How to set and measure KPIs for an international health and wellbeing strategy
For HR and Reward leaders – who are increasingly finding themselves looking after employee wellbeing – there is pressure to prove the value of all their health and wellbeing initiatives…but what metrics should they be using?
Setting goals on a glocal level
Capturing meaningful data and analysing it scientifically to quantify the impact is notoriously difficult. Throw in an international dimension and you can start to see why many reward leaders find it difficult to adopt meaningful (and realistically attainable) measurement criteria that take account of nuances in cultural, social and legal norms in different economies around the world.
It’s easy to fall into a trap of false equivalence when trying to make international comparisons in the workplace. In parts of Asia, voluntary turnover rates are higher due to the nature of the job market and a different mindset to career development. Consequently, employee retention targets here are likely to be different than in Europe. Another example where comparative statistics don’t stack up is employee assistance programme (EAP) access. For example, in Latin America, EAPs are seeing an uptick in adoption, but there is still a much lower take-up rate than in Europe, which makes like-for-like comparisons unhelpful.
Perhaps the starkest difficulty in global measurement comes from the divergent approaches to healthcare around the world. In countries with no state medical provision, healthcare insurance arguably has a greater potential impact; not just on physical wellness, but on emotional wellbeing, financial wellbeing, engagement and the likelihood of an employee staying with the organisation. Metrics on access to, and even use of, such healthcare schemes are likely to miss the wider significance of healthcare benefits in certain countries.
The value of subjective over objective measures
Einstein said: “Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts.” In the world of international wellbeing measures this is certainly true. The things we can prove through raw data (for example, how much someone earns) don’t always hold as much significance as more subjective assessments (for example, how someone feels about how much they earn). This is why there is value, particularly for international measurement, in subjective metrics; asking employees what they think.
This is especially true when measuring the success of things like mental health initiatives, where regional stigmas may affect take up. For example, do they feel supported at work? Is the initiative making a difference? Do they feel better-able to manage their mental health because of what’s in place?
Getting to a global wellness Net Promoter Score
Some cultures will have a greater reticence than others to share their views and concerns openly. A longitudinal ‘Wellness NPS’ survey will enable you to assess how much your health and wellbeing benefits are valued and understood. With careful design, it will also give you a local measure of progress against your wellness objectives. It’s important that this benchmark is localised; so you are measuring not just the subjective views of employees in that region, but also the relative changes in their feedback over time.
The bottom line
HR heads and chief people officers need to be clear on their agenda for wellbeing. For many, it is still a knee jerk, tactical reaction to absenteeism where the success measure is simply, ‘did it pay for itself?’ rather than, ‘is it making a difference to people’s lives?’. By shifting that thinking, global HR leaders can start to measure the impact of initiatives that really make a difference to peoples’ wellbeing, and can be ready to prove the business case for an ongoing international health and wellbeing strategy.
The authors are Paul Andrews, global benefits director and Gethin Nadin, director of employee wellbeing at Benefex.
This article is provided by Benefex.
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