Working Well: Dr. Jillian Lampert Of Accanto Health On How Companies Are Creating Cultures That Support & Sustain Mental, Emotional, Social, Physical & Financial Wellness
An Interview with Karen Mangia
Build in wellness by building in connection — we know how important connection is to well-being. Virtual, in person, hybrid; whatever your workforce structures, make sure there are opportunities for connection. It is our lifeblood.
The pandemic pause brought us to a moment of collective reckoning about what it means to live well and to work well. As a result, employees are sending employers an urgent signal that they are no longer willing to choose one — life or work — at the cost of the other. Working from home brought life literally into our work. And as the world now goes hybrid, employees are drawing firmer boundaries about how much of their work comes into their life. Where does this leave employers? And which perspectives and programs contribute most to progress? In our newest interview series, Working Well: How Companies Are Creating Cultures That Support & Sustain Mental, Emotional, Social, Physical & Financial Wellness, we are talking to successful executives, entrepreneurs, managers, leaders, and thought leaders across all industries to share ideas about how to shift company cultures in light of this new expectation. We’re discovering strategies and steps employers and employees can take together to live well and to work well.
As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Jillian Lampert.
Dr. Lampert is the Chief Strategy Officer of Accanto Health, the parent company of Veritas Collaborative and The Emily Program. Dr. Lampert completed her doctorate degree in Nutrition and Epidemiology and Master of Public Health degree in Public Health Nutrition at the University of Minnesota. She is also the author of numerous book chapters and articles addressing the nutritional treatment of eating disorders, body image, sports participation, adolescent health, and disordered eating and she regularly speaks regionally and nationally on numerous eating disorder-related topics.
Thank you for making time to visit with us about the topic of our time. Harvard Business Review predicts that wellness will become the newest metric employers will use to analyze and to assess their employees’ mental, physical and financial health. How does your organization define wellness, and how does your organization measure wellness?
At Accanto Health, we define wellness as any workplace health promotion, activity or organizational policy designed to support healthful self-care behavior among employees and to improve employee well-being.
We measure wellness by:
- Conducting employee surveys- asking employees how they are doing and what they need.
- Providing a toll-free number that employees can anonymously call to express concerns.
- Assessing turnover and retention rates.
Based on your experience or research, how do you correlate and quantify the impact of a well workforce on your organization’s productivity and profitability?
We know that a well workplace encourages employees to feel connected and prepared to do their best work and feel satisfied in their roles. We promote a well workplace by:
- Encouraging employees to rest and take PTO days when needed.
- Sharing ways for employees to relax.
- Incentivizing well-being.
- Boosting morale and connection: encourage employees to share pictures of their children or pets during virtual meetings or send pictures through a company social platform.
Even though most leaders have good intentions when it comes to employee wellness, programs that require funding are beholden to business cases like any other initiative. The World Health Organization estimates for every $1 invested into treatment for common mental health disorders, there is a return of $4 in improved health and productivity. That sounds like a great ROI. And, yet many employers struggle to fund wellness programs that seem to come “at the cost of the business.” What advice do you have to offer to other organizations and leaders who feel stuck between intention and impact?
Make sure your intention is truly focused on the wellness of your staff — are you meeting staff needs? Are you asking them what their needs are or are you assuming you know? Wellness of staff can’t be an “extra” or even a “benefit” — it needs to be a core part of your approach to employee retention and recruitment.
Speaking of money matters, a recent Gallup study reveals employees of all generations rank wellbeing as one of their top three employer search criteria. How are you incorporating wellness programs into your talent recruitment and hiring processes?
We are currently offering:
- flexible work environment
- generous PTO packages
- increased support for mental health
- sign-on bonus
- referral bonus
We’ve all heard of the four-day work week, unlimited PTO, mental health days, and on demand mental health services. What innovative new programs and pilots are you launching to address employee wellness? And, what are you discovering? We would benefit from an example in each of these areas.
