Make Work Healthy

Reach new levels of organizational productivity and achievement by redefining the phrase “workplace health”

In Make Work Healthy, a team of distinguished organizational transformation professionals delivers an insightful how-to manual for improving organizational performance with a new approach to workforce management. The book offers organizations, leaders, and managers with the knowledge, data, frameworks, and methodologies they need to radically transform how they approach day-to-day operations into a sustainable and resilient business success model.

The authors focus on workplace health—in a broad sense—as a way of focusing organizational attention on culture, building work capacity, productivity, and sustainability. They explain the tangible business value that comes from focusing on wellbeing as well as the symbiotic relationship between organizational health and employee health. Make Work Healthy includes:

• Strategies for moving beyond typical “wellness” initiatives such as just addressing illness and absence reduction to a more holistic understanding of “healthy work”
• Ways to locate, attract, recruit, and retain talent over the long-term by aligning organizational goals with employee health
• Tactics to help managers of dispersed, hybrid, and remote teams manage feelings of pressure and isolation

An indispensable, effective, and holistic new take on organizational and employee health, Make Work Healthy will earn a place in the hands of managers, executives, board members, and other business and human resources leaders who seek impressive gains in company productivity and fulfilment.

Introduction: A Critical Moment xi

Part I

1 The Ultimate Driver of Organizational Performance 3

Defining “Healthy Workplace” 4

Knowing versus Doing 5

Modeling the Healthy Way 7

Demonstrating Care as Leaders 9

Why Talk about Health Now? 11

2 Why Work Isn’t Working 15

Pandemic Overload and Other Extraordinary Demands 15

The Horrible Micromanaging Boss 16

No Room for Difference 17

Ultimate Betrayals 18

The Stress of the Daily Grind 19

Social Pollution 21

3 How Work Can Be the Solution 23

Thinking About Work in Terms of Energy 24

One of Our Biggest Health Decisions 24

Finding a Role That Helps You Flourish 25

Take the Expert Assessment Quiz 30

Wilmar Schaufeli 32

4 The Evolution of Workforce Health 35

The Concept of “a Good and Virtuous Life” in Ancient Times 36

Well-being Beginnings in Spain and Italy 36

Developments in Great Britain during the Industrial Revolution 37

Improvements in the Early Part of the Twentieth Century 40

Changes in the United States after the World Wars 40

Studies and Research from Governments and Universities 41

Challenges in the Twenty-first Century 43

5 Salutogenesis: A New Model for Workplace Health 47

A Pathogenic Orientation versus a Salutogenic Orientation 47

The Ease to Dis-ease Continuum 49

Salutogenesis in an Organizational Context 51

Georg Bauer, MD, DrPH 55

Part II

6 Accelerating to Success: Where Some Get It Right and Others Get It Wrong 61

Knowing What Successful Organizations Do 61

Avoiding Common Mistakes 65

Ron Goetzel 70

7 The Symbiotic Relationship of Workforce and Workplace Health 73

Individual Health Factors 74

Organizational Health Factors 77

Putting It All Together 80

8 The Development Scale: Where Is Your Organization? 83

Leadership 84

Ownership 86

Investment 86

Approach 87

Interventions 88

Shows Up As: How Managers Think About Organizational Health 89

Employer Perception of Employees 90

Peter Cheese 92

9 A New Lens: Individual and Organizational Measures 95

Unhealthy to Healthy: An Overview of the Journey 96

The Crucial Steps to Becoming a Healthy Workplace 98

Dave Ulrich 112

Jeffrey Pfeffer 115

10 From Unhealthy to Healthy: A Plan for Success 119

Characteristics of Effective Change 119

Core Considerations for a Healthy Plan 123

Mapping the Terrain 130

The Journey Continues 133

Paul Litchfield 134

Susie Ellis 137

11 Healthy Interventions 139

Moving from “Normal” to an Equity Lens 139

Healthy Interventions Based on the Data 147

12 Stories of Healthy Success 151

Centiro, Sweden, Organizational Design 153

Thames Water Company, United Kingdom, Workforce Analytics 156

Deloitte, United States, Healthy Sponsorship 159

Aviva, United Kingdom, Net Positive Work 162

IIH Nordic, Denmark, Four-day Workweek 165

Takeda, Switzerland, Responding to Presenting Needs 167

Cohesive, the Netherlands, Healthy Manager Conversations 170

P&G, Latin America, Incentivizing Healthy Behaviors 173

SAP, Ireland, Neurodiversity 176

RSPCA, United Kingdom, Trauma Support 178

Concentrix, Global, Flexible Working 180

Futurice, Finland, Healthy Clients 183

SAS Institute, United States, Recruit Well-being 185

Amêndoas do Brasil, Brazil, A Culture of Well-being 188

Leek United Building Society, United Kingdom, Healthy Strategy 191

ISS, Denmark, Diversity at Its Core 194

PwC, Building a Very Personalized Learning Future 197

