The rise of ‘Corporate Wellness 2.0’
CR WORLDWIDE
David Gould, CEO, CR Worldwide
Through building and managing rewards,
recognition and incentive programmes for over
287,000 workers at over 120 businesses
internationally, CR Worldwide (CR) data opens an
unprecedented window into how these new
challenges are radically reshaping the employment
landscape.
The evolving profile of the modern employee is
driving a parallel transformation in business travel,
culture, benefits and workspaces. Evidence
indicates that young workers are less financially-
oriented and more likely to distrust big businesses
than previous generations. CR data reveals this is
mirrored in a ‘transformation in workplace’ culture,
with companies increasingly creating millennial
-friendly ‘employer brands’ promoted through
sustainable, healthy workplace wellbeing
initiatives increasingly promoted through social
media channels.
Younger workers are also more likely to experience
stress and mental health issues and to expect
Foreword from David GouldCEO, CR Worldwide
Charting an evolving employment landscapeLarge enterprises across the world are transforming their workplace benefits and brands in response to major changes in workforce demographics that are affecting recruitment, retention and productivity. Rising stress, ill health and skills shortages among a new generation of workers are stunting productivity, growth, wages and living standards. Younger workers are also more likely than previous generations to prioritise prospective employers’ values and their individual ability to make an impact over salary and status. This is causing big brands to lose out to start-ups in the talent race.
2 The rise of ‘Corporate Wellness 2.0’
employers to care about their out-of-hours wellbeing.
CR data shows major employers responding to this
by introducing team bonding exercises and travel
incentives ranging from sports activity days to
nature trips to improve health and wellbeing
outside office hours. Financial rewards are being
replaced by experiential gifts and extra vacation. A
surprising trend has also begun to emerge -
corporations are offering travel incentives built
around enhancing the ‘human-animal bond’ which
has been found to have therapeutic effects 1 on
mental health.
CR has recorded a sustainability-based sea-
change in the nature of corporate events and
travel to attract an environmentally conscious
young workforce. Corporate events are getting
greener with new innovations ranging from
digitalised events collateral and rail travel
discounts to biodegradable smoothie carts and
apple peel notepads. Human-powered transport
such as cycling is replacing traditional business
transport and nature breaks are replacing city
breaks. The destinations for corporate travel are
shifting too; a Global Sustainability Index
ranking is increasingly more important than a
TripAdvisor rating to deciding corporate travel
destinations. Companies are responding to a skills
gap among younger workers by introducing
‘educational’ trips and incentivised e-learning
programmes to up-skill new generations.
Overall, corporate spending on rewards and
incentives is rising year-on-year, with the APAC
region doubling its investment in rewards
programmes, UK enterprises doubling their average
spend on employee rewards over the past three
years and US companies spending an average of
$292,000 on employee rewards last year. The fact
that more time off was more popular than any other
reward last year demonstrates rising corporate
awareness of workplace stress and its impact on
productivity. This report charts a ‘Corporate
Wellness 2.0’ revolution with the rise of
personalised, peer-driven employee benefits,
workplace incentives built around health, wellbeing
and sustainability and the elevation of workforce
wellbeing to a board-level issue.
3The Rise of ‘Corporate Wellness 2.0’
“The fact that ‘more time off’ was more popular than any other reward last year demonstrates rising corporate awareness of workplace stress and its impact on productivity.”
As the environment has become an increasingly
salient issue, many consumers have become more
conscious of their lifestyle choices and how they
are impacting the planet as they go about their
daily lives. Millennials in particular have different
expectations to previous generations when it
comes to the environmental practices of
corporations, illustrated by the fact that 73%2 are
willing to spend more on environmental products.
In a recent survey3 both millennials (29%) and Gen
Zs (29%) highlighted ‘climate change/ protecting
the environment’ as their top concern. The
emergence of the environmental movement
Extinction Rebellion4 – which was mentioned more
than 70,000 times in online media reports in just
October 2019 – is also a clear signpost for
changing attitudes towards sustainability, and how
widespread this concern is becoming. The growing
relevance of plastic pollution in the political and
popular consciousness highlights a significant rise
in concern.
This shift in consumer attitudes has trickled into
the workplace and employees are increasingly
expecting their employers to share or at least
support their values, even if it means a salary cut.
In a recent survey of employees from large US
organisations, nearly half of all respondents, and
75% of millennials, said that they would accept a
smaller salary5 from a company that is
environmentally responsible. Over a quarter of
millennials (27%) think businesses should try to
improve and protect the planet, but only (12%)
believe that companies are actually doing so6. This
indicates that sustainability is now becoming a
vital differentiator for employers competing in the
recruitment race.
As sustainability becomes a greater priority across
society, businesses are waking up to the changes
they need to make in order to meet the expectations
of younger workers. An interesting trend revealed
by CR data over the last two years is the growing
corporate interest in sustainable travel incentives and
events. There has been a distinct rise in corporate
bookings for nature tourism trips in place of
traditional city breaks. Over half (56%) of corporate
incentive trips tracked by CR in the past year
included an element of ‘human-powered’ activities or
nature tourism compared with 15% of trips in 2018.
This has included more companies choosing
destinations ranked highly on the Global
Destination Sustainability Index,7 such as Iceland
and Switzerland, and selecting nature-based
activities like gorilla trekking, husky sledding and
helping vets tag wild rhinos. With research from
earlier this year revealing that 70% of conservation
volunteers are millennials8, this also reflects a clear
trend towards trips that involve helping local
communities and boosting conservation by
providing sustainable revenue sources for
communities in biodiverse areas. The same
research also revealed South Africa is one of the
most popular travel destinations, a trend also
reflected in CR corporate travel data.
