Why Workplace Wellbeing Matters

In my recent post about Finland's wellbeing crisis, I explored how unemployment doesn't just affect individuals but radiates outward, impacting families, communities, and the entire social fabric. As I wrote then, quoting from "Why Workplace Wellbeing Matters" by Jan-Emmanuel De Neve and George Ward:

"Unemployment not only threatens the wellbeing of those affected, but can contribute to wellbeing declines among family members, partners, peer groups, and communities."

The relationship between work and wellbeing operates like a ripple in a pond. Drop a stone in the water, and the circles expand outward, touching everything in their path, but the ripple effect works both ways.

When unemployment creates negative ripples, workplace wellbeing creates positive ones. And that's exactly what De Neve and Ward's research demonstrates.

The Evidence Is Clear: Workplace Wellbeing Matters

The research is unequivocal: workplace wellbeing isn't just a "nice to have" or a perk to attract talent. It's fundamental to organizational success, employee fulfillment, and societal health.

Source: https://worldwellbeingmovement.org/playbook-2025/

De Neve and Ward's work shows that the deep and dynamic relationship between employment and wellbeing is clear in the data. This emerging body of empirical evidence is crucially important not only for researchers interested in the determinants of wellbeing, but also for executives, managers, and policy makers seeking to promote and sustain employee and societal welfare.

Think about what work provides beyond a paycheck:

• Structure and routine: Work organizes our days and gives us a sense of rhythm

• Social connections: Our colleagues become our community, sometimes our closest friends

• Purpose and meaning: Work allows us to contribute to something larger than ourselves

• Identity and growth: Our work becomes part of who we are and how we develop

• Achievement and pride: Accomplishments at work fuel our sense of competence and self-worth

When these elements are absent or compromised wellbeing suffers. Whether that is through unemployment, toxic work environments, or cultures that deplete rather than energize. And as Finland's current situation demonstrates, that suffering doesn't stay contained. The country that has consistently ranked as the world's happiest is facing the highest unemployment rate in the European Union, and the effects are cascading through society.

And while we can't solve Finland's unemployment crisis overnight, we can take the conversation from the macro level to what individual organizations can do. Because companies have enormous power to influence wellbeing through the work environments they create.

One of my favorite examples thereof is Barry-Wehmiller and their chairman Bob Chapman, who famously said:

“Business can be the most powerful force of good in the world, if we simply taught our leaders to care for the people they have the privilege of leading.”

Every organization that prioritizes employee wellbeing creates positive ripples:

• Employees who feel valued and supported at work bring that positive energy home to their families

• Teams that experience psychological safety and trust collaborate more effectively, producing better outcomes

• Organizations with healthy cultures attract top talent and retain their best people

• Communities benefit when local employers create environments where people can thrive

• Society becomes more resilient when more organizations model healthy, sustainable ways of working

This is why workplace wellbeing isn't just an HR initiative or a wellness program. It's a strategic imperative with implications far beyond quarterly results.

Stop searching for the business case for wellbeing—wellbeing is the business case.

Some leaders still view employee wellbeing as soft, unmeasurable, or secondary to "real" business priorities. The research proves otherwise.

Organizations that prioritize workplace wellbeing see:

• Increased productivity: Employees who feel well are more focused, creative, and efficient

• Higher engagement: When people feel their wellbeing matters, they invest more of themselves in their work

• Better retention: Why would talented people leave organizations where they flourish?

• Stronger innovation: Psychological safety—a core component of wellbeing—is essential for the risk-taking that drives innovation

• Enhanced reputation: In an era where employer reviews are public, being known as a place where people thrive is invaluable

But as we've seen those benefits go beyond the organization's borders. Given that employment and wellbeing are so deeply interconnected then leaders who create work environments have a responsiblity—an ethical obligation even—to make those environments conducive to human flourishing, and not just focus on extracting productivity.

What Does a Wellbeing-Centered Workplace Actually Look Like?

This isn't about ping pong tables and fruit baskets. Those are nice, but they're not culture. A workplace truly centered on wellbeing has fundamentally different characteristics:

👂🏼 Psychological Safety

People feel safe to speak up, share ideas, admit mistakes, and ask for help without fear of humiliation or punishment. This is the foundation upon which everything else is built.

🧭 Clarity of Purpose

Employees understand not just what they're doing, but why it matters. They can connect their daily work to a larger mission that gives meaning to their efforts.

👁️ Autonomy and Trust

Rather than micromanagement, people are given appropriate autonomy to make decisions about their work. They're trusted as capable adults who want to do good work.

🌱 Growth and Development

The organization invests in helping people become better versions of themselves, both professionally and personally. Learning isn't an afterthought—it's embedded in the culture.

🎯 Sustainable Performance

High performance doesn't come at the cost of burnout. Instead, the culture recognizes that sustainable excellence requires recovery, boundaries, and balance.

🫱🏽‍🫲🏽 Genuine Connection

Relationships matter. People aren't just colleagues executing tasks—they're humans who care about each other and feel a sense of belonging.