- Mental Wellness: We offer an Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Our lives can be stressful, and sometimes we need expert advice, and our EAP can help. The EAP is designed to help employees lead a happier and more productive life at home and at work. They can call for confidential access to a Licensed Professional Counselor or they can visit in-person with a Licensed Professional Counselor free of charge. Some situations addressed by the EAP include marriage and family problems, emotional problems, alcoholism and alcohol abuse, drug abuse and dependency, financial problems, compulsive gambling and eating disorders.
We also offer Learn to Live, an online cognitive behavioral program that can help employees work through mental health issues when and where it’s convenient for them.
- Emotional Wellness: With our EAP program, employees can reach out to a specialist for help with balancing work and life issues. With a single phone call, a Work/Life Specialist can answer questions and help find resources in their community.
- Social Wellness: Employees have access to hundreds of discounts on everyday products and services through the employee discount program. They can save on things like childcare, education, senior care, gyms, nutrition plans, computers, and cell phones just to name a few.
- Physical Wellness: Our benefits package includes support for activity through discounted access to activity facilities. Additionally, we place our facilities in settings that allow for safe access to outdoor recreation areas and green spaces as part of the surrounding areas to provide visual and physical opportunities for mental and physical restoration.
- Financial Wellness: Our benefits package includes financial services support including 401(k) education and match as well as access to financial management education.
Can you please tell us more about a couple of specific ways workplaces would benefit from investing in your ideas above to improve employee wellness?
Stop thinking about workplace wellness as weight loss programs and discounts at gyms that prioritize weight and exercise and focus on holistic well-being that truly supports staff of all sizes and all walks of life.
How are you reskilling leaders in your organization to support a “Work Well” culture?
- Annual learning and development training.
- Implementing leadership training that includes how to support staff to work well.
Ideas take time to implement. What is one small step every individual, team or organization can take to get started on these ideas — to get well?
Ask your team what would be helpful to them — you can do that within a budget and agreed upon parameters; but what is it that they need or want? Then work towards that.
What are your “Top 5 Trends To Track In the Future of Workplace Wellness?”
- Offering mental health days to ensure staff know their mental well-being is as important as — and intricately tied to their physical well-being.
- Focusing on full wellness — sleeping, coping, eating, and moving. That is what we work with clients to learn, develop, and practice. We need to practice it ourselves and support our workforce to have the tools and environment needed to do it for themselves.
- The gym discount is nice, but not as “for everyone” as we think. Wellness is not about weight, dieting, and activity: It is about individuals having what they need and doing what they need to take care of their own unique needs. How can employers support that?
- Health coverage that covers whole health. Make sure your health benefits are comprehensive and push your insurer to provide an adequate network of care — don’t be swayed by inexpensive, narrow network plans. Your employees will suffer and you will not have a robustly supported workforce.
- Build in wellness by building in connection — we know how important connection is to well-being. Virtual, in person, hybrid; whatever your workforce structures, make sure there are opportunities for connection. It is our lifeblood.
What is your greatest source of optimism about the future of workplace wellness?
I see optimism in our clients when they are able to attend to their wellness holistically. It’s what we do day in and day out. I believe paying more attention to employee mental health is critical and is becoming a bigger part of the conversation in today’s workplaces. A well workforce can help us best take care of those who need our care.
Our readers often like to continue the conversation with our featured interviewees. How can they best connect with you and stay current on what you’re discovering?
They can visit our blog at www.emilyprogram.com/category/blog.
Thank you for sharing your insights and predictions. We appreciate the gift of your time and wish you continued success and wellness.
About The Interviewer: Karen Mangia is one of the most sought-after keynote speakers in the world, sharing her thought leadership with over 10,000 organizations during the course of her career. As Vice President of Customer and Market Insights at Salesforce, she helps individuals and organizations define, design and deliver the future. Discover her proven strategies to access your own success in her fourth book Success A Success From Anywhere and by connecting with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Working Well: Dr Jillian Lampert Of Accanto Health On How Companies Are Creating Cultures That Supp was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.