These tendencies also map to wider demand, with
54% of travellers9 saying they are inspired to travel
more sustainably, having noticed the visible impact
of tourism at the destinations they have visited
- with 60% saying they’re inspired by the natural
sights. With 42% of travellers10 also stating that cost
is an obstacle to travelling more sustainability,
corporations are enabling their employees to act
ethically by supporting their values.
The incentive travel industry is responding to this
demand in order to support corporations on their
sustainability mission. When asked what would
have the greatest positive impact on their
incentive travel programmes over the next 2 years,
81%11 of people in the incentive travel industry cited
increasing the importance of corporate social
responsibility and being “green”.
As well as sustainability being reflected in trips and
travel, many organisations are becoming conscious
of the environmental impact of daily office
management and planned events, and with good
reason. In 2018, the UK events industry sent
100,000 tonnes of waste12 to landfill and it is now
been confirmed that 90.5% of plastic waste13
globally has never been recycled. Consumers are
also becoming less forgiving of wasteful
Chapter 1: The growth of sustainability
4 The Rise of ‘Corporate Wellness 2.0’
5The Rise of ‘Corporate Wellness 2.0’
practices, as demonstrated when UK retailer
Poundland recently received backlash14 when
advertising its plastic ‘Gift of Nothing’ for
Valentine’s day. Even the organisers of the
Glastonbury music festival made the event
plastic-free this year. 15
Many businesses are changing office culture by
going paperless or implementing flexible working
strategies to reduce their carbon footprint. CR
organises corporate events for leading
enterprises across the world and its events data
reveals a marked shift towards more
environmentally friendly and sustainable events.
There has been a marked increase in companies
booking sustainable events. Supported by CR’s
drive to reduce plastic waste from events,
UKISUG’s Annual Conference, Connect,
scheduled to take place in December 2019 has
made a conscious effort to reduce its carbon
footprint. By offering note pads made from apple
peel, recyclable badges, biodegradable smoothie
carts, as well as digitalised events collateral,
programmes and maps, the conference is tracking at
a colossal 63% reduction in plastic usage – providing
a shining example of how waste can be minimised.
On top of this, the conference has offered business
traveller discounts on train tickets to encourage
employees to travel by rail instead of road or air.
Evidence indicates this trend will continue to
evolve over the next few years and we’ll see an
increasing number of businesses making incremental
changes, such as offering water fountains in lieu of
bottles, as well as those who will aim to implement
blanket overhaul practices, such as plastic bans.
Not only will these steps improve corporate social
responsibility but moving towards more sustainable
business practices will foster greater employee
loyalty and engagement with millennial and Gen Z
workers.
An interesting trend revealed by CR data over the last two
years is the growing corporate interest in sustainable travel
incentives and events
Chapter 2: Understanding and addressing the corporate productivity gap
6 The Rise of ‘Corporate Wellness 2.0’
Abundant evidence shows we are witnessing a
widening productivity gap between a frontier of
top-performing companies and a long tail of
underperforming firms. Research has also shown a
growing corporate inequality within industries and
countries as a vanguard of economic high-
performers 16 puts increasing distance between itself
and the chasing pack. There is a similarly uneven
patchwork of productivity across geographies,
with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) showing stark gaps17 in
output between emerging and advanced economies
and between industries, while the UK is near the
bottom18 of the G7.
CR runs recognition and incentive programmes
used to aid productivity and performance for
287,000 employees and over 120 major enterprises
around the world. These businesses incentivise staff
productivity by offering digital ‘points’ which build
towards travel incentives or other self-selected
rewards. Points are offered for measurable
improvements in workforce performance such as
earning peer nominations, demonstrating
understanding of brand values or achieving sales
targets. Rewards programmes have been
demonstrated to boost employee brand loyalty,
engagement and productivity as well as reducing
attrition rates. Examining levels of engagement with
these programmes and the extent to which
employees accumulate points for rewards
therefore offers a further window into differences
in workforce motivation, engagement and
productivity across countries.
The data reveals high levels of employee engagement
with recognition and incentives programmes across
EMEA and North America, with 97% of points being
redeemed in EMEA and 81% in North America. The
data also indicated more employees in North America
and APAC accumulating or ‘banking’ points rather
than spending them, with only 44% of employees
that earned points in North America in the last 12
months converting them into prizes. 47% of those in
EMEA that earned points in the past year also chose
to save them. This indicates they are focused not on
meeting short-term targets but on working towards
bigger and more long-term targets and thus that
they are motivated, ambitious and plan to stay in
their current jobs. The high proportion of North
American and European employees both engaging
with rewards programmes and saving rather than
spending points indicates strong employee
engagement and employer loyalty among EMEA
and North American employees, which are key
aspects of productivity.
CR data indicates companies are responding to
falling productivity by spending generously on
recognition and incentives. Spending on rewards
across all UK enterprises doubled from 2016-17 to
almost £7,000,000 in 2018-19.
The average US corporate spend on employee
rewards soared by 67% in 2019. US spending on
rewards for sales teams has also tripled from $103
per head to $353 per head in the past year alone.
Overall spending on reward schemes for channel
workforces in the UK has soared from £157 per
employee to £273 per head in the last year as
companies aim to boost productivity across a
increasingly fragmented channel sector. Data
reveals UK and US companies are also investing
heavily in rewarding their top-performing
employees. The highest-value rewards in the US
including a $4,600 Orlando family vacation and a
$2,200 luxury cruise while the UK’s top corporate
rewards chosen included a £4,900 4K HDR smart
TV and a £2,723 Macbook Pro.
On a country-by-country basis, 20% of all available
points in the UK and 37% of all points in the US
were not redeemed last year, compared with 100%
of points in countries such as Taiwan. This indicates
significant minorities of US and UK workers could
be more loyal to their employer and engaged in
meeting their targets and are therefore ‘banking’
points to build towards long-term goals rather than
immediately redeeming.
