Ep. 005 Prioritizing Employee Wellbeing

0:00Welcome back to Bread to Lead, the podcast that explores how to cultivate people-first leadership in thriving organizational cultures. I'm your host, Dr. Jake Taylor Jacobs, and I'm excited to dive in today's critical topic, prioritizing employee wellbeing. First and foremost, let me pause right here. Y 'all, this is probably my fourth actual podcast that I've done over my career. And this Bread to Lead podcast is doing something to me. I'm excited about coming back to have these conversations and dialogue with you about how we can actually make our workplaces better, how we can drive change, how we can create excitement in ways that I never thought of before.

0:42So I just wanted to tell you that I wanted to, I just wanted you guys to know that I'm giving you the best, I'm giving you the best that I got because it's simply this. It is my true belief that the better leaders we have in any workplace, in any industry, specifically healthcare, do you understand the quality of service, technology, innovation that we'll have? Oh my gosh. Let me just keep going. In our last episode, we talked about key ingredients for creating a positive work culture. Things like living your values, making space for human connection, over-communicating, magnifying what's working, and embodying servant leadership.

1:31But there's one fundamental element that underpins all of these practices, and that's a deep commitment to employee well-being. When we talk about well-being at work, we're talking about far more than just physical health or the absence of illness. We're talking about a holistic state of thriving across multiple dimensions, physical, mental, emotional, social, financial and more. It's about showing up to work as a whole person and finally support it to be your best self. And here's the thing. Employee well-being is not a nice to have or a feel good initiative. It's a fundamental driver of every metric that matters to your organization.

2:27Productivity, creativity, engagement, retention, customer satisfaction, you name it. When people feel well cared for and empowered to prioritize their well-being, they bring their A-game to everything that they do. On the flip side, when employee well-being is neglected, deprioritized. The costs are staggering. Burnout, disengagement, absenteeism, turnover, safety incidents, quiet quitting, you name it. These are just a few of the consequences of a workforce that stretch too thin and operating in a state of stress and depletion. In fact, there was a recent study by Deloitte. Yeah, I believe it was Deloitte, where they found that poor mental health costs, UK employers up to$45 billion each year.

3:26And that was before the massive disruptions and pressures of COVID-19, which has only amplified the well-being challenges that workers face. The bottom line is this, investing in employee well-being is not just the right thing to do from a human perspective. It's the smart thing to do from a business perspective. It's a cornerstone of building a sustainable, high-performing organization in today's volatile and ever-changing world. But what does that actually look like to prioritize employee well-being in practice? How can leaders create the conditions for their people to truly thrive, not just survive?

4:09Here are a few key practices I've seen make a meaningful difference. One, you know, Dr. Jake loves the numbers. Pull out your pen and your pad. It's time to take notes. Number one, make well-being a strategic priority, not just an HR program. Too often, employee well-being initiatives are siloed off in HR and treated as a side project or an employee perk. But to truly move the needle, well-being needs to be woven into the fabric of how the organization operates and makes decisions every day. This starts with explicitly calling out well-being as a core value and strategic imperative, imperative move on par with other key business priorities.

4:59It means integrating well-being considerations into every people's process, hiring, onboarding, performance management, learning and development, etc. It means holding leaders accountable for modeling and championing well-being, not just in their words, but in their actions. For an example, one organization I work with made mental health training mandatory for all people managers as part of their leadership development curriculum. They also added well-being related questions to their employee engagement surveys and made the results part of each leader's performance dashboard. These kind of systematic changes sends a clear signal that well-being matters and is important for everyone to prioritize.

5:47When working with this client, we adopted what they did best into our organization and we saw tremendous growth, dramatic change. and some of the people that I was like yo what what's going on what what what when you first got the job you did everything you could but now you're just like the shell of a person but the pace that we were operating at was so fast and the reach was so broad that I eventually was like I can see why because I'm burning out and if I am burning out and this is the vision that God gave me I can only imagine what they're feeling. The pace was too fast. The growth was too fast.

6:32There is a such thing of growing too fast. You have to scale back to ensure that your assets, the people that help the business operate, that your assets get the most. You get the most out of them in order to get the most out of your assets. Think about if you were a farmer, if you had animals how often do you care for your animals how often do you make sure that they're happy how often do you make some cows that you're milking have a stress-free life because it changes the chemical of of the of the quality of the milk that you're that you're getting the eggs that you're eating from the from the chickens how you take care of your horses your dogs all of those matter how you take care of your farm how do you take care of your home do you do you do you clean Do you make sure the foundation's checked all the time or do you wait until a crack happens for you to actually do work?

