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Brain Circuits
Are you measuring your employees’ well-being? A litmus test for leaders
Given the pressures on today’s workforce, a crisis is looming in terms of employee well-being. Leaders should ask themselves the following five questions to check if they’re supporting their employees’ mental and emotional well-being.
1. Am I leading humanely?
Ask yourself what you’re doing to advocate for individuals inside and outside of work. What steps can you take to support people in their work and personal life, and across the ups and downs they will experience?
2. Am I building trust and safety?
This means creating conditions, interactions, and channels of communication so people feel they belong and have agency. This will transform the workplace into a space where well-being is prioritized and nourished.
3. How do I ensure people are valued?
Humane leadership entails asking for opinions and ideas, even if those ideas are not fully implemented. Give people the opportunity and the right to contribute – and, most importantly, to be heard.
4. Am I ensuring people are fairly compensated?
Leading humanely means asking what is fair across measures such as tenure, gender, and competency. It also means constantly questioning and checking yourself for bias.
5. Do people know my purpose?
Ask yourself whether you have adequately declared what you stand for as a leader and whether you have shared a real purpose with your people.
Key takeaway
Our workforces are prone to enormous pressures, which will likely only intensify over time. Leaders need to shift focus from metrics to emotion, and from output to input, to support their employees as they navigate the competing demands they face in their work and private lives.
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