7The rise of ‘Corporate Wellness 2.0’
“Spending on employee rewards by UK enterprises has doubled over the last three years”
“CR data reveals that an extra day off was the most common
reward redeemed by US employees last year”
8 The Rise of ‘Corporate Wellness 2.0’
Understanding and addressing the causes of this
unequal productivity landscape is vital to boosting
economic success. Lower workforce productivity
has been shown to hold back wages, growth and
living standards.19 Addressing variations in
productivity is therefore critical to addressing
wider social and economic inequalities in living
standards across countries.
A key reason is an inequality in output between
businesses, with significant gaps in productivity
between large firms and SMEs.20 In the UK, stark
difference between the best and worst-performing
companies has led to a consequent over-reliance
on a top tier of high-performers. The UK has a
larger number of innovative, high-growth firms
than comparable countries such as France and
Germany yet it also has a larger number of
companies performing significantly below
average.21 The elite group of highly productive
leader-runners that traditionally drove much of
Britain’s national growth has recently begun to
stagnate.22 There is parallel disparity among regions
with companies in the South East massively
outperforming those in the rest of the country.
The deeper questions are around what makes
some employees more engaged and some
companies more productive than others. Another
key question is whether it is possible to replicate
the success of top-performing companies and
employees to equalise economic growth across
companies, countries and sectors.
One of the key causes of workforce under-
performance is lack of mental and physical well-
being23 among young workers. Britain’s Healthiest
Workplace survey of 32,000 workers has shown a
rise in employee depression combined with
increasing physical health problems such as
unhealthy diets24 is harming productivity through
‘presenteeism’ (when employees attend work
but are unproductive). This is particularly the case
among a younger workforce, which is more likely
to report workplace stress and poor mental
health25, with 3.4 times more instances of
depression than older workers. This manifests in
lower levels of employee engagement and poorer
workforce performance among young workers.
Another key cause is a lack of skills among
younger workers, which is leading to a less productive
new generation of recruits. Younger workers value
companies that record and reward ‘personal
productivity’ over collective output which has
caused major brands to lose out to smaller
companies where each worker’s individual impact
is more visible. This indicates a growing need for
larger enterprises to introduce person-centric
performance targets and incentives aimed at
boosting individual productivity so as to successfully
boost overall productivity.
Crucially, working longer hours has been found to
be a major cause of unproductiveness. The OECD
countries that work the longest are not the most
productive26 while those that offer better work/life
balance enjoy higher rates of productivity.
CR data reveals that an extra day off was the most
common reward redeemed by US employees last
year. This indicates that instead of equating
productivity with extra work, companies are
attempting to increase productivity by offering
staff more time off. This ties into research
demonstrating that, counterintuitively, working
extra hours can lead to lower output by increasing
stress. As a result, Mexico which has the longest
average working hours in the OECD is also the
least productive.27 Surveys have similarly
demonstrated that extra vacation and paid time
off rank ahead of pension plans and parental leave
as being among the two employee rewards most
likely to increase work satisfaction.28
There has been a well-documented trend in
companies offering new corporate benefits to
incentivise improved productivity and
profitability. Some US companies offer free life
coaching and even ‘nap rooms’29. UK firms are
increasingly offering ‘pawternity leave’ to employees
with new puppies30, while Expedia offers flexible
hours31 and home working and Auto Trader UK
offers the chance to buy and sell vacation days.32
Companies are increasingly responding by offering
a range of mental and physical health benefits
tailored to a young generation, from treadmill
desks to subsidised gym memberships, mindfulness
apps and extended leave.
CR has charted increased spending on exotic
9The Rise of ‘Corporate Wellness 2.0’
corporate travel incentives, with a 33% increase in
companies offering long-haul trips to destinations
including Borneo, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
There has also been a 22% increase in spending on
employee travel incentives33 in the last year alone.
Companies are spending an average of £3,100
per person on corporate getaways for employees.
Taken alongside the fact that increased individual
productivity is one of the most important benefits
employers see from travel incentives, this indicates
a renewed drive to enhance worker performance
by enhancing leisure time.
CR sales data also reveals growing spending on
employee rewards and recognition programmes,
partly driven by a desire to boost productivity. In
2018-19, UK companies spent 31% more and US
companies spent 67% more per head on employee
rewards than in previous years. UK companies spent
an average of almost £7,000,000 last year on
employee rewards, with expensive gadgets such as
fitbits and tablets among the most popular rewards
chosen. Rewards for top-performers included Tag
Heuer Formula 1 Quartz Watches, iPad Pros and
smart TVs. This is in response to a growing drive to
improve workforce productivity as well as
recruitment and attrition rates.
There is evidence proven through CR’s client base
that the increasing implementation of person-
centric employee rewards, recognition and
incentives is improving productivity and
profitability. A healthcare supplier implemented a
reseller loyalty programme, which produced a 126%
improvement in annual revenue. One automotive
giant reported a 125% year-on-year increase in sales
performance across its channel workforce. An IT
enterprise recorded a 4258% increase in annual
revenue growth and an average of £74,000
revenue increase per employee, attributed to its
employee engagement initiatives. Consumer goods
enterprises have seen a 419% return on investment
while another IT company saw a similar 415%
increase in profit margin through a sales incentive
programme.
CarShop’s sales incentive programmes triggered
a 41% increase in employee engagement, which has
been found to be a key contributor to improved
productivity. Major household appliances brand
Hoover implemented a loyalty program to improve
sales performance among its retailers, which
produced a 270% year-on-year increase in sales
logged. This offers compelling evidence that re-
wards and incentives programmes can produce
increases in productivity across the channel
ecosystem and thus the wider economy as well as
the enterprise workforce. This has driven increasing
corporate investment in channel incentive
programmes to boost productivity across an ever
increasing and diversifying channel ecosystem.
