The Great Renewal:
The Future of Employee Retention is Health, Safety and Wellbeing.

Almost 1 in 5 Australians plan to leave their jobs within a year in the well-documented Great Resignation¹.

It heralds a seismic shift in the dynamics between employers and employees—dubbed by some the Great Renegotiation². Workers seek new conditions around health, safety and wellbeing—while employers scramble to attract and retain them.

Employers are realising that health, safety and wellbeing are a foundation to powerfully amplify their Employee Value Proposition—and help win the talent game.

At Vitality Works, it’s a foundation we’ve been building for decades, one we see unfolding for clients across sectors and industries—and one in which we’re poised to contribute—including with a complimentary Strategic Discovery Session for Australian and New Zealand companies.

We think of it as a Great Renewal—and we’re ready to help you make it work.

Risk and Opportunity.

Employee retention is amongst the biggest threats facing companies in the new world of work. 65% of people say COVID-19 made them rethink the place work should have in their life³, while 29% of workers are planning to leave their company in the next two years⁴. Every turnover is estimated to cost businesses 20% of a worker’s salary⁵.

Losing key employees is a major risk for many companies.

But with great risk comes great opportunity—for employers that seize it. Almost 9 out of 10 workers in companies with wellbeing initiatives are more likely to recommend their employer to prospective workers⁶. But many employers are taking their eye off the wellbeing ball—with only 27% of companies intending to continue their pandemic-inspired wellbeing programs.⁷

So a focus on health, safety and wellbeing programs can become the key competitive advantage of future-facing companies.

Blue and White Collar.

Pre-pandemic, the bulk of health, wellbeing and safety investment came from companies with blue collar workforces. Challenges like remoteness, physical danger, and OHS legislation made these programs a ‘must-have’ for mining and primary industry companies.

Post-pandemic, hybrid and remote work is accelerating in white-collar contexts—and so are the health, safety and wellbeing programs that make that work sustainable.

Investment in white-collar wellbeing programs—driven by these changes—is growing at record pace. The corporate wellbeing industry is worth $20.4B now, but is predicted to grow by 400% in the next 4 years⁸—much of it servicing office workers.

We’ve integrated learnings from decades of blue collar and white collar work in Australia and New Zealand—and we’re ready to help future-facing employers attract and retain employees.

Hybrid and Holistic.

Before the pandemic Vitality Works pioneered injury prevention, health coaching and mental health programs with strong online components and SafetyWorks (our Consultancy Practice) pioneered risk assurance, people leadership and culture solutions. During the pandemic these programs scaled easily for remote access, and helped remote workers flourish.

Just as adaptive hybrid remote and onsite workplaces become the norm, new models of the ‘regenerative workplace’ emphasise a holistic approach taking in the mental, social and physical aspects of employee health and wellbeing⁹.

It’s in line with the 82% of employees who agree it’s important that their organisation sees them as a person, not just an employee¹⁰. It’s also the bedrock of the Vitality Works method of Assess, Prevent and Thrive—which takes in social, physical and mental wellbeing, at any site, in any work context.

Strategic and Human-Centric.

As pioneering designers of workplace wellbeing programs, we’re excited to see design-thinking predicted as crucial to the most successful workplaces of the future¹¹.

Indeed the future of workplace health, safety and wellbeing programs is strategic and human-centred—that’s how we’ve adapted our programs for every client organisation. A ‘one size fits one’ approach has replaced a scattergun approach¹² and 73% of workers now aspire to more ‘human’ workplaces promoting health, safety and wellbeing.¹³

This ‘regenerative workplace’ fits within our frame of the Great Renewal. Regenerative workplaces demand both greater capacity of managers to support individual wellbeing, and greater capacity for individuals to access and manage their own wellbeing support.

In the regenerative workplace “managers will play a major role in enabling their people to self-manage their health”¹⁴, a salient point for the 58% of senior HR professionals who now cite Employee Wellbeing as the skillset most required to be developed in their own work.¹⁵

Our service model has always involved a strategic and collaborative approach, working closely with managers and leaders within client companies to leverage their knowledge into the design process—building manager and worker capacity along the way.

Design your Great Renewal

Vitality Works stands ready to work in strategic partnership to help organisations design and deliver their ‘great renewals’ in workforce health, safety and wellbeing. The toolbox is almost endless—from consultancy and injury prevention to onsite and virtual health coaching, mental wellbeing, and whole person health programs.

We’ll be your SME partner in renewing and bringing to life your future workplace and future workforce—with your Employee Value Proposition a major competitive edge.

Sources

[1] https://www.hrmonline.com.au/topics/hr-strategy-planning-and-measurement/six-charts-explain-australias-experience-of-the-great-resignation/
[2] https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2022/01/25/1075115539/the-great-resignation-more-like-the-great-renegotiation
[3] https://www.hrmonline.com.au/topics/hr-strategy-planning-and-measurement/six-charts-explain-australias-experience-of-the-great-resignation/
[4] https://www.jll.com.au/content/dam/jll-com/documents/pdf/research/global/jll-global-bringing-the-regenerative-workplace-back-to-life.pdf
[5] https://www.cigna.com/static/www-cigna-com/docs/about-us/newsroom/innovation/435202_Cigna_Heart_of_a_Healthy_Workforce_Paper_Final.pdf
[6] ibid.
[7] https://emtemp.gcom.cloud/ngw/globalassets/en/human-resources/documents/support-wellbeing-2021-and-beyond.pdf
[8] https://www.reportlinker.com/p05895920/Global-Corporate-Wellness-Industry.html?utm_source=GNW
[9] https://hrexecutive.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/JLL-HR-Executive_Webinar-04.21.22.pdf
[10] https://www.gartner.com.au/en/insights/future-of-work
[11] https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2021-10-18-gartner-identifies-three-key-focus-areas-for-cios-to-drive-value
[12] https://hrexecutive.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/JLL-HR-Executive_Webinar-04.21.22.pdf
[13] https://hrexecutive.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/JLL-HR-Executive_Webinar-04.21.22.pdf
[14] https://www.jll.com.au/content/dam/jll-com/documents/pdf/research/global/jll-global-bringing-the-regenerative-workplace-back-to-life.pdf
[15] https://futureworkplace.com/five-strategic-hr-priorities-for-2021/