Throughout my HR career, I have struggled with the conundrum of whether it is corporate Australia’s responsibility to lead the way with addressing societal issues such as gender equality, reconciliation, diversity and inclusion, parental leave, domestic violence, and mental and physical health, or whether these are issues that should be addressed through social policy.
Should corporate Australia be required to invest significant resources into trying to force change from the work environment out into the broader community?
While I am still unsure what the right answer is in every situation; with the average Australian spending approximately 33% of their week sleeping and at least 21% of their time at work; less than 50% of the average Australian’s time each week can be influenced by activities outside of the workplace (or in their dreams).
This means that corporate Australia needs to continue to lead the way in setting the standards of what is acceptable conduct, decision-making, and the treatment of people; and hope these filter out into our broader community, becoming societal norms.
One of my passions is around holistic health and how this impacts every person in every aspect of their life. It could be argued that what people eat, how much sleep they have, what habits they have, whether they exercise or not, whether they meditate or engage in other mindfulness activities or not, whether they are engaged in a community, and so forth; is none of their employer’s business; however, more and more research is showing a direct link with individuals’ lifestyle choices and their ability to perform in the workplace, especially in a leadership position.
What if your KPIs for FY 2019/20 were not just linked to profitability and business outcomes, but also to how healthy you are?
And if by giving this focus, you could gain financial rewards?
Would it make a difference to the choices you made each week in your life?
What if your company benefits program was centred around how your employees looked after themselves? What would have to change in how your company does business in order to facilitate this? What would be the ROI?
I will be pondering these and many other questions over the next few weeks, as I work on the development of a holistic well-being plan that is simple and easy to implement whether your company is an SME or a corporate organisation.
If you would like to discuss these ideas with me in more detail, please contact me, I’d love to hear your thoughts.