Worldwide spending on rewards for channel sales
teams has almost doubled from $157 per head to
$273 per head in the past year.
Research has also found that a poor pipeline of
young talent is a substantial contributor to poor
corporate productivity. The OECD found that
Britain had one of the largest populations of low-
skilled young workers34 in the developed world.
This indicates that poor productivity is partly due
to a failure to up-skill young workers. CR data
confirms this: it shows a corresponding rise in
companies offering educational travel incentives
and creating rewards-based incentivised learning
programmes to help up-skill staff.
A FTSE-100 company introduced an e-learning
programme including videos and knowledge
quizzes that drove a 100% increase in sales
Leading automotive giant Pirelli, manufacturer of the Formula One World Championship tyres, introduced a sales and B2B customer loyalty programme to boost performance among its channel workforce. Pirelli even targeted under-performing dealerships with personalised rewards and incentives. This enabled Pirelli to set ambitious new Key Performance Indicators for sales of its 17”+ tyres and 18”+ tyre ranges. The programme has increased productivity across its channel workforce and boosted year-on-year sales across participating dealers.
10 The Rise of ‘Corporate Wellness 2.0’
“38%of enterprises now use
automated real-time systems to track and
reward employee performance”
opportunities, demonstrating that incentivised
learning is boosting workforce skills and corporate
productivity. Another enterprise introduced a
16-month incentivised learning programme and
recorded a tenfold increase in sales performance
among staff who completed the programme.
The programme found a clear correlation between
e-learning and increased productivity, with sales
staff who undertook the scheme redeeming, in
one month alone, 11% more performance-based
rewards than those who did not use the e-learning
programme. The rise of incentivised learning
indicates that companies are increasingly
introducing ‘gamified’ in-work e-learning platforms
to up-skill a younger generation of employees in
response to a productivity gap.
The evidence also indicates that companies are
beginning to track employee productivity in a
more multi-faceted way, using online platforms
with Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
that can integrate live sales data, transactions,
employee milestones and other performance
metrics. 38% of enterprises now use automated
real-time systems to track and reward employee
performance. There has been an increase in
enterprises harnessing live employee data and
even issuing real-time rewards which can be
redeemed on smartphones. It is likely that this
trend will increase with the use of machine-learning
systems to analyse individual employee data from
multiple platforms and devices, generating
person-centric rewards and incentives.
The evidence cumulatively indicates that companies
are helping to close the productivity gap by investing
more generously in individual employee wellbeing,
self-development and skills advancement. This
approach is reinforced by a significant amount of
research indicating that workplace stress and lack
of skills among a younger workforce are key drivers
of corporate and economic underperformance.
Britain and the US are extraordinarily well-placed
to benefit from this new workplace revolution.
They are both economies built around competition
and innovation with a top tier of companies which
are beacons of high productivity and workforce
performance. However, despite the high quality of
the economic front-runners, there remain too many
companies, sectors and regions whose level of
productivity lags far behind the rest. Ensuring a
more even spread of high productivity across the
UK and US economies will help ‘level up’ and
ensure a more equal distribution of high wages,
living standards and public services for all.
11The Rise of ‘Corporate Wellness 2.0’
Gartner recently stated that a global talent shortage
is now the leading emerging risk35 facing
organisations. Companies are competing for the
same pool of successful graduates year after year,
and with the advent of trends such as IoT and AI,
many industries are also undergoing enormous
changes that require new and specialised skill sets.
The evidence indicates that being a successful
organisation or an established brand is no longer a
sufficient recruitment differentiator in the modern
talent market. With the competition to attract and
retain young talent intensifying, many organisations
have begun to revisit the notion of becoming an
‘Employer Brand’ to make their value proposition
to Generation Y and Z clearer and more appealing.
Today, millennials in the workforce express a need
to feel both personally valued and aligned to the
values of the organisations they work for. Deloitte’s
Global Millennials Survey sheds light on some of
the reasons for this shift. The report suggests
that entering the job market during the economic
recession of the 2000s had long-term negative
effects on career prospects36, leading to growing
mistrust of employers among this group.
Further research suggests that this is a broader
trend among millennials, with Forrester data37
demonstrating that 70% of US millennials actively
consider company values before purchasing
products. The same data also points to a general
trend that there’s a broader consideration of
corporate values, with 40% of younger baby
boomers and a third of older boomers also
becoming more aware. According to Deloitte, 49%
of millennials would quit their current jobs in the
next two years38, because of dissatisfaction with
pay/financial rewards (43%), not feeling appreciated
(23%) and because they dislike the workplace
culture (15%).
The business practices of companies looking to
attract a new generation of workers therefore
need to focus on building and reinforcing a level of
trust between employer and employee. Successful
organisations are doing this by demonstrating that
they have an individual’s workplace experience at
the forefront of their minds, and recognise their
individual contribution.
Not only does this approach help companies
communicate their values and culture and
showcase their appreciation to teams, it can have
a tangible impact on an employee’s daily life by
closely aligning with their needs.
“We implemented the BetVictor Values You programme, in which colleagues can nominate their peers to receive an award (bronze, silver or gold) recognising their great work based on our company’s core values of Excellence, Collaboration, Dynamism, Passion, Accountability and Integrity. These nominations, which are reviewed by their line managers, come with points that can be used to make purchases. Another example is the external recognition programme we have in place that rewards excellent customer service.
We’re also big advocates of training programmes that help our teams enhance their skills in their areas of expertise. From holding internal workshops to enabling our team members to attend external training sessions, ensuring our employees are well-armed with the tools and knowledge they need to excel in their careers. We also have an extensive portfolio of benefits such as private medical health, a pension scheme, language courses, discounts in local shops and gyms and more.”
