GrokTalk Blog

#EachforEqual is this year’s International Women’s Day theme. This #IWD2020 observance gives us the perfect opportunity to reflect on what we’re doing, as business leaders, to create a gender equal workplace, and to ask ourselves, "am I walking the talk?" To me, Each for Equal means everyone deserves an equal opportunity to be successful, personally and professionally — and we’re all responsible for helping each other along the way. As a mother and CEO, I take this as an imperative to do whatever I can to provide my family and colleagues with the resources and support they need to thrive across all areas of their lives.

What is employee happiness? In jargony terms, it's a positive mindset enabling emotional engagement with one's company. Put simply, it's that pleasing, content state of being that makes an employee willing to "go that extra mile" while running with an idea or problem-solving. It's that special something that makes it possible for an employee to, say, write a blog post about employee happiness without rolling her eyes. You might say that employee happiness is the piece de resistance to employee Engagement (yes, that's Engagement with a capital E). 

Listening to employees is a critical component of maintaining a company culture that values people as individuals with unique interests, struggles, and goals. Individual employees create a workforce culture, after all, and make the culture happen. They personify it. They bring it to life. They live it. So if you're building a culture of wellbeing, it only makes sense that you provide them with wellbeing benefits that enable them to show up and give their best.

What do your employees want and need in a workforce wellbeing program? Wellbeing is inherently personal, so don't make assumptions. Ask them! Listen. Find out what they expect — what they'd enjoy and actually use. And then, take action. 

According to the American Heart Association, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. In fact, cardiovascular diseases, including stroke, kill 17 million people worldwide each year — a figure expected to reach over 23 million per year by 2030. We can’t think of a better reason to raise heart health awareness among your global employees.

It’s a new year — a new decade! — and we hope your workforce wellbeing program is already making a splash with employees. Now is the time to get people excited about your 2020 activities and kick off a happy and healthy year. We want you to make the most of your workforce wellbeing initiatives so your employees engage early and often. That's where delivering personalized experiences fits in.

Did you know that Grokker has more than 100 programs (and more on the way!) designed to help employees pursue their wellbeing goals and develop healthy habits? All 5 dimensions of wellbeing are covered — fitness, mental health, sleep, nutrition, and financial wellbeing — so there's something for everyone, and then some. But we've learned that our users usually have more than one wellbeing goal in mind, and they like to reach for these goals simultaneously. Makes sense, considering how all of the lifestyle factors are interconnected.

Aside from being the first month in the new year, that special time for making get-healthier resolutions, January also comes on the heels of December — when most people eat and drink “whatever they want” as they move from one holiday party to another, leaving cookie crumbs in their wake. Unfortunately for those of us with a sweet tooth, a big slice of grandma’s rum cake doesn’t pack the same nutritional punch as a naturally sweetened apple, orange, or strawberry. But ‘tis the season, right?

At work, you’re prepping for the 2020 benefits year, reviewing company policies, running year-end reports, and recovering from office holiday parties. At home, you’re prepping for family get-togethers, reviewing shopping receipts, running last-minute errands, and recovering from late nights spent watching endless holiday movies.

As of September 2019, there are 7 million open jobs in the U.S., and the average time to fill a position is 43 days. What’s more, about 42 million people left their jobs in 2018, leaving their employers to pay $1 trillion in voluntary turnover costs. 

Most of us — if not all of us — have participated in an employer-sponsored wellness program of some sort. Even if we’re old enough to remember when it was perfectly acceptable to light up a cigarette in the office, we’ve grown accustomed to our employers offering health screenings, fitness challenges, or educational lunch-and-learns to promote healthy habits. And if we're lucky, our employer provides personalized wellbeing tools that we can access on-demand, when and where we need them the most. 

Working from home, e-learning, sheltering in place — the whole family together, day in and day out. One activity overlaps into the next until the seemingly never-ending day comes to an end, only to start anew the next morning. This isn't unfamiliar territory for many employees, particularly women. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, their work day never really ended. It changed. During their “second shift,” they were taking care of their children and aging parents, getting a meal on the table, and managing any number of other household obligations. You might say that at least for now, this is the "new normal," blurring the lines for those working the "second shift" and amplifying all the challenges that come along with it.  

Pinterest has employees around the globe, but they all share a focus on whole-person wellbeing. Whether they're working in San Francisco, CA, or Ireland, UK, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Brazil, or Canada, they have the opportunity to participate in the company's Beingwell workforce wellbeing program and explore the tenets of mind, body, community, and financial wellness.