Wellbeing Leaders Roundtable: Remaining Calm in Chaos

As we emerge from the pandemic, we’re experiencing yet another upheaval at work and in our lives. 

For those of us in the corporate world, we’re seeing unending layoffs, rising costs, the return to office and travel, increasing stress and burnout… just to name a few. On the other hand, thanks to the pandemic, our relationship with work has changed - there’s a greater demand for flexibility, and work-life balance.

It’s clear that how we work is changing at an increasing pace.

In this current climate, there’s more pressure than ever for corporate leaders to care for the wellbeing of their teams. Doing so successfully means finding a way to balance employee productivity, engagement, and wellbeing.

How should senior executives and HR leaders respond?

At Calm Collective, we are grappling with the same questions, so for our first Roundtable of 2023 - we decided to ask well-being leaders these very things:

• Understanding the Chaos: In supporting wellbeing at work, what challenges or changes are you seeing?

• Finding Calm: As Wellbeing Leaders, how might you find a productive way forward?

What happened at the Roundtable?

Held virtually over 1.5 hours, we welcomed 20+ leaders from around the APAC region. Calm Collective’s first Roundtable of 2023 was co-hosted by Sabrina Ooi (CEO, Calm Collective) and advisor Emmy-Lou Quirke.

We kicked off the Roundtable by exploring the bigger forces and shifts impacting the theme of employee mental health and well-being. Areas we explored include: Employee needs, demographic trends, internal/external environment.

To close the session, we invited the wellbeing leaders to make 3 commitments to support wellbeing at work.

What chaos are we facing? 

1. Uncertain Economic Environment Increases Financial and Mental Stress

We’ll start with the obvious: Across the world, we’re experiencing rising costs due to inflation fueled by factors including supply chain issues, and increased housing rent and taxes. Additionally, widespread layoffs amongst big tech and MNCs, and a possible recession compound the stress and uncertainty that corporate workers face. 

Such an environment inevitably impacts productivity and engagement at work. Those who “survive” layoffs may experience “survivor’s guilt”, and may have to take on a greater workload given the reduction in team sizes.

For companies, this has translated into having greater prudence in using company resources - they will have to do more with less. Senior leadership will demand for more transparency and accountability around measuring ROI for every new headcount hired or project rolled out.

2. Increased Demand for Work-Life Support

The last two years have given rise to a greater demand for work-life balance, and support from employers in ensuring this is possible for employees.

• Demand for Flexibility: With more pressure to return to the office, employees are concerned about productivity and a subsequent loss of work/life balance if there is a need to spend more time commuting, or work overtime. 

• Demand for Mental Health Support: There is greater demand for companies to provide medical insurance that covers mental health conditions, and to provide benefits and resources to support wellbeing at work.

• Demand for Parental Support: A few wellbeing leaders highlighted the importance of increased paternity leave, which could signal a trend towards better balance for families. At the same time, companies mentioned that mothers returning from maternity leave have concerns regarding their workload and their new responsibilities as a parent.

3. Employees Do Not Trust their Organisation’s Wellbeing Initiatives

Employees see through “band-aid solutions” that organisations have implemented to address workplace wellbeing. Corporate organisations need to go beyond virtue signalling, or undergoing another box-ticking exercise. Instead, address the root causes of poor wellbeing such as persistent workload issues, the lack of a psychologically safe culture, or ill-equipped managers.

 4. Changes in how we Connect and Communicate at work

While we’ve had to embrace communication technologies like Zoom and Slack over the past few years, it has led to a shift in how we communicate. For one, it has created an “always on” mindset - we feel the pressure to reply immediately, even outside of working hours. 

Additionally, over-reliance on such technologies has made us less comfortable with in-person interactions. As we shift into a hybrid world of work, leaders, managers, and employees alike will need to reimagine how we interact with each other effectively.

5. HR is Facing a Talent Squeeze 

Following the pandemic, companies are experiencing more difficulties in expanding their talent pool. It has become more difficult to bring in talent from overseas due to changes in employment policy, while local talent may not be ready to step up to the needs of the jobs available.

How might we remain calm?

1. Start by Finding Calm in Yourself

In order to move forward in your own workplace, one has to first take care of oneself and review one’s own personal commitments. When calm, you can manage your energy with clarity and not burn yourself out.

Take 3 deep breaths: Our breathing is an efficient way to help regulate our emotions. Through our breath, we can activate the calming response in our body, the parasympathetic nervous system. Only by finding calm in oneself can we get the most of ourselves in terms of productivity, creativity and innovation. This would allow us to make steady progress in whatever we apply ourselves to.

2. Review Your Organisation’s Workplace Wellbeing Strategy

With the current context in mind, take a step back and review what would be the right approach for your organisation in 2023. Revising the overall wellbeing strategy of your organisation based on employee needs and wants is not an overnight task. 

Start off by crafting a framework to analyse employee needs and wants and then draft out a plan to roll out the respective mental health well-being initiatives in your organisation. An important thing to consider is to adopt a more long-term, holistic approach to mental wellbeing rather than one-off initiatives. 

3. Tackle the Root Causes of Poor Employee Wellbeing

To go beyond temporary “band-aid” solutions, focus on tackling root causes of the issues.

An example of a root cause might be having too much workload. To tackle this, companies might reduce the number of weekly meetings, which will free up more uninterrupted time: this might lead to increased productivity, and allow for better work-life balance. Take a leaf out of Shopify’s book: their organisation has recently cancelled all recurring meetings with more than 2 people.

Another example of a longer-term solution would be providing training around individual self-care, and training managers to provide psychological safety for their teams. Such skills would help cultivate an environment where employees feel more confident, engaged and productive. Interested in training your teams to be more resilient in times of change? Reach out to Calm Collective here.

It is important to consider and address the actual root causes in order to prevent problems in the long-run.

Our question for you: How will you remain calm in this chaos?

Learn more about Calm Collective’s corporate offerings to help improve wellbeing at work here. If you would like to attend our future Wellbeing Leaders Roundtables, you may indicate your interest here.