How to Become Whole People

I have worked in corporate responsibility since the late 1980s and have seen some remarkable progress in that time, in most sectors and on numerous fronts. Yet still, more than 30 years on, too many organisations seem to underplay the fundamental importance of their responsibilities towards their employees.

Here are a few alarming facts*:

The experience of moderate to high stress among professionals has risen from 63% to 76% since 2022.

Across all categories, 60% of employees are experiencing anxiety and 56% are suffering depression symptoms.

Over 40% of employees are enduring ongoing musculoskeletal pain.

It is hugely encouraging to see external changes that are successfully addressing climate change, biodiversity, social equity and divestment. Yet failure to engage with all the elements of employee wellbeing is rather like driving your kids to school in a zero-emissions car while neglecting them at home. Not only that, we might understand organisations failing, when in financial difficulty, to invest generously in climate change mitigation measures – but underinvestment in staff can cripple not only the people but also financial performance.

Another key factor is the vital contribution made by wellbeing programmes to employee engagement. Our colleagues at the University of Bath have shown that wellbeing not only improves our productivity by reducing absenteeism, presenteeism, turnover rates and much else, it also considerably increases employee engagement. And the research goes on to demonstrate the huge extent to which engaged employees, once again, boost commercial performance too.

But enough of all this dry, prosaic talk of only statistics and profitability. Let’s talk about the spirit of an organisation. Someone wise once said that it’s very hard to define buoyancy, enthusiasm and shared passion in a company but you know it when you walk into a building full of it. I have known organisations where the pride, delight, trust and – let’s not hold back here – love that is endemic among the employees is palpable. For these people, work is vocational, teamwork is mutually respectful and organisational performance is a natural outcome of mutually supportive personal and interpersonal evolution.

This doesn’t mean that there are no conflicts, no misunderstandings, no betrayals and no losses. These inevitable challenges, however, are met collaboratively. Mistakes are seen as opportunities for learning. Breakdowns are seen as openings for breakthrough developments.

Now, many organisations have become accustomed to command-and-control, hierarchical structures and blame cultures. What is most encouraging, however, is that it often only requires a commitment on the part of the senior leaders for the process of change to begin in earnest. It is delightful to experience the speed with which this transformative impulse can go viral, both within and among the external stakeholder groups of a company, department or institution.

And finally, many people who feel they are highly valued by their employers and colleagues not only perform better in their working lives – they usually go on to make a series of even more important discoveries. Those who co-evolve as human beings in their professional lives almost inevitably become better parents, partners, community members and citizens.

In other words, they become whole people.

Contact Whole People to find out how we can help you or your organisation.