Martin Parker, Director of HR at BetVictor
Programmes like this foster togetherness across global teams, with employees being able to celebrate each other’s successes within a shared mission.
Chapter 3: The rise of the employer brand
12 The Rise of ‘Corporate Wellness 2.0’
“28% of enterprises now incorporate a
form of social recognition into their rewards platforms.”
13The Rise of ‘Corporate Wellness 2.0’
For example, having the option to redeem gift cards
in the lead up to Christmas could offer support at
what is often a very costly time of the year, or
having the option to select from a range of home
appliances might support an employee who has
just moved into their own house. Demonstrating
commitment to supporting employees’ home lives
as well as work lives is a way of demonstrating
appreciation of their efforts.
Similarly, brands are also using this approach to
help reinforce values and to ensure they become
actively embedded in the evolving position of an
organisation. When CarShop, the UK’s leading used
car supermarket group, updated its company
values, it wanted to ensure these were reflected
within the culture of the business. In order to do
this, it published online materials and implemented a
quiz in order to drive greater awareness and
understanding of the new values. This consequently
led to a 41% increase in employee engagement
within the organisation. Companies are increasingly
introducing awards which are nominated and
promoted by an employee’s peers.
A CR survey of senior finance executives found
that ‘peer-to-peer nominations’ were the
highest-ranked feature among online employee
engagement programmes. Organisations also
frequently display a leader board or photo
gallery into their recognition or incentive
dashboard. Working with CR, one Football Premier
League giant created a new ‘employer brand’ then
used an online social rewards and recognition system
to implement its new values across its workforce.
CR data from the past year shows that 28% of
enterprises now incorporate a form of social
recognition into their rewards platforms. 39% of
enterprises use online platforms with APIs or Single
Sign Ons (SSOs) that can integrate with company
intranets, partner portals or social channels. This is
alongside a move to incorporate the social
media-driven experience economy into corporate
life, from activity-themed team-bonding exercises
to picturesque corporate getaways. One leading
IT multinational recently rewarded top-performing
staff with a trip to South Africa, which was filled
with brand ‘touchpoints’, from room drop gifts to a
branded holiday photo ‘highlight reel’ designed to be
shared on social media.
With social media and workplace review websites
meaning that anyone can share experiences, it is
also becoming ever more important for organisations
to be conscious of how their brand is represented
to existing as well as future employees. Employers
that are taking the time to implement strategies
that recognise their employees, reward them with
benefits that are meaningful, and actively encourage
a sense of togetherness, are creating stronger
employer brands organically, and from the inside out.
Chapter 4: ‘Corporate wellness’ - the disappearing boundary between personal and professional lives
14 The Rise of ‘Corporate Wellness 2.0’
A large body of evidence indicates that
workplace stress is rising and taking a significant
toll on employee and corporate performance.
Studies now demonstrate that stress levels have
risen 20%39 in three decades and 16% have left
a job due to stress. This is particularly the case
among the younger generation, with almost 50% of
millennials reporting that they have left a job due
to burnout.40 43% of younger workers report they
have taken a day off due to mental ill health.41
This is not only causing job losses, but also costing
businesses vital man-hours; Britain’s Healthiest
Workplace found that 30 working days are lost
each year to absenteeism or ‘presenteeism’42 when
employees attend work but are unproductive. That
is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the impact
that mental wellbeing has on our economic fortunes.
Crucially, there is growing evidence that workplace
stress often originates outside the workplace. New
research is leading employers to see management
of mental wellbeing outside the workplace as
integral to modern workplace performance and to
attracting a young generation of workers.
Many studies have shown that job satisfaction is
intimately intertwined with productivity and
creativity, thereby affecting corporate growth and
innovation43. Greater job satisfaction leads to lower
staff turnover and greater productivity, profitability
and customer loyalty. Recent studies have gone
further and shown that an employee’s overall
mental state - or ‘life satisfaction’ - also directly
affects everything from workplace motivation to
creativity. This indicates that employee ‘life
satisfaction’ should be as much of a concern to
modern employers as their work satisfaction, as
the two are intertwined.
For example, research into the effect of emotions
on workplace performance has found that positive
moods lead to more motivated, productive and
organisationally engaged staff. Happier staff are
more likely to engage in ‘organisational citizenship’,
voluntarily performing tasks to help other employees.
Overall emotional wellbeing also spurs innovation
by producing greater ‘cognitive variation’ the
range, breadth and interconnectedness of new
ideas that employees generate. In other words, a
more positive frame of mind helps workers to think
of more new ideas and join these ideas up to form
new projects, products or services.
Workers that are highly engaged, as opposed to
being merely satisfied, are more likely to identify
with their employer’s ‘mission’, take a personal
stake in its success and represent their company
even outside of work.
Cumulatively, the evidence indicates that employers
ought to take an interest in aspects of personal
wellbeing previously considered private, including
even fitness and spirituality. This is also necessary
to match the expectations of younger workers,
with half of workers44 now calling for offices to
provide facilities for yoga, exercise and meditation,
traditionally considered out-of-office activities. A
lack of time to focus on wellbeing is now deemed a
primary cause of workplace stress45 and two thirds
of workers now report they have poor or below
average mental wellbeing.
The research points to a need for employers to
challenge the traditional work/life divide and take
a more active role in employees’ physical and
mental health.
