9 habits for a thriving workforce e-book

For A Thriving Workforce

29 Habits You Need For a Thriving Workforce

In today’s world, there’s a whole lot to do and little time to do it. Crammed calendars keep us from working out. Devices demand our attention, making it hard to focus or make meaningful progress in our work. Drive-through value menus make fast, cheap, and easy eats a more attractive option than cooking healthy meals. Getting and staying healthy seems to be harder than ever before, because at nearly every turn it’s the unhealthy choice that’s easiest. As chronic disease and stress-related health problems skyrocket, unhealthy habits are taking a serious toll. With habits making up 40 percent of people’s day-to-day activities1, these behaviors are leaving us depleted – and it’s having serious consequences. So, what’s going on here? Quite simply, we’re all forming negative habits. The good news is, we can just as easily

PRODUCTIVITY

50% decrease in safety incidents44% members say they’re more productive36% less sick days

CULTURE

67% of members say their company’s a better place to work

55% lower turnover46% say they’re more engaged

87% members say they’ve changed their lives3 – 5.4x healthcare cost ROI

HEALTH

form positive ones – they just need our attention. And there’s no better place to start than at work where social connections help habits spread like wildfire. And with 59 percent of full-time, salaried employees reporting they work more than 40 hours per week2, opportunities abound to help replenish your people and support them in forming and maintaining healthy habits.

Read on for the nine habits that really matter when it comes to employee well-being. You’ll learn:

• Science-backed health habits that have the biggest impact on your people and workplace

• Easy-to-implement solutions that make supporting healthy habits simple

• Why these habits drive all aspects of well-being, no matter which one an employee begins with


Help Your Employees

BUILD BETTER HABITSBehavior change is made through a

combination of motivation, ability, and a trigger. Here are ways you can help.

Encourage them to start making small changes that they can easily achieve.

Determine with employees what reminders will trigger their new habit every day.

Match employees with the right habits by helping employees identify what they want to improve.

Celebrate employees’ wins to help them feel successful and encouraged.

Help employees revise their approach when they hit a hurdle so they can get back in the game.

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Based on research by BJ Fogg, PhD, behavior change expert, director of Persuasive Lab Tech at Stanford University, and Virgin Pulse Science Advisory Board member.


GET & STAY ACTIVE

The benefits of exercise go way beyond a sleek physique and smaller pants size. Physical activity has a direct impact on nearly every area of well-being, including lower stress levels and risk for chronic disease, and increased life expectancy, mental cognition, memory, and more3. Additionally, mid-day exercise increases employee productivity by 23 percent4, and just 10 to 40 minutes of it immediately boosts their concentration and mental focus5. But what can you do to influence your employees’ exercise habits? Unless you’re a personal trainer, you probably can’t tell them to drop and give you 20, but you can encourage your workforce to get and stay moving.

Communicate and have senior leadership demonstrate that it’s OK for employees to take a mid-day break and hit the gym – even if it’s over lunch.Once they understand they won’t be docked for leaving their workspaces, they’ll be more likely to find time for a workout. And, with 58 percent of people saying they’re motivated to improve their well-being by their colleagues6, once someone starts making exercise a daily to do, others will follow suit.

Encourage employees to hit the water bottle rather than the beer bottle – and make sure you swap out those break room pastries for some nutritious snacks. Keep your company kitchen and employee lounge areas stocked with healthy options to make it easier for your people to stick to their healthy eating habits.

9 Habits You Need For a Thriving Workforce 5

Everyone knows that nutrition’s a key piece of the well-being puzzle. But with 70 percent of people missing out on the daily-recommended servings of fruit and about the same skimping on their veggies7, there’s room for improvement.

While everyone’s entitled to an indulgence now and then, it’s going to be hard for your employees to keep their healthy habits intact if weekly donut deliveries or Friday happy hours are key to your company culture. And less-than ideal dining options are going to impact more than just your people’s waistlines – it’ll also do detriment to their cognition8 while slashing their productivity by 66 percent9.

