Equipsme worked with Fruitful Insights on research which generated a Return on Investment figure for businesses investing in Equipsme plans. But did you know our partnership goes beyond ROI? Fruitful Insights can also help Equipsme clients to accurately measure and analyse wellbeing in their organisation – and act to improve it.
We spoke to Mike Tyler, Co-founder and Chairman, to understand what they do for businesses, and how it’s making a difference to both wellbeing and productivity.
Who are Fruitful Insights?
Fruitful Insights was founded to help businesses accurately measure and analyse the wellbeing of their employees - and understand how that might be impacting their performance and productivity.
How do you measure wellbeing?
We benchmark a firms’ wellbeing approach across six different dimensions to get a clear view of its maturity against other firms – providing each business with a Maturity Index Score. We also track the workplace wellbeing of employees through an in-depth survey. It’s built on robust academic research reflecting the multiple dimensions and facets of workplace wellbeing.
What sort of things do you look at?
We look at all sorts of things, including but not limited to sickness absence patterns, staff attrition, physical health, mental health, personal habits, eating and sleeping patterns - and personality types.
Many organisations are collecting some of this information which provides partial insight, but it isn’t providing the full wellbeing picture. They are often looking at claims data or lag indicators - these are things that have already happened and can’t be changed.
What we’re looking at is lead indicators – how people feel, their intentions, whether they have existing conditions, their plans and priorities. And that gives businesses information they can act on, and the opportunity to change future outcomes.
Why should businesses care?
There’s lots of well-established research out there that makes the direct link between employee wellbeing and organisational performance. The Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, for instance, has proven that the ‘happiest’ companies outperform their counterparts in multiple traditional measures of firm performance – including on the stock market. That’s amazing work that shows the size of the prize, but what it doesn’t do is bring it back down to a bespoke organisational level. Which is where we come in.
What we tend to find when we work with organisations is that many already know almost by instinct that happier people are good for business - and they might even have introduced wellbeing initiatives. But. Those initiatives are often not coherent, not tailored to their workforce’s specific needs – and crucially, are not being measured so it’s not clear whether they are having an impact.
We provide businesses with robust data, including the impact of impaired wellbeing business productivity – how much it’s actually costing them. We also give them a tailored action plan for making a difference.
That gives HR teams something really solid and compelling to take to Boards and budget holders, and get the investment they need to really move the dial on wellbeing.
What are some of the things that impair wellbeing?
It varies dramatically from company to company, the industry, and the culture of the organisation. Things like excessive workload, lack of control/agency, poor communication or perceived distrust can have a huge impact on wellbeing, motivation and productivity.
And it can vary significantly WITHIN an organisation, too. A call centre team might be very young, and very active outside the office - running marathons and going to the gym. But they’re also not taking breaks, eating fast food at their desks, and pushing themselves or competing to meet targets or make big bonuses.
Meanwhile a middle-management team might be older, less active and more sedentary, more likely to be looking after children or older relatives, and more likely to be working to rule. Improving the wellbeing of those teams would involve very different interventions.
How does it work, and what do clients get at the end?
We work closely with the HR, benefits teams, to get to know the company, and understand the challenges they face. Step 1 involves completing an EMPLOYER survey which can be achieved within an hour or two. This results in the creation of a Wellbeing Maturity Report. The business is given
a Maturity Index (WMI) Score, cost analysis and actionable Guidance.
In essence the report provides an overview of the organisation’s wellbeing status and how it can improve its overall approach to wellbeing as a business, in areas like strategic Intent, leadership, and programme management. In order to delve into the detail of what is driving poor employee wellbeing, we then roll out an in-depth EMPLOYEE survey. This is all sent out using the online Fruitful Insights’ platform.
On completion of each employee survey, we provide a personal report for each individual, so they can understand more about their own wellbeing - and areas they might wish to address. Very often, employees never actually see the results of staff surveys. We want to keep them involved and engaged so they come along on the organisation’s journey to create meaningful change on wellbeing for everyone.
The aggregate data is used to distil the core drivers of poor wellbeing across the business. We can highlight issues based on different age groups, departments, divisions, locations. The data is always anonymous but allows businesses to identify problem areas very effectively.
What are some of the quick wellbeing wins you see for businesses?
Again, it’s unique for each business. It could be putting in table tennis tables in breakout rooms instead of computer consoles. It could be addressing a culture of presenteeism. It could be standardising policies or procedures perceived to be unfair, adding or upgrading health benefits.
What it most definitely looks like is developing a set of wellbeing KPIs that are aligned to business objectives, developing a documented wellbeing plan based on real data, and setting performance targets for improved productivity.
What’s the feedback like?
You can’t run a successful business without data – financial data is critical but as wellbeing costs become a more significant operating cost why wouldn’t you want to know whether what you are investing in offers meaningful ROI. This requires firms to audit their workplace wellbeing.
Our approach solves that problem. It gives businesses concrete ROI analysis – and concrete actions. For most, that’s a game changer.
How do I get in touch?
We’re working with Equipsme clients and prospective clients to help them analyse and audit their wellbeing – and we’re even offering discounts for those organisations. In the first instance, Equipsme clients should contact Gavin Shay, Equipsme’s Distribution Director, for a chat: [email protected]
