Time to Think about Employee Well-Being

Work-life balance, and more in general employees' welfare, has gripped the attention of management scholars and human resources managers. But also those in charge of strategic decisions at the helm of the firm should be concerned, for various reasons. These reasons go beyond the moral imperative, cited by Italian legislation, that firms have in overcoming work-related stress and physical and psychological distress of employees, so as to promote the wellbeing and personal growth of employees.
Firstly, investing in employee welfare in a knowledge economy such as the one we are living in, ensures much higher returns than alternative investments in developing the firm. In times of crisis, the competitive challenge is being won by firms which are still able to attract, motivate and retain talent, which is turn crucial for ability to innovate and develop deep and positive relations with customers, suppliers and other strategic stakeholders.
Secondly, employee wellbeing is the necessary (albeit not sufficient) condition to reach high levels of economic, environmental, and social sustainability of one's own competitive advantage. An organization whose members have a good balance between their private and professional lives will also be able to generate plans for strategic growth over a longer time-horizon, to experiment with new approaches, and, more fundamentally, foster the active participation of all players in the firm. The reason is simple: work-related stress engenders a tunnel vision in managers' decision-making, leading them to avoid the search for unexplored solutions and the thorough assessment of social and environmental impacts. Finally, stress drastically reduces the long-term view, by inducing myopic individual choices, which in turn lead to organizational myopia.

If there is consensus on the diagnosis, there is much less agreement on the therapy, as revealed by the positions discussed at the event organized by Bocconi CROMA and "Great Place to Work". Recent research, conducted and being conducted at CROMA, shows the need for varied approaches to employees' wellbeing, such as introspection and meditation techniques, in order to open both personal and organizational development paths, as well as develop the kind of sensibility that is needed to attain a long-term vision about social and environmental issues,