An employee well-being specialist: what is well-being, and how can you achieve it?

In this new project material, we discuss the duties of a well-being specialist and the soft skills that will be useful for this position.

Those who are already interested in trying out the role of a well-being specialist can take our free quiz with real case studies to practice on.

You have probably been wondering what your productivity and motivation rely on. Most of us think everything boils down to money and wages. However, Deloitte statistics demonstrate this is not entirely true. Even more than money, most employees are motivated by a relaxed working environment.

A well-being manager or an employee well-being manager is associated with creating a favourable working environment. Using particular measures, they can increase the team's productivity and reduce absenteeism, and sick leave, lower deadlines, resolve internal conflicts and even promote the career advancement of certain professionals. So, what exactly does well-being encompass?

Well-being represents an employee's satisfaction with their work and life. When they do not want to rush home from the office as quickly as possible and do not get upset on a Monday morning, looking at their alarm clock. They are not torn between their personal life and career. Therefore, an employee's well-being is made up of five elements:

• Physical health - their work is not harmful to their health. The employee can take a break when they need to

• Mental health - their work does not lead to emotional burnout or stress

• Social well-being - the balance between their family and work. Their career does not affect personal relationships in any way

• Financial well-being - the employee is satisfied with their salary and has confidence in their future

• Career advancement- the employee knows where to develop and what knowledge they need. They can learn and grow in a professional environment

The responsibility of the well-being manager is to provide all these elements. To achieve this, they develop employee support programs, including medical insurance, a free subscription to the pool, salary indexation, online courses, etc. Of course, the choice of what is included in the program depends on the current market situation and the employees themselves, whose requirements and goals should be carefully examined. The manager also performs some of the functions of a psychologist: if they suddenly notice that the performance of an employee is declining and they show signs of burnout, they must offer them a day off, redistribute the workload, or eliminate other reasons for it.

Based on this, the most essential skills for a well-being employee manager are soft skills: emotional intelligence, decision-making skills, understanding the principles of lean manufacturing, including environmentally friendly thinking, and personal stress resistance.

Apart from developing an employee support program, the manager also performs the following tasks:

• Develops the leadership qualities of employees and improves their financial literacy through the advancement of corporate training

• Measures team satisfaction and proposes initiatives to improve team productivity

• Provides team well-being reports to management

• Develops advertising campaigns for the HR department to attract better talent

• Manages the budget and seeks additional sources of funding if needed

• Organises events and promptly informs employees about corporate changes, events, etc.

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Quiz: how ready are you to become a well-being manager employee?

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Question 1. During a medical examination of 2,500 employees, you discovered that 46% suffer from musculoskeletal disorders. Likewise, the disease's major impact on the employee's efficiency was recorded. Your budget is extremely limited. To start with, you will try to do the following:

• Replace as many work chairs as possible with more comfortable and orthopaedic ones
• Organise a free space in the office with simple exercise equipment and do a 15-minute warm-up each day
• Discuss with management the possibility of allocating funds for free access to the fitness room for employees

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Question 2. You have discovered that several team employees are planning to leave because they are not happy with their salaries, which you definitely have no control over now. But you can:

• Provide employees with training programs that could help them advance in their careers
• Hold a corporate event to remind employees of the company's values
• Offer employees one extra day off per month

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Question 3. What factors do you think will have the greatest negative impact on employee well-being?

• Unresolved conflicts between team members
• Paid lunches
• Lack of opportunity for initiative

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Question 4. You are new to the company, although you have already been tasked with improving the team's well-being and effectiveness as soon as possible. What will you do first:

• Conduct an online employee survey to gather feedback about their comfort and the working environment
• Start developing a basic support program with universal bonuses like insurance, etc.
• Hold a general event to get to know the employees better

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Question 5. Have you noticed that company employees are certainly approaching emotional burnout without exception? You have tried to conduct a survey to understand the problem. However, this did not bring any results — the employees either kept quiet or answered that all was fine. Additionally, no methods for motivating the employees have given any long-term results. However, you have all the resources to guarantee this should not be the case. What do you think is the most probable cause of all this?

• The influence of external social, political or environmental factors
• The total and overwhelming control of management
• An outdated corporate culture and support program

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Question 6. The management wants to cut the budget allocated to the employee support program. What are your immediate actions?

• Start looking for additional sources of funding so that you do not have to cut the program
• Ask employees what program benefits they are willing to give up
• Consider a new program of non-financial incentives

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Question 7. Most commonly, you will not find vacancies for well-being specialists in ...

• The restaurant and hotel industry
• Large international companies
• small business

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Question 8. What is NOT included within the traditional abilities of a well-being manager?

• having one-to-one conversations with employees and psychoanalysis
• Conducting interviews with the HR manager
• Direct participation in organised programs

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