NOURISH INTENTIONALLY


SLEEP SOUNDLYYou’ll be hard-pressed to meet someone who doesn’t want more sleep, but talking with your employees about their bedtime habits may feel like you’re crossing the line. With 40 percent of people admitting they doze off during the workday at least once a month10 and sleep loss costing employers a hefty $18 billion annually in lost productivity11, it’s an important topic that you can’t ignore.

Thought leaders, business executives, and even athletes have begun shining a much-deserved spotlight on the importance of sleep, and with good reason. Well-rested people are super-charged employees. They have better memories12, make smarter financial decisions13, and are less likely to make serious and potentially dangerous mistakes14,15.

Help your people understand the seriously debilitating side effects of sleep deprivation, and encourage them to identify what’s stealing their shut-eye. And if your workforce is comprised of shift workers or they’re operating machinery or vehicles, put some clear policies in place to ensure your people are logging the sleep their bodies and minds need.

It’s hard to escape distractions today – especially at work. From buzzing devices and overflowing inboxes, to chatty colleagues and stress from work and home, nearly everything’s vying for your employees’ attention.

Each day, your people are losing over two hours of their workday to distractions16. With a 40 percent productivity loss, multitasking only makes it worse17. These disruptions aren’t only making it difficult for your people to get down to business – they’re also costing U.S. businesses a hefty $588 billion annually18.

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MINDFUL FOCUS

Set your people up to successfully make

meaningful progress on their work.

Offer productivity programs and resources that’ll help them manage their workload, and encourage them to identify one item from their daily to-do list that matters most. Communicate key company metrics and department goals so everyone sees how their contributions drive business objectives.


Stress is inevitable, no matter your industry or employees’ job function. But on-going and long-lasting stress, even at seemingly low levels, has a serious impact on your people. It has a direct effect on brain function in the hippocampus and frontal lobes – meaning problems relating to memory, attention span, problem-solving abilities19, and more.

Chronic stress also makes it nearly impossible to filter through the noise to focus on what matters, and drives personality changes that negatively impact the performance of even your most stellar employees20. What’s more, it’s responsible for 90 percent of doctor visits21 and is directly linked to scary health conditions including stroke, chronic disease, and heart attacks.

REDUCE STRESS

Create a culture that lets employees unwind when they need to,and encourage them to take time to relax and recharge. Organize a relaxing place for people to meditate, suggest they workout when they take a break, and put policies in place to limit the amount of communications employees send and receive when the workday’s done.

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MANAGE FINANCESUnexpected bills and expenses are enough to stress everyone out, and a whopping 30 million U.S. workers say they’re financially distressed and dissatisfied with their personal financial situation22. And if employees don’t have a good grip on their finances, curveballs can be way more difficult to manage.

The good news for you is that feelings of well-being tied to financial stability and security aren’t necessarily driven by a fat paycheck. In fact, the well-being benefits provided by finances are generally realized once a basic income level is met. As that happens, well-being plateaus and it’s factors like social status or the ability to make discretionary purchases that really impact a person’s happiness23.

Help your employees plan for the future by offering workshops on budgeting or saving for retirement or college. Educate them on ways to save for the future so they can easily recover from unexpected expenses, and consider offering resources like financial planning so they (and their bank accounts) are prepped for whatever life has in store.



Give your employees ample opportunity to work on meaningful projects, and help them sharpen and grow their skill set through professional development training and seminars. Help them grow outside of work, too. Encourage them to set and achieve new personal goals, like learning to rock climb, cook a challenging meal, or take up a new language.

Bright employees are key to better business, and for leading companies that connection’s a no-brainer. In fact, 71 percent of CEOs cite their people over products, customer relationships, and brand as the primary driver of sustained economic value24.

Skill-building and learning opportunities are critical for attracting and retaining talent: new employees are 30 times more likely to leave an organization if they don’t believe they can realize their career goals25. What’s more, 53 percent of employees say the top reason they love their company is because of interesting and challenging work26.

