Disclosing Metrics on Workplace Well-Being

The number of employees who are not fully functional at work costs U.S. employers $150 billion a year in lost productivity. In the United States alone, some four million workers have voluntarily left their jobs each month. A lack of well-being is the leading suspect. When employee well-being is low, productivity declines and healthcare costs increase. On the other side, high employee well-being can make an organization more attractive to both customers and investors. The challenge is that it’s hard to know whether worker well-being is high or low. To fill this knowledge gap, organizations should use multiple sources to develop and then publicly report their well-being metrics. 

Publicly disclosing metrics on worker well-being has a precedent in the evolution of environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting. When ESG became more of a priority among customers, investors and workers, companies responded by creating and publicly disclosing ESG metrics. The same could happen with well-being. Employers are scrambling to use it as a lever to attract and retain workers, and it is being elevated as an important societal concern. Reporting on well-being could be the next evolution in disclosure — with the prospect of benefiting workers, employers, stakeholders and society as a whole.