There is growing evidence that companies are
responding to this new reality by investing in
employee wellbeing programmes, driving a
burgeoning ‘corporate wellness’ market.46 Over
80% of US companies with 50 or more employees
have invested in corporate wellness schemes,47
15The Rise of ‘Corporate Wellness 2.0’
while a rising number of UK companies also offer
wellness benefits. Companies are also providing
the kind of emotional support traditionally seen as
the duty of healthcare providers, with many
companies investing in schemes such as mental
health ‘first aid training’.48 Some pioneering
companies have even written workforce wellbeing
into their business plans and annual reporting.
There is strong evidence that workforce wellbeing
is increasingly becoming a board-level concern.
A CR Worldwide survey of 100 enterprises across
industries ranging from utilities and telecoms to
healthcare and manufacturing found that half
of senior finance executives are now involved in
actively researching employee recognition and
incentive programmes.
While working with some of the UK’s largest
enterprises, providing everything from employee
engagement to incentivised learning programmes,
CR has seen evidence of UK companies transforming
their workplace culture in a bid to improve workers’
mental wellbeing. The overall trend is a move away
from corporate rewards that only promote ‘job
satisfaction’ and a growing interest in employee
rewards that promote ‘life satisfaction’ outside work.
Research has extensively documented the link
between exercise and improved mental health,
including reducing tension and creating happier
and more stable mood.49 In the last 3 years, CR
client data has shown a 25% increase in the number
of UK enterprises booking trips involving an active
element, including human-powered activities such
as kayaking, paragliding and white water rafting. In
the last 12 months alone, there has been a 29%
increase in the number of companies offering
‘nature tourism’ including jungle treks. The data
also shows a rise in UK companies offering active
trips which promote fitness and wellbeing,
previously considered private leisure activities
rather than corporate responsibilities.
Mental wellbeing has been found to be linked to
fitness and even poor air quality - employers
appear to be choosing travel destinations and
activities designed around improving physical and
thus mental health. Research into the incentive
travel industry has found that trips focused on
wellness and sustainability are set to gain increasing
prevalence and that experience and relationships
are now key factors in successful employee travel
programmes.50
CR data offers powerful confirmation of this trend
and shows corporates are increasingly eschewing
inactive city breaks for outdoor activity trips.
56% of travel incentives over the past year
included more nature-based activities than city
breaks. In total, 44% of all UK corporate getaways
now include an element of physical activity and
nature such as paragliding, white-water rafting,
husky sledging, shark-diving and skiing. The five most
popular Christmas and winter trips offered by UK
companies in the last year include activity-based
‘experience economy’ breaks such as ski trips
incorporating white surf and husky sledging as well
as local trips such as Christmas markets. These
incentives are now more popular company rewards
for top performers than previous rewards such
as cars. This demonstrates a significantly greater
commitment to employee benefits based around
mental and physical wellbeing, in the form of
healthy activities and social experiences.
There has also been an increase in long-haul trips
to warmer destinations. All UK winter travel incentives
in the past year featured hot-weather destinations
and the most popular corporate business trips
of 2019 include such exotic destinations as Cape
Town, Mexico and the Caribbean. Brexit has also
driven an increase in long-haul corporate getaways
with CR data revealing a 33% increase in UK
employee trips outside Europe in the 12 months
Stakeholders in research phase
16 The Rise of ‘Corporate Wellness 2.0’
leading up to Britain’s expected EU withdrawal.
This is mirrored in consumer travel trends with
travel operators similarly reporting holidaymakers
increasingly choosing destinations outside the EU51
such as Tunisia and Turkey in the run-up to Brexit.
There has been a 22% overall increase in UK
corporate spending on employee travel incentives
in 2019 compared to the previous year, with UK
companies now spending an average of £3,100
per person per trip in the last year. The increase
in spending on corporate getaways demonstrates
that UK businesses are increasingly investing in
employee rewards built around health, wellbeing
and the experience economy. The most expensive
four rewards given to top-performing US employees
last year included a Luxury Five Night Cruise for
Two, an Orlando Family Dream Vacation and a
Napa Valley Wine and Dine Mini Break. This confirms
that corporate rewards for employees are
increasingly ‘experiential’ rather than tangible and
built around improving employee wellbeing by
encouraging relaxation and social, family-oriented
experiences.
Companies are taking other steps to improve
mental health52 too. Human-animal bond research
has found that contact with animals is key to
reducing stress and promoting wellbeing and
mental health among humans. This has driven new
trends such as ‘pet therapy’53, with emotional
support animals now routinely brought on flights54
and travel providers offering more nature trips.
CR data demonstrates a corresponding rise in
enterprises capitalising on this trend by offering
human-animal interactions as part of their corporate
travel incentives. It also reveals UK companies
increasingly offering nature-based corporate trips
involving work with animals, including rhino
notching55 - working with vets to individually
notch, implant an ID tag and collect DNA from
rhinos. Other frequent corporate activities include
shark diving in South Africa, orang-utan trekking
in Borneo and gorilla trekking56 in Rwanda. Husky
sledging is also now one of the five most popular
winter and Christmas trips for UK companies.
The trend in businesses offering eco trips with
human-animal interactions indicates that companies
are increasingly using corporate getaways not just
as leisure or bonding time but as a tool to improve
the physical and mental health of their workforce.
Individuals are even choosing corporate rewards
that similarly demonstrate an increased awareness of
mental health and wellbeing such as extra leisure
time or health-related gadgets. Wearable fitness
aids such as Fitbits were among the ten most
popular corporate rewards across EMEA (including
the UK) and the US in 2019. The three most
popular rewards for US employees included a
full-day, half-day, and 10-hour break and a day off
was the most popular corporate reward of 2019
worldwide.
Corporate rewards are shifting from tangible
products to ‘experiential’ rewards that improve
mental health; employer-sponsored social
experiences such as a ‘traditional afternoon tea
for two’ and an ‘enjoyable meal’ were in the top 10
rewards for workers in the UK and Sweden
respectively. Corporate gift categories such as
charity and experiences are also steadily increasing
in popularity.