7:24Have you did you not realize that waiting until something happens actually costs you more and affects you your business more? This is something that is no longer something we can push to the side. In today's society, people are ever more clear in understanding of the need. A protection of energy, space and body and mind. We have access to more information. COVID-19 changed a lot of people's perspective of what's important. Which takes me to number two. We have to take a holistic employee-centered approach. Employee well-being is multifaceted and highly individual. What makes one person feel supported and energized might be very different from what works for someone else.

8:17That's why it is so important to take a holistic employee centered approach rather than a one size fit all checklist. Start by really listening to your people and seeking to understand their unique needs, preferences and challenges. Conduct focus groups, surveys and one on one conversations to get a pulse on how they're doing and what would make the biggest difference in their well-being. Pay special attention to the diverse experiences of different employee segments, such as working parents, frontline workers or historically underrepresented groups. Then use those insights to co-create solutions with your employees.

8:58Rather than dictating from top down, empower them to be active partners in designing and implementing well-being initiatives that work for them. The more you can involve your people and give them a sense of control and ownership, the more likely they are to engage and benefit. One powerful example is this manufacturing company that engaged its frontline workforce and completely redesigning its assembly line process to reduce physical strain and injury risk. by leveraging the firsthand experience of the people closest to the work. They were able to increase both safety and efficiency, while also giving employees a greater sense of autonomy and impact.

9:42One of the biggest things that I do realize, especially when it comes to how I was leading before I started to adopt this, my own philosophy and people first results second, this people first type leadership. One, I would never tell you guys to do anything that I haven't first done myself. Two, I was so upset that my leadership team was waiting on me to make every decision. And I never once realized that I was the handicap. Oh, this is good. I didn't realize that I was my own bottleneck. I never cultivated and developed them and trained them on how to help me, how to have autonomy, how to think like a CEO, which is why when I wrote my book, You're Not a CEO Yet.

10:28That was retrospective. When I wrote, you're not a CEO yet, I was writing to me, telling myself all of the areas that I needed to fix, what I needed to get done better, the holes that I had that was hurting my own organization. You know the hardest thing, leaders, for us to do as leadership is to smell your own stink.

10:56one of my favorite songs andre today said i know you like to thank you don't stank but lean a little bit closer see roses really smell like boo boo boo boo y 'all my roses was stankin and you know the greatest thing there's there's this there's this saying that if you stay around a stench long enough you become immune to it i was immune to my own stinking ways as a leader and upset that my team was waiting on me to make decisions. So we have to normalize that, getting people involved. And can I tell you something? Most people that are involved in making changes and setting rules as a collective actually stick by the rules that they have agreed to.

11:44I mean, let's be honest. Most of us are adults here. And you couldn't be a leader if you just followed rules, right? Especially the change agents. I'm talking about the people first leaders where you will break a rule because it just doesn't make sense and it's hurting your team. And you're willing to take the risk to get fired or take the risk of losing a contract because you're not going to allow anyone to talk to you and your team that way. Respectfully. Now, most of us are rebellious at nature. Some of the greatest leaders were rebels. You can go biblical, you can go historical, whichever one, both the truth and both the history.

12:24Why is that? Because whatever the subset of rules that were created and set didn't make sense to the collective. It only made sense to the one, two, three, four percent that controlled the narrative or the company. We have to change that. Number three, write this down. stay with me. We have to normalize and destigmatize conversations about well-being. One of the biggest barriers to employee well-being is the persistent stigma and silence around mental health and other well-being challenges. Many people feel that they can't speak up or ask for help without jeopardizing their reputation, their relationships or career prospects.

13:09This suffering and silence only compounds the problem and prevents people from assessing the support they need. As a leader, you have a critical role to play in normalizing and destigmatizing well-being conversations. This starts with your own willingness to be vulnerable and share your personal experiences and challenges. When you open up about your own mental health journey or the steps you take to manage stress and avoid burnout, it gives others permission to do the same. Can I tell you something? Your team wants to connect with a human, not a superhero. Jake, what do you mean? I'm glad you asked.

13:51Vulnerability. And showing weakness. Shows your team where to support you. Oh, my goodness. I wish I had a button or something. Hold on. Let me see if I can find a button. Nope. Nope. There we go.

14:08Vulnerability. Vulnerability brings about connectivity because your team is looking to connect to the areas that you're weakest because they're the strongest there. But if you always show you got it, then they feel like you have no need for them. It's fine. You got it. And when you break down, you're upset at the world. But in truth, you're the one that did that to yourself. You should also have to create proactively spaces for well-being conversations in both formal and informal ways. Y 'all, I am the most. I am the most irradical leader possible. I am both this and that. I am hot and I am cold.

