How they help employees live their best lives and make a killing in the process

Four years after the pandemic, the American workplace is still in crisis. Gallup’s most recent workplace surveys found that only 30% of employees are engaged—the lowest engagement rate in over a decade—and more than half are actively seeking other jobs. 

How did we get to this point? 

Well, for starters most employers today don’t focus on employee wellbeing. They treat it as an afterthought or an inconvenient cost, second (or third, or fourth) only to profit and growth. The irony is, the companies that do take employee wellbeing seriously not only enjoy more inspiring work environments, but they also report better bottom-line business outcomes on the whole. 

Like Blue Zone Regions that report incredibly high health and happiness rates among their citizens, we call these companies that report high employee well-being and above-average business outcomes Blue Zone businesses. 

In this article, we look at the negative consequences of ignoring employee well-being, how treating employee wellness and job satisfaction as key business metrics can improve profits, and the five characteristics all Blue Zone Businesses share. 

The costs of doing business as usual

Many of today’s business leaders still believe the Big Lie that employee wellbeing should be an afterthought and not a central measure of success. But the truth is that decades of ignoring the emotional externalities of toxic corporate cultures has taken a large toll on society, families, and businesses. Anxiety and depression are at all-time highs. We’ve never been more politically divided. And people are feeling less safe in their cities and neighborhoods.

As a result, businesses are also losing out too. Worsening mental health affects people’s ability to be present at work. According to Gallup, workers struggling with mental health in the U.S. miss roughly 12 days of work per year for unplanned absences compared with just 2.5 days for other workers. This costs the economy approximately $47.6 billion annually in lost productivity, and as anxiety and depression numbers continue to rise, the lost productivity costs will continue to rise too. And that doesn’t even account for the costs accompanying high turnover—such as lost institutional knowledge and time/costs of recruiting and training new employees—which also occurs at higher rates when well-being is low.

The benefits of putting employee well-being first

Just as there are Blue Zone regions with specific, documented characteristics enabling their residents to live longer, healthier, and happier lives, there are “Blue Zone Businesses” that actually put employee wellbeing at the top of their priority list and make it a key performance indicator (KPI) or success metric. Their employees are more engaged and productive at work, more patient and energized at home, and have positive, healthy relationships. Overall, they’re living happier and healthier lives and getting to be better workers, parents, partners, and members of society as a result. These employees aren’t simply getting by—they’re thriving.

If the moral argument doesn’t persuade you, though, the business argument should. Focusing on employee wellbeing doesn’t just give the employees greater personal health and happiness, it also boosts business health in very real ways. According to recent reports, companies that prioritize employee wellbeing outperform the S&P 500 by 235%. Additionally, strong employee well-being has reduced absenteeism in those companies by 41% and led employees to be more engaged and 81% less likely to search for new jobs, which means greatly reduced turnover and lost productivity (a.k.a. $$$).

So, how do these businesses do it?

The 5 Secrets of Blue Zone Businesses

The leaders of Blue Zone Businesses create cultures that support their employees not just as workers, but as whole people. Specifically, through our extensive research and coaching experiences, we’ve found that all of these businesses instill 5 key characteristics into their cultures:

1. Intention. Every Blue Zone Business has a clear, purposeful, and noble why. They don’t simply sell widgets; they contribute meaningfully to improving the world, which gives their employees a sense of purpose and impact—something to believe in and feel proud of.
   

2. Connection. Most of us spend nearly half of our waking hours working, so naturally, the quality of our relationships at work affects our overall sense of fulfillment. Blue Zone Businesses focus on building meaningful, trusting connections among their employees, which creates not only a greater sense of community but also the psychological safety that allows employees to take risks, collaborate well, and be more creative in their work.
   

3. Recognition. All of us (yes, all) require positive feedback to feel good about ourselves and feel like our work is making a difference. Lacking that recognition, we’re likely to feel worthless and seek significance in destructive ways. Blue Zone Businesses counter that impulse by emphasizing recognition, reinforcing the behaviors they want to see more of (instead of punishing them for poor behaviors or results), and building employees’ sense of self-worth.
   

4. Exhilaration. We tend to feel a deep sense of satisfaction and exhilaration when we’re pushed to the edge of our capabilities but still feel safe and capable enough to carry on—when we’re in the zone but not out over our skis. Blue Zone Businesses all aim to provide their employees with this sense of excitement and exhilaration by creating “flow-at-scale.”
   

5. Progression. We all want to feel like we are getting somewhere, like we’re growing. Blue Zone Businesses have clear pathways for employees to progress in their careers, deepen their skills, and master new domains. They provide them with the resources and encouragement to keep learning.

Energy gained, not energy drained

We don’t want employees simply to show up for the paycheck. We want them to be empowered and inspired to be there. We want them to leave feeling energized, not depleted—more able to show up well in the rest of their lives, not less. Instead of expecting work to be a place that drains us, what if we normalized the reverse? Think of the positivity, connections, relationships, ideas, innovations, and—yes—profits, too, that could happen as a result.