Where Are You on the Development Scale?

In recent blogs, we’ve delved into the key reasons why creating a healthy workplace is worthwhile and concrete steps you can take to create one.

Now that you’re ready to begin your journey let’s determine your organization’s starting point. Consider this your workplace well-being GPS or your roadmap to a healthy, thriving organization built on trust, inclusion, and psychological safety.

I’ve shared the importance of understanding individual health, organizational health, and the intersection between the two. 

It stands to reason that you can’t have a healthy workplace comprised of unhealthy people, and you can’t be healthy if you work in an unhealthy workplace. The work is to create conditions that support a healthy organization that achieves its business goals and healthy individuals who contribute their talents to the workplace’s success.

This symbiotic relationship forms the foundation of the Development Scale framework. This framework consists of seven measurable attributes of organizations across five stages of maturity. Plotting where you are on this scale will illuminate your strengths and areas of opportunity and help you create a concrete action plan.

Leadership

Without leadership’s full support and understanding of the criticality of well-being to individual, team, and organizational success, efforts in this area will be unsuccessful. At the low end of the scale, leaders show no interest in employees as the most essential part of the organization who should be respected, supported, and nurtured. 

On the highest end of the scale, the most sophisticated and evolved leaders are passionate about well-being at work and embed it as part of their company’s DNA. Not only that, they model healthy behaviors and expect their leadership teams to do the same.

Ownership

The second factor is ownership. Have you ever worked on a project where ownership and accountability were unclear? If so, chances are that it did not go very smoothly. Why? Because without a clear definition of responsibility, things slip.

The same is true for workplace well-being. Organizations on the low end of the Development Scale don’t have an established owner for their well-being efforts. As we move further down the continuum, owners, like the HR team, might be assigned well-being as a project in addition to their other work duties. 

At the highest end of the scale, workplace well-being is, first and foremost, the responsibility of the CEO. But it doesn’t stop there. The entire organization is expected to act like owners of creating and sustaining a healthy workplace. It is part of leaders’ performance reviews and exists on par with delivering financial results.

Investment

Much like your investment in a physically safe workplace with ample sunlight and ventilation or proper technology and systems to help your people get their jobs done, workplace well-being efforts require a budget. In organizations that are low on the development scale, budgets are paltry or nonexistent. 

As we go up the scale, the available budget and commitment to keeping it intact even in times of financial headwinds increases. At the highest level of the Development Scale, the well-being budget is considered a strategic priority critical to organizational performance and long-term business health.

Approach

It should come as no surprise that organizations low on the Development Scale do not have a coordinated approach to well-being. Perhaps the occasional step-count competition is held in specific teams, but there’s certainly nothing consistent that cascades throughout the company.

When organizations dedicate themselves to a sustained, long-term well-being strategy, the approach is collaborative and scaled throughout the organization. Employees are asked for their thoughts on what would work best for them. The plan is codified, shared with everyone, and measured regularly. It is consistently reviewed and revised based on feedback and evolving needs. It is a living plan that is an integral part of the business strategy and embedded into the core of the culture.

Interventions

When looking at interventions, organizations that do not see well-being as critical to their overall effectiveness will typically do the bare minimum mandated by law.

Conversely, organizations dedicated to creating a healthy workplace develop a cohort-based approach to interventions that allows for tailored programs based on demographics and psychographics. Thus, the range of what’s available to employees is not a one-size-fits-all menu but truly inclusive and reflects the diversity of the employee population's needs. 

Cohorts for different gender identities, LGBTQIA+ and allies, racial or ethnic groups, generations, and workplace locations can be established to help support a bespoke approach to well-being.

Manager Concerns

What managers think is important is very telling when it comes to where your organization sits on the Development Scale. Do managers only care about accident data or absenteeism? If yes, chances are you’re low on the Development Scale. If managers care about their people as individuals and regularly check in to see how they’re doing, then you’re likely quite a bit higher on the scale. In these organizations, employees are seen as whole individuals with a wide variety of needs. Managers want work to work for their people, not for their people to arrange their lives in service of work. These workplaces tend to offer flexible work arrangements, provide subsidized childcare and eldercare, and are understanding when people have personal emergencies that take them away from work.

Perception of Employees

The final facet of the Development Scale is how employers view their employees. If leaders see their people as expendable resources, they’re at square one on the scale. At the upper end of the scale, employees are not only seen as unique individuals, but employers take the time to understand their specific skills and talents and provide myriad opportunities for growth and development. At this stage, employees are seen, heard, respected, and deeply valued.

What Should You Do Next?

Evaluate your organization honestly. Ask your leaders to do the same. Provide a safe space to discuss your findings and devise a plan to get your workplace to the high end of the Development Scale on all attributes. Let your employees know what you plan to do, by when, and how you’ll get there together. Share your successes and failures openly. Most importantly, continue your journey, especially when it gets challenging.

For more insights on how to create a healthy workplace, get your copy of Make Work Healthy or schedule a consulting call with me.