14:55I'm up and I'm down simultaneously. Why? Why? Because everybody actually feels that way. And when you're a leader and you're performing and you're breaking rules, I mean, you're setting new standards, you're changing the game. And if you are a transformational leader and they still see your weaknesses and your vulnerability and you're still performing, it actually makes them want to follow you more. not that you have everything figured out. I see this in a church all the time where the pastor puts themselves in such a position like they're Jesus or like they're God. So when they make mistakes or they show their human side, it's almost like catastrophic to the organization.

15:39When in truth, we're all supposed to be showing our thorn in our side. How can you get support if you never show you need support? Y 'all, I would even go to the extreme. I'm the leader that needs to know every aspect of the organization just in case someone lets me down. But I'm the leader that will allow for you to mess up and act like I have no idea how to do something so that my team can feel like, man, I'm helping Dr. Jake with something. even if it's not to the best of its ability. I know that through time, through coaching, through advisement, through training, through development, they'll get better.

16:19But just their feeling to say, man, I helped you with something. I remember when my dad lost his job and I was in high school and he couldn't get another job. He had a high school degree. He worked at Dallas Morning News for 20 something years. I asked my grandfather for $150. He took me to Costco. I sold out of my candy in the same day. I gave my grandfather back his $150. I went back, back to Costco. I refilled again. I sold out again. Within a half, a month and a half, two months, I had a candy business in four high schools. Most people had no idea. I was giving my mom$2 ,000 a month to help her with bills and mortgage.

17:01You want to know why? because when I walked in the kitchen, my mom was cooking and crying. My dad told me he lost his job. He began to start drinking heavily, even more. That space of vulnerability made me go from a child to a young man immediately. I saw where I could help my parents. And I'm not saying that leading an organization is like parenthood, but it kind of is. And you got to give your team range to see when enough is enough or they'll keep pushing you to. You can start by creating these well-being conversations just with team meetings, well-being check-ins, hosting a regular lunch. Learns about learns on well-being topics.

17:51Simply asking people how you're really doing in one on one conversations and being fully present to listen. This key, the key to this approach to these conversations is to lead with empathy and non-judgment in a spirit of problem solving. Your role is not to be their therapist or have all the answers, but rather just to show that you care. You're paying attention and you're committed to finding solutions to support together. Now, it's going to be overwhelming until the culture is set. but then you start to create silos and groups that people can express themselves and to be honest sometimes you may have to hear that you suck how can you know to get better at something if no one exposes to something that you need to get better at and it stings oh it hurt bad my relay time to getting bad information it took me used to take me about a week or two before i got over it before i I said, you know what?

18:50You're right. Now it just takes me a day. I'm being honest. It takes me a full day. Somebody tell me something I don't like. I'll smile. Oh, thank you so much. But inside I'm boiling. But then what I do for that entire day, I'm seeing if there's validity in what they're saying. Those are the things that change in an organization. Those are the things that make people say I'm staying here, even though I could get paid more somewhere else. I'm staying here because I know you actually care about me. You care about my family. You care about my health. And I'm going to be honest with you. You have to bake well-being trainings and development and all of that inside of the all of the trainings you have.

19:29If you truly want this to be a part of your culture and your organization, this is something that you have to do. Number four, provide robust resources and support. Of course, normalizing conversations about well-being is only impactful if it's backed up by robust resources and support. Employees need to know that when they do speak up and they do ask for help, they'll be met with tangible assistance, not just lip service. This starts with ensuring that you have comprehension. I'm sorry, comprehensive benefits and programs in place to support the various dimensions of well-being. One of the things I implemented with my team was I got us a life coach counselor for everybody.

20:16And that person's job was only to listen to everyone's problems and help them overcome them with solutions. I made my my business almost like the hospital. Some would say even church, because sometimes I be preaching, y 'all. I be preaching. I be preaching. I be preaching. Why? Because these people, your people, they spend more time with you than they do their family. They leave vacations to go answer an email. They take their phones in their pockets to their children's recital. Think about that. The least you can do is to find some type of resources to provide some type of support to them and helping them digest and solve those issues.

21:02So here's some of the things you can implement. High quality, affordable and accessible health care. Mental health benefits, including therapy and coaching. Paid time off and flexible scheduling, scheduling policies. Family support benefits like parental leave and child care. for both men and women. Because if the woman can take off from work when she's bearing a child and she has the child, doesn't the father have to still support that baby too? So how come both can't get it? I love what Canada does. In Canada, both the man and the woman both get this time off. I love it. Financial well-being, resource, and education.

