Article Review: Creating a Culture of Well-Being

Student’s Name Instructor’s Name Course Code Date Article Review: Creating a Culture of Well-Being Introduction Important outcomes in organizations such as happy employees, employee retention, health, and productivity are connected to employee engagement, individual well-being as well as the culture of well-being. Engagement refers to the interplay of attitudes, depositions, and behaviors that related to organizational outcomes. Such factors affect and complement one another through different ways that managers, supervisors, leaders, and companies can influence. In turn, many organizations are paying more attention to the employee engagement concept in order to utilize their employee’s commitment and dedication to capture the “total person” useful in realizing collective goals. Literature Review John Dujay's Vision Critical's Bottom Line John Dujay describes the perspective that the Toronto-based Vision Critical has taken to ensure that it realizes important organizational outcomes. Vision Critical is a cloud-based company that offers customer intelligence and has 601 employees (Dujay 28). The company fundamentally believes that engaging employees translates to happy customers for a company. This is because when people have a good feeling, they feel that they are "doing something" and that prevents spillover effect which can put off customers (Dujay 28). The HR director, Krisinda Westman, describes the engagement process as contagious even through phone calls. Westman believes that everyone in the company has an important part to play and by driving engagement, the HR can trigger positive attitude, collective contribution, and responsive responsibility from the employees. Through employee engagement surveys, coupled with numerous follow-ups within the year, the company was able to record 93% CEO's approval rating and 80% of their workers admitted that Vision Critical is great for them as a workplace (Dujay 28). Spending more time together makes people feel connected as well as passionate and psychologically or emotionally invested in their work. The efforts of engagement should continue throughout the year because the results are important in analyzing and identifying areas of improvement within an organization. The HR director believes that their approach to employee engagement can work in any other organization given that they seek intrinsic motivation which is natural to humans. Feedback is essential in HR and the surveys were also a form of follow-up that could be conducted across different geographies and determine the level of response. Westman stresses that "know myself, manage my team, and lead my business" are key areas in HR management (Dujay 28). The three aspects were identifying in a program that also helps employees bond in a seamless manner. Creating fun within the organization is also useful because it makes individuals feel connected to their peers. Vision Critical offers cowbell, free coffee with the Chief Human Resource Officer (CHRO), free beer as well as flight passes and hockey tickets (Dujay 28). Such is coupled with social events which are meant to help individuals feel more connection between them and their peers. The primary focus of the program is to witness as all people develop a senior-leadership perspective as a feeling and understanding within themselves and try to inspire the same in their organization. Offering extensive performances as well as career planning programs which are meant to develop one’s career helps engage employees. According to t Westman employees at her company appreciate discussions that are being conducted on employment planning because they know that such measures are taken to ensure they achieve their next step in career development (Dujay 28). The company also believes that being open and hospitable motivates employees. Presenting the management and the entire company as approachable and highly accessible motivates employees to fancy sharing their views (Dujay 28). The head of HR believes that Vision Critical is open for everybody and all employees would attest to that. The company also emphasizes the importance of dialogue. This aspect helps the company community what the workers need to understand. Employee time off could help after they volunteer (Dujay 28). The article concludes by explaining that the Vision Critical is preparing to debut its new rewards and recognition program. Anna Mittag's 5 Ways to Assess a Wellness Program's ROI Anna Mittag focuses on investigating the wellness of an ROI program. The article aims to answer two primary questions. The two questions determine; i.) whether the content is current, relevant and utilized by all employees from all demographics and ii.) whether employees evidently more energetic as well as productive. The article was written during last quarter of 2017 when companies are preparing to conduct their reviews (Mittag 25). Mittag adds that determining a program's wellness is a complex activity. Such is because workers may not be certain about the performance of a program that is deemed suitable before it is tested. Mittag further explains five ways of determining the wellness of a program. The author gave the five measures because numbers only paint part of a bigger picture whereas the rest can be understood by looking deeper into the issue (Mittag 25). According to the author, employers should not stop after using basic metrics such as absenteeism changes and usage rates which determine the effectiveness of a program (Mittag 25). Such are mere figures that are only great at identifying the popular aspects and elements which should be altered or scrapped but do not give reasons as to why such should be done. The article insists that employees should look clearly beyond claims and numbers because such cannot explain the entire issue. First, employers need to determine if the content is current and relevant to ensure supply of competitive and compressive information that helps employees deal with their health issues. Mittag insists that for an employer to attract, support, and retain the brightest talent in the market, they need to have a program that is comprehensive and competitive enough (25). Such will give the employee the ability to deal with mental health issues such as stress and depression. Second, HR should determine if the program applies to all demographics. This means that the information should be used by all individuals but that should not be achieved by watering down the program to entice the least privileged at the expense of the vast majority (Mittag 25). The goal should be offering the program to all employees at the same level. Thirdly, HR should determine whether employees are visibly more energetic and productive. This is because healthyu employees are more effective, quick, creative, and collaborative and it indicates that the program is functioning well. The other two measures not covered by the key questions are the scaling magnitude and the amount of data available. A program that scales wide and well costs less to distribute resources. The author adds that if the program is scaling well enough, employees can share resources that are helpful to their loved ones. This step could help avoid issues such as financial troubles, divorce, or illness that affect employee well-being as well as productivity (Mittag 25). Fifth, Mittag holds that idea of too much data does not exist (25). According to the author, employees should also collect as much information as possible. Such can be enhanced by automating the process through anonymous tracking and user feedback. However, it is important that the researcher balances the objective of obtaining valuable insights and the concept of employees' priva...