This indicates a growing commitment to employee
mental and physical health, with employers both
offering extra leisure time and providing technology
for health and fitness related leisure activities. Data
also shows an increase in corporate spending on
Hewlett Packard Enterprise recently boosted its sales performance with an incentive travel programme combining social and cultural experiences, nature trips and extreme sports activities. The ‘Escape to the Cape’ trip to South Africa included kayaking, a visit to a penguin colony and visiting game reserves alongside powerboating and an African banquet with an interactive drumming session. The company reported that the incentive programme helped to improve staff cohesion and employee wellbeing, as well as delivering 110% against its sales targets.
17The Rise of ‘Corporate Wellness 2.0’
employee engagement and rewards overall.
The evidence shows these trends will only continue.
We could see future digital reward programmes
that reward not just work-related targets but also
personal development goals such as learning an
instrument or losing weight. Data on personal life
goals could be included alongside data on work
performance in counting towards employee
rewards. Not only will companies increasingly offer
more holistic workplace benefits but they will also
increasingly draw on more holistic forms of
employee data to help boost workforce wellbeing.
Online rewards programmes will no longer track
only sales or workplace performance data but
could be linked to employee fitness trackers and
data on holiday preferences or reward choices
to generate more personalised travel incentives,
perks and rewards. Employers will use employee
data to reward and encourage personal as well as
professional development.
Modern employers will increasingly blur traditional
distinctions between the personal and the
professional based on the belief that an employers’
responsibilities to their workers extend beyond the
office walls.
“56% of corporate travel incentives over the past year included more nature-based
activities than city breaks.”
18 The Rise of ‘Corporate Wellness 2.0’
A perfect storm of circumstances, from a productivity
gap to the radical shift in workforce demographics,
is leading to a new holistic approach to enterprise
HR known as ‘corporate wellness.’
Drawn from data from over 287,000 users, this CR
report offers powerful confirmation of an emerging
new working environment. Many recent reports
have shown that workspaces are changing to
accommodate wellbeing through in-office
facilities but CR data shows that this is now
extending outside the workspace. Incentive, reward
and recognition platforms, as well as corporate
travel and events, are being increasingly designed
around improving mental and physical health
beyond office walls.
Corporations are attracting new recruits through
‘employer brands’ built around concern for employee
health and for the environment and workforce well-
being is becoming a senior management concern.
Corporate HR practices are being democratised and
made more transparent with awards increasingly
nominated by peers and promoted through social
media. Automation and personalisation are also
being used to create more responsive, person-
centric working environments built around treating
employees as individuals rather than collectives.
Employers are investing significantly more in
employee benefits, travel incentives and rewards
both overall and per employee. There is strong
evidence to suggest this is driving an increase in
productivity, charted through dramatically
improved sales performance figures and return on
investment across channel workforces and across
industries as varied as IT and healthcare. It is also
improving employee engagement and brand loyalty,
key factors in productivity, as evidenced by
improved attrition rates and the rising proportion of
loyal employees, demonstrated by their ‘banking’ of
points for bigger rewards at a later date, rather than
spending them quickly. CR data shows that employers
are now more likely to reward employees extra time
off than any other kind of reward, as they seek to
reduce stress.
The direction of travel points to an even greater
coming sea-change in the labour market. The
increasing digitisation of employee engagement
and recognition programmes will allow enterprises
to democratise and incentivise business innovation.
Online platforms will crowd-source and reward
employee contributions to corporate decisions.
This will create more agile, innovative workers and
businesses by allowing contributions and ideas to
be captured and rewarded at all levels and locations
in real-time. Workers will increasingly compete for
peer rather than managerial approval, driven by
peer-nominated rewards and social recognition
systems.
‘Corporate wellness’ initiatives will transform
employee mental health by drawing on rich and
real-time data to incentivise improvements in
performance such as great business ideas or even
improved diets. Causes of low productivity, including
health or financial problems outside the office, will
be easier to identify. Technology will also be used
to predict and prevent poor employee productivity
in advance. Personalised rewards and incentives
will be generated in real-time based on employee
motivations and interests. Businesses will harness
employee feedback loops to improve their HR
practices just as consumer brands harness customer
‘feedback loops’ to improve their services. Evidence
shows these trends will drive increased recruitment,
retention and productivity among a younger
workforce. They will also drive a positive
transformation in workforce performance.
The rise of ‘Corporate Wellness 2.0’ is backed by
external research demonstrating the rapidly
expanding scope of corporate wellbeing
programmes.57 The trend will be towards
improving corporate productivity by improving
individual employees’ lives. The workplace of the
future will be one that dissolves the traditional
boundary between the personal and professional
and caters to the individual values, motivations and
wellbeing of employees.