21:48I believe that every organization should have some type of university or training inside. One of the best things I love about being the dean of the School of Business of Harvest Christian University is, and then moving forward, I'm relatively new to the role, but one of the biggest initiatives that I wanted to create, that I am creating and connecting with Harvest Christian is corporate entry into our MBA program. And because we have such a different and revolutionary enrollment process into the MBA program, even if you didn't have a bachelor's degree or not, depending on all of the holistic admissions that we look, we look at the holistic person, the person in a whole, holistically, excuse me.

22:33And yes, having a bachelor's degree shows that you can learn. But there are other ways that we have that you can enter into our MBA program directly with corporate, straight corporate integration. So if you don't have the resources to build a full, robust system, partner with a university that you can roll people into it, meet them halfway with pricing. And I know that what we do at Harvest Christian, when we have corporate partnership, we make the enrollment cheaper, especially with a long-term partnership. These are things that we have to think about. And that's what we're implementing here with SIPS.

23:06Social connection and community building activities, professional development and learning opportunities. But it's not enough just to have these programs available. You also need to actively promote them and remove any barriers to accessing them. This could look like regularly communicating about benefits in multiple channels, hosting benefit fairs and information sessions or providing concierge service to help employees navigate their options and enroll. Just like you're promoting your products on a regular basis. Why do you promote your products and services all the time? Even if people know where you are Why?

23:42Because it's front of mind So it's important to promote it the same way You can't talk about well-beings and benefits And all these things one time And then expect for it That's it That's all folks Can't do it It's important to provide training and support for managers To have effective well-being conversation Connect with employees Connecting the employees to the right resources Managers are often the first line of defense In identifying and addressing well-being concerns but they need tools and confidence to do so in a helpful way. Honestly, there's a lot of managers that are managers that shouldn't be managers because they weren't taught how to be a manager.

24:20When you are a manager, you're transitioning from the technical aspect of the business to the people aspect of the business. So if your management team isn't getting trained on how to see, understand, grow, develop, lead people, are they managers? Are they tacticians? good at what they do, but terrible at people. The most terrorizing thing is to have a manager in place that don't know how to develop talent, don't know how to find people, don't know how to create success through people. One organization I work with, we implemented a well-being champion program where they trained a cohort of managers, employees to serve as ambassadors in points of contact for well-being resources.

25:05These champions help to raise awareness, reduce stigma, and bridge the gap between employees and support services in a more personal peer-to-peer way. Most people don't know how to ask for help because asking for help is taboo. It makes you look weak. It makes you look like you're not capable enough, but inside you're burning and breaking. We have to change and we have to get better. Lastly, number five, write this down. We have to model and enable healthy work practices. Finally, one of the most impactful things leaders can do to prioritize employee well-being is to model and enable healthy work practices.

25:47The way work gets done, the pace, the expectations, the boundaries has an enormous influence on people's ability to thrive. this starts with taking a hard look at your own work habits and the example you're setting are you sending emails at all hours of the night and the weekend y 'all i still have to check myself on this are you skipping lunch and glorifying hustle culture are you taking your vacation days and truly disconnecting your people are watching and taking cues from your behavior whether you realize it or not here's one of the the the things that hit me when i was talking to my corporate uh coach They said have you ever considered dr.

26:27Jake That the reason you feel obligated to work on vacations and over the weekend I'm not talking about when when you're being creative because y 'all I absolutely love what I do I want to write books and write articles and I I love what I do I'm talking about the work piece like the the the not the idea creation where you're texting you throwing ideas and talking about things positively or just addressing that. I'm talking about the work part. He said, have you taken into consideration that because you are inefficient with the time that you have while working, you take that into areas you're supposed to be resting?

27:09My goodness. My, my, my, my, my, my,

27:16I said, oh, you do. Why you got to do me like that? Why you got to do me like that, sir? You're working on your off time because you wasn't working on your own time. Yeah, that one hurt me. And I know some of y 'all probably when I said that to you just now, you said, yeah, that one hurt me. It's crucial to set clear expectations and boundaries around work norms and communications Create team agreements about what off hours really mean When people are not expected to be responsive I know I'll send stuff, but I'll typically say you ain't got to think about this now Just talk to me when you talk to me monday, but I just had to get out my head Encourage people to take regular breaks and use their vacation time If you as a leader are not forcing your team to take their vacation time, you're going to create somebody who's going to burn out.

28:11And when they burn out, it will be in the most inefficient time, the most not right now time of your life. Like, please don't quit right now. Yep. They gone. They gone. Like Justin Timberlake say, gone. They gone. Encourage people to take regular breaks, y 'all. Be intentional about assigning workloads and deadlines. Create realistic deadlines. If you're dealing with a client, a patient, a staff, leadership, stop telling them you'll get something done when you know you're going to burn yourself out to do it. Create realistic deadlines, under promise over deliver. One powerful practice is to conduct a meeting audit.