Believe it or not, the opportunity to learn and grow is just as important to well-being as some of the more obvious components, like exercise, sleep, and nutrition. Education is a big predictor of mortality27, and the more amount of time a person spends in the classroom, the better their cognitive function and later-life mental well-being. Learning is also critical to a person’s healthy aging28.

LEARN NEW THINGS71% of CEOs cite their people as the primary driver of sustained

economic value.

53% love their company because of interesting and challenging work.

New employees are 30 times more likely to leave if they don’t believe they can realize their career goals.

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SLEEP SOUNDLY

BUILD RELATIONSHIPS


The people who matter most to your employees – their family, friends, and close colleagues – all play an important role in their well-being. Across the board, relationships have a strong impact on your employees’ dispositions: people are 45 percent more likely to report happiness simply by having a friend who’s shifted from unhappy to happy within the last six months29. And people with a best friend at work are seven times more likely to be engaged and thriving in their careers nearly 50 percent more than those who are less socially connected30.

Strong relationships outside of work are just as critical. Because emotional support decreases depression, anxiety, sickness, and mortality31, it’s no wonder people with high levels of social support also witness higher levels of well-being32.

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Create a culture that values the relationships that matter most to your employees. Help your people interact with colleagues by hosting friendly challenges and competitions that pit employees against one another, or encourage cross-departmental collaboration on projects and assignments. Show you value their relationships off the job, too. Extending benefits and perks to employees’ family and friends, offering flexible work hours, or encouraging workers to get home in time for dinner are all ways to communicate you care.


As you work to create a company culture that drives a sense of community internally, it’s just as important that you help your employees connect to the other places they spend their time. Membership in a social group gives employees a shared sense a social identity and stability, and offers experiences that they can leverage at work, like coming together with others to pursue collective goals33.

Giving back to the community also plays a direct role in your people’s well-being. For example, volunteers witness lower mortality and depression rates, and higher functional ability and relationship satisfaction in comparison to those who don’t volunteer34. And, with 54 percent of Americans reporting their face-time with friends has decreased, the in-person interaction of most volunteer work is critical to their overall happiness.

Connect your workforce to the community. Host regular volunteer days with area organizations, or offer employees a set number of work hours each year to give back. Allow employees to shift their working hours if it’s needed to accommodate for the different schedules at various organizations.

CONTRIBUTE TO THE COMMUNITY

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CONCLUSION

Well-being’s not one-size-fits all. Real, lasting behavior change begins with tapping employees’ true motivations and giving them a broad range of options that help them improve what they already want to change.

When your people are personally motivated to change their behavior and have a variety of ways to do so, they’ll engage more frequently. And no matter which habit an employee chooses to begin with, once they’ve started changing one area of well-being, they’ll naturally improve all areas. Likewise, as they see and feel success with each new habit, they’ll start seeing and feeling it across the board. That’s because when it comes to behavior, making a positive change in one area of life drives change across all others35.

For energetic, engaged employees who stay on-task and loyal to your company for the long-term, create a culture that supports all aspects of well-being. Show your employees you care about them beyond just the workplace. Give them tools and resources that help replenish them and they’ll reward you by contributing to your company in meaningful ways.

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Virgin Pulse, part of Sir Richard Branson’s famed Virgin Group, replenishes employees with tools that help them build better habits. With its award-winning, online platform, the company cultivates daily habits and sustainable behavior change that help people thrive at work and across all aspects of life. Unlike narrowly-focused employee health and engagement solutions, Virgin Pulse creates more meaningful habits and drives greater utilization across HR investments, delivering a better quality of life for employees and better health, increased productivity, and improved culture for employers. More than 250 industry leaders representing more than 2 million employees have selected Virgin Pulse’s programs to replenish their people and ignite their business. Learn more at www.virginpulse.com.

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Sources:1 Neal David T., Wood Wendy, et al. Habits – A Repeat Performance.

Current Directions in Psychological Science. 2006. 14:4. 198-202.

2 Saad, Lydia. The “40-hour” workweek is actually longer – by seven hours. Gallup. 9 Aug 2014.

3 Amping Up Employees’ Energy: What Health Habits Matter Most & Ways You Can Help. Virgin Pulse. 2015.

4 von Thiele Schwarz Ulrica, Hasson Henna. Employee Self-rated Productivity and Objective Organizational Production Levels. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2011. 53:8. 838.

