive relationships in general are some of the greatest indicators of overall satisfaction. In fact, Martin Segilman’s PERMA model for positive psychology lists positive emotions, engagement, and positive relationships as three of the five essential components to a balanced and happy worklife. To that end, the most successful leaders make sure to visibly acknowledge and reward those workers who take the time to lift others up.

   A sense of belonging is crucial for many employees, and these sorts of positive relationships are a huge part of that. What’s more, when workers are asked what motivates them to go “above and beyond” at their organization, three of the top five responses are some version of positive reinforcement. What’s even more interesting is that employees are fairly split on who they want to celebrate their success, meaning uplifting others is a job for everyone at your organization.

   One more fact to consider: Studies show that positive workplace relationships can significantly increase overall job satisfaction, even in the face of other detrimental conditions.

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