Conclusion: A workforce management revolution
Endnotes
1 https://habri.org/
2 https://www.inc.com/melanie-curtin/73-percent-of-millennials-are-willing-to-spend-more-money-on-this-1-type-of-product.html
3 https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/millennialsurvey.html
4 https://rebellion.earth/
5 https://www.fastcompany.com/90306556/most-millennials-would-take-a-pay-cut-to-work-at-a-sustainable-company
6 https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/millennialsurvey.html
7 https://www.gds-index.com/
8 https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/millennials-are-the-new-wildlife-conservation-heroes-according-to-volunteer-southern-afri
ca-300848223.html
9 https://globalnews.booking.com/where-sustainable-travel-is-headed-in-2018/
10 https://globalnews.booking.com/where-sustainable-travel-is-headed-in-2018/
11 https://www.siteglobal.com/page/incentive-travel-industry-index
12 https://www.exhibitionworld.co.uk/2019/01/11/clarions-ice-london-launches-stand-graphics-recycling-initiative
13 https://www.statslife.org.uk/news/4026-statistics-of-the-year-2018-winners-announced
14 https://news.sky.com/story/poundland-accused-of-pointless-plastic-waste-over-valentines-day-gift-11613351
15 https://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/Information/green-glastonbury/refill-not-landfill/
16 https://hbr.org/2017/07/a-study-of-16-countries-shows-that-the-most-productive-firms-and-their-employees-are-pulling-away-from-
everyone-else
17 https://time.com/4621185/worker-productivity-countries/
18 https://www.ft.com/content/6ada0002-9a57-11e8-9702-5946bae86e6d
19 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/664563/industri al-strategy-white-
paper-web-ready-version.pdf
20 https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/0db1b0b8-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/0db1b0b8-en
21 https://www.ft.com/content/6ada0002-9a57-11e8-9702-5946bae86e6d
22 https://www.ft.com/content/6ada0002-9a57-11e8-9702-5946bae86e6d
23 https://www.thehrdirector.com/business-news/mental-health/younger-employees-likely-suffer-poor-mental-wellbeing4112019/
24 https://www.vitality.co.uk/media-online/britains-healthiest-workplace/pdf/2018/health-at-work-survey.pdf
25 https://www.thehrdirector.com/business-news/mental-health/younger-employees-likely-suffer-poor-mental-wellbeing4112019/
26 https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/empl_outlook-2018-4-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/empl_outlook-2018-4-en
27 https://time.com/4621185/worker-productivity-countries/
28 https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2017/02/09/the-top-20-employee-perks-and-benefits-for-2017/#7e4a6f7b4ba9
29 https://fitsmallbusiness.com/emerging-company-perks/
30 https://www.businessinsider.com/companies-give-employees-pawternity-leave-2017-3?r=US&IR=T#musti-group-6
31 https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/best-employers-happy-work-life-10959134
32 https://careers.autotrader.co.uk/working-here
33 https://www.siteglobal.com/page/incentive-travel-industry-index
34 https://www.ft.com/content/6ada0002-9a57-11e8-9702-5946bae86e6d
35 https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-01-17-gartner-survey-shows-global-talent-shortage-is-now-the-top-emerg
ing-risk-facing-organizations
36 https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/millennialsurvey.html
37 https://www.forbes.com/sites/forrester/2018/05/23/millennials-call-for-values-driven-companies-but-theyre-not-the-only-ones-interest
ed/#67bae8a45464
38 https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/millennialsurvey.html
39 https://www.kornferry.com/institute/workplace-stress-motivation
40 https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/burnout-survey.html
41 http://www.stress.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Peldon-Rose-SMS-Workplace-Wellbeing-Survey-Release.pdf
42 https://www.ft.com/content/86edc1b6-371b-11e7-99bd-13beb0903fa3
43 http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp1605.pdf
44 http://www.stress.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Peldon-Rose-SMS-Workplace-Wellbeing-Survey-Release.pdf
45 http://www.stress.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Peldon-Rose-SMS-Workplace-Wellbeing-Survey-Release.pdf
46 https://www.forbes.com/sites/serenaoppenheim/2019/06/11/how-the-corporate-wellness-market-has-exploded-meet-the-latest-innova
tors-in-the-space/#524fceba5d91
47 https://aspe.hhs.gov/system/files/pdf/76661/rpt_wellness.pdf
48 https://www.ft.com/content/86edc1b6-371b-11e7-99bd-13beb0903fa3
49 https://adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/related-illnesses/other-related-conditions/stress/physical-activity-reduces-st
50 https://theirf.org/research/irf-site-and-ficp-release-preliminary-findings-for-the-2019-incentive-travel-industry-index/2695/
51 https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-travel/britons-opt-for-non-eu-holidays-in-face-of-brexit-impasse-thomas-
cook-idUKKCN1S40UH
52 https://adaa.org/learn-from-us/from-the-experts/blog-posts/consumer/alleviating-anxiety-stress-and-depression-pet
53 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19556955
54 https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/emotional-support-animals-airplanes/index.html
55 https://www.go2africa.com/african-travel-blog/rhino-notching-south-africa-soul-stirring-experience
56 https://www.imaginetravel.com/imagine-africa/gorilla-tracking-in-rwanda-and-uganda?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_con
tent=spx-rwanda-gorilla-tracking-bmm&utm_campaign=uk_africa_rwanda_specialist_gorilla&utm_term=%2Bgorilla%20%2Btracking%20
%2Brwanda&kclickid=_k_EAIaIQobChMIk9uJ2p2A5QIVQ7TtCh3CeggxEAAYASAAEgLfFvD_BwE_k_&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIk9uJ2p2A
5QIVQ7TtCh3CeggxEAAYASAAEgLfFvD_BwE
57 https://www.businessgrouphealth.org/news/nbgh-news/press-releases/press-release-details/?ID=355
19The Rise of ‘Corporate Wellness 2.0’
CR Worldwide helps businesses to improve workforce performance and increase brand loyalty through incentive, recognition and event programmes, as well as reward fulfilment. Through digital platforms and live events, CR enables companies to engage and motivate cus-tomers, partners and employees. It works with leading multinational enterprises including HPE, Dell, Pirelli, Philips and Hoover.
www.crworldwide.com
0370 405 [email protected]
20 The Rise of ‘Corporate Wellness 2.0’
CR Worldwide helps businesses to improve workforce performance and increase brand loyalty through incentive, recognition and event programmes, as well as reward fulfilment. Through digital platforms and live events, CR enables companies to engage and motivate customers, partners and employees. It works with leading multinational enterprises including HPE, Dell, Pirelli, Philips and Hoover.
Call us 0370 405 2020or [email protected]