5 Verburgh, Königs, et al. Physical exercise and executive functions in preadolescent children, adolescents and young adults: a meta-analysis. Br J Sports Med. 2014. 48:12. 973-979.

6 The Business of Healthy Employees 2013: A Survey of Workplace Health Priorities. Virgin Pulse. 2013.

7 State Indicator Report on Fruits and Vegetables. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. 2013.

8 Morley J. Cognition and nutrition. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2014. 17:1. 1-4.

9 Merrill Ray M., Aldana Steven G. et al. Self-Rated Job Performance and Absenteeism According to Employee Engagement, Health Behaviors, and Physical Health. Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine. 2013. 55:1. 10-18.

10 Turgiss Jennifer. Asleep On the Job: The Causes and Consequences of Employees’ Disrupted Sleep and How Employers Can Help.

11 1997 Survey on Sleeplessness, Pain and the Workplace. National Sleep Foundation. 2000.

12 Stickhold Robert, James LaTanya, et al. Visual discrimination learning requires sleep after training. Nature Neuroscience. 2000. 3. 1237-1238.

13 Venkatraman V, Huettel SA, et al. Sleep deprivation biases the neural mechanisms underlying economic preferences. J Neurosci. 2011. 31:10. 3712-8.

14 Drowsy Driving and Automobile Crashes. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Web.

15 Mitler Merrill M. et al. “Catastrophes, Sleep, and Public Policy: Consensus Report.” Sleep 11.1 (1988): 100–109. Print.

16 Ibid

17 American Psychological Association, Multitasking Switching Costs http://www.apa.org/research/action/multitask.aspx

18 Spira Jonathan, Feintuch Joshua. The Cost of Not Paying Attention: How Interruptions Impact Knowledge Worker Productivity. Basex. 2005.

19 Mills Harry, Reiss Natalie, et al. Mental and Emotional Impact of Stress. Seven Counties Services, Inc. Web.

20 Ibid

21 Perkins A. Saving money by reducing stress. Harvard Business Review. 1994. 72:6. 12.

22 Garman, E.T., Junk, V.W., et al. Financial Stress Among American Workers, Final report: 30 million workers in America-One in four-Are seriously financially distressed and dissatisfied causing negative impacts on individuals, families and employers. Independent report from authors. 2005.

23 Turgiss Jennifer. Making the Case: Supporting Well-being, Molding Better Business. Virgin Pulse. 2014.

24 The Value of Training. IBM Corporation. 2014.

25 Ibid

26 Labor of Love: What Employees Love About Work & Ways to Keep the Spark Alive. Virgin Pulse. 2015.

27 Cutler David M, Lleras-Muney Adriana. Education and Health: Evaluating Theories and Evidence. The National Bureau of Economic Research. 2006.

28 Moeller Phillip. Why Learning Leads to Happiness. Huffington Post. 10 April 2012.

29 Fowler James H, Christakis Nicholas A. Dynamic spread of happiness in a large social network: longitudinal analysis over 20 years in the Framingham Heart Study. BMJ. 2008; 337 :a2338

30 Robinson Jennifer. “The Business Case for Well-Being Gallup.” Gallup Business Journal. 2010.

31 Ross Catherine E., Mirowsky John, Goldsteen Karen. The Impact of the Family on Health: The Decade in Review. Journal of Marriage and the Family. Family Research in the 1980s: The Decade in Review. 1990. 52: 4. 1059-1078.

32 Turgiss Jennifer. Making the Case: Supporting Well-being, Molding Better Business. Virgin Pulse. 2014.

33 Ibid

34 Okun MA, Yeung EW, et al. Volunteering by older adults and risk of mortality: a meta-analysis. Psychol Aging. 2013. 28:2. 564-77.

35 Based on research by BJ Fogg, PhD, behavior change expert, and director of Persuasive Lab Tech at Stanford University.

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