Workplace Wellness as a Critical Employment Metric

Among the trends Harvard Business Review called out for 2022, the one that really caught my eye was “wellness as the newest metric companies will use to understand their employees.”

Wellness as a concept has arguably always been important, but in business, it’s not officially important until it reaches the level of having its own metrics. And after two years of a pandemic, “employee wellness” has arrived.

What does this mean?

A recent Gartner survey reported that 94% of companies have made significant recent investments in employee well-being, 85% have increased support for mental health benefits, and 50% have increased support for physical well-being benefits.

And these programs work. Gartner claims that employees who use such benefits report a 23% higher level of mental health and 17% higher level of physical health — and they sleep better at night. We could all use a little of that.

Many job seekers are looking for companies that will support not only their career goals but their wellness, and this is a positive new trend for the workforce.