Real Change Comes From Within When It Comes to Your Team's Well-Being

Editor’s note: This piece is part of our Columnist Network series, which explores the tactical thoughts and actions of Adweek’s community of high-level experts. Today, Patrick Llewellyn, CEO of 99designs, shares new initiatives directed at employee wellness. Below, in his own words, he says full participation by leadership goes a long way to address mental health stigma in the workplace. The challenge The past two years have had a profound impact on our collective well-being: routines upended, coping strategies disrupted, people’s eating habits altered by unprecedented levels of sourdough. But we have also been forced to acknowledge our collective mental health in much more open ways than ever before, signaling a shift that will change how we approach well-being in the workplace forever. Recalibrating our understanding of what wellness truly means—and what our responsibilities are as employers, colleagues and leaders—is a journey we’re only just beginning. The process If I had to describe the culture at 99designs in one word, it would be "caring." We’ve always prioritized well-being because taking care of your people is the right thing to do, and I’ve always had the belief that by caring for our people, it will enable them to care for our clients and creators. But against the backdrop of a global crisis, our regular engagement surveys showed teams experiencing the same anxiety, stress, grief and exhaustion that has impacted the rest of the world. We made the decision to formalize our approach and values in this space by hiring a head of learning, leadership and well-being at the beginning of the year and instilling balance and well-being throughout our documented ways of working. Alongside providing tools and access to services, including Uprise (our EAP that provides access to professional counseling services