Kingston Council, United Kingdom, Leading the Way 200

Danske Bank, United Kingdom, Podcasting Health 203

Dubai Police, United Arab Emirates, Physical Readiness 205

Version 1, Europe, a Healthy Strategy 207

13 A Deep Dive into the Science of Well-being 213

Purpose 214

Mental Resilience 216

Connection 221

Physical Health 226

The Four Pillars and 21 Elements 228

Dr. Els van der Helm 229

Arnold Bakker 232

International Well Building Institute 235

14 A Healthy Conclusion 239

A Different Approach 240

The Pandemic: Heroes Take a Bow and Workers Deliver Again 241

A Need for a Major Shift 243

Board Members’ Roles and Responsibilities 245

A Legacy in the Making 246

Jim Loehr 248

Notes 251

Appendix: Assessment and Impact 257

Acknowledgments 269

About the Author 271

Index 273

JOHN S. RYAN is the Chief Executive Officer at Healthy Place to Work. He formerly led Great Place to Work Ireland and was a broadcast journalist. He is a regular international speaker and media contributor in Wellbeing, Trust, and Organizational Performance.

MICHAEL J. BURCHELL, EdD, is an independent consultant and executive coach. He is an expert in organizational change, well-being, team effectiveness, and DEI. He is the co-author of No Excuses: How You Can Turn Any Workplace Into a Great One and The Great Workplace: How to Build It, How to Keep It, and Why It Matters.

In Make Work Healthy, a team of change management and workplace well-being specialists deliver a transformational how-to book on improving organizational performance via a new approach to workforce management. In the book, you’ll find the knowledge, models, and methodology you need to radically alter your organization’s current approach to creating a resilient and sustainable system of operations.

The authors demonstrate how to shift the focus of your organization’s leaders to the concept of health, in its broadest sense. You’ll learn how to tackle extraordinary challenges—including COVID recovery, diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, well-being, mental health management, belonging, purpose, and sustainability—by redefining what “health” means in your company and changing how your people achieve it.

You’ll discover how to move away from an ad-hoc, tick-box, tactical, short-term, programmatic, and awareness-based model of employee health that is solely focused on reducing absenteeism and acute sickness and towards a strategic, data-driven, evidence-based, systematic, and culture-based approach to improving productivity, work capacity, and sustainability.

The authors of Make Work Healthy have collected over 12,000 survey responses from dozens of organizations. The book includes stories from PwC, Deloitte, Takeda, SAP, Procter and Gamble, ISS and many more—with practical ideas you can apply immediately to improve the health of the people working in your firm.

A must-read roadmap to developing a holistic and effective new methodology for organizational and employee health, Make Work Healthy will earn a prominent place on the bookshelves of executives, managers, board members, human resources professionals, entrepreneurs, founders, and other business leaders seeking to make impressive gains in company productivity and employee retention.

PRAISE FOR MAKE WORK HEALTHY

“Healthy work and workplaces form parts of a healthy society. This book will encourage organizational leaders to make that happen. Ryan and Burchell have combined to produce a really impactful and inspirational piece of work.”
—LEO VARADKAR, Taoiseach (Prime Minister of Ireland)

“Our physical health and psychological well-being matter most when at risk. Likewise, when organizations have toxic cultures and unhealthy work practices, they harm everyone affiliated with the organization. Drawing on research and experiences, John and Michael offer relevant ideas and practical tools to create a healthy work environment that is more needed today than ever before!”
—DAVE ULRICH, Rensis Likert Professor, Ross School of Business,University of Michigan

“If Adam Smith were to write his book right now, he would change his title from Wealth of Nations to Health of Nations. And if you were to read John Ryan and Michael Burchell’s remarkable book Make Work Healthy you will understand why work isn’t working and learn a practical, compelling plan for success for people, organizations and society. The evidence is there, the narrative is convincing, the style is engaging: this book is too important to be missed.”
—PAOLO GALLO, author, speaker, and former Chief Human Resources Officer at World Economic Forum in Geneva

“A refreshing take on what is required to create a virtuous circle in the modern day workplace. As a great believer in the need for focus on a more holistic approach to colleague well-being, it is a pleasure to read Ryan and Burchell’s fact based approach to this emerging theme in the workplace debate.”
—JACOB AARUP-ANDERSEN, Group CEO, ISS A/S