Creating this kind of environment doesn't happen by accident. It requires intentional leadership, cultural alignment, and often, significant transformation. I've written about this before. 👇🏼

The Role of Culture and Leadership Coaching

This is where my work intersects with these critical issues. Through culture and leadership coaching, I help organizations build environments where employee wellbeing isn't an add-on but fundamental to how the company operates.

My approach starts with culture because any significant organizational transformation has to be anchored in culture to truly perpetuate throughout the whole organization in the long-term. Culture is the vehicle for your purpose, brought to life by the right people operating in a safe environment where they feel trusted and valued.

Here's how culture and leadership coaching can help:

Cultural Assessment and Alignment

First, we need to understand where you are. Does your current culture fundamentally create conditions where your people can flourish? What are the gaps between your espoused values and lived behaviors? Where are the friction points that drain energy rather than create it?

Leadership Development

Leaders set the tone. Through coaching, leaders develop the skills and mindsets necessary to create psychologically safe, high-trust environments. They learn to lead with vulnerability, give meaningful feedback, and model the behaviors that support wellbeing.

Team Dynamics and Flow

Teams are where culture comes alive. I work with teams to build the prerequisites for collaboration, trust, and even flow states—those optimal experiences where people are fully engaged and performing at their best while feeling energized rather than depleted.

Systems and Practices

Good intentions aren't enough. We need to embed wellbeing into systems, processes, and daily practices. This includes everything from how meetings are structured to how performance is evaluated to how decisions are made.

Sustainable Transformation

Culture change isn't a one-time initiative. It's an ongoing process of learning, adapting, and reinforcing. Through coaching, organizations build the capacity to continue evolving even after our formal engagement ends.

What makes this work particularly powerful is that it addresses the root causes, not just symptoms. Installing a wellness app won't fix a toxic culture. Offering meditation classes won't solve systemic burnout caused by unrealistic expectations and poor boundaries.

Real change requires looking honestly at how the organization operates, what it truly values (not just what it says it values), and being willing to make sometimes uncomfortable shifts in how leadership shows up and how work gets done.

The Positive Ripple Effect in Action

When organizations genuinely prioritize employee wellbeing through cultural transformation, the effects compound:

Individual Level: Employees feel more fulfilled, less stressed, more engaged. They bring their whole selves to work and have energy left over for their lives outside work.

Team Level: Psychological safety enables better collaboration, innovation, and performance. Teams develop genuine camaraderie and mutual support.

Organizational Level: The company becomes more adaptive, resilient, and successful. It attracts talent, retains institutional knowledge, and builds a reputation as a place where people thrive.

Community Level: Employees who flourish at work contribute more positively to their families and communities. They volunteer, they engage, they spread wellbeing beyond the office walls.

Societal Level: As more organizations model healthy ways of working, societal norms shift. We move from accepting burnout and disengagement as normal to expecting and demanding better.

This is the positive ripple effect. And it's not theoretical—I've seen it happen.

Companies that have done this work don't just become better places to work. They become forces for good, demonstrating that business success and human flourishing aren't competing priorities—they're mutually reinforcing.

Why This Matters More Than Ever

We're at an inflection point. The challenges I wrote about regarding Finland—unemployment, AI disruption, social isolation, the breakdown of traditional sources of meaning—these aren't unique to one country. They're global trends that are reshaping the world of work.

At the same time, we're seeing a growing recognition that the old ways of working aren't sustainable. Burnout rates are at record highs. Mental health challenges are epidemic. Young people are questioning whether traditional career paths are worth the cost to their wellbeing.

In this context, organizations that genuinely prioritize employee wellbeing won't just be more ethical, it will become their competitive advantage. They'll be able to attract and retain talent in an increasingly tight labor market. They'll be more innovative in facing complex challenges. They'll be more resilient when disruptions occur.

But more importantly, they'll be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. They'll be helping to create a world where work is a source of meaning, connection, and fulfillment rather than stress, exhaustion, and alienation.

What Can Be Done and Where to Start?

If you're a leader who recognizes that employee wellbeing matters—not just as a buzzword, but as a fundamental driver of organizational success and human flourishing—I'd love to talk with you.

Whether you're just beginning to explore these ideas or you're already on a transformation journey and need support, culture and leadership coaching can help you:

• Assess where your organization currently stands on workplace wellbeing

• Identify the specific cultural shifts that will have the greatest impact

• Develop leaders who can create and sustain psychologically safe, high-trust environments

• Build teams that experience genuine collaboration and even flow states

• Create systems and practices that support rather than undermine wellbeing

• Measure progress and continuously improve

This work isn't easy. It requires courage, vulnerability, and sustained commitment. But the alternative—continuing with cultures that deplete people rather than energize them—is no longer acceptable.

We know too much now. We know that workplace wellbeing matters profoundly, both for organizational success and human flourishing. We know that the ripple effects extend far beyond office walls. We know that leaders have the power to create environments where people thrive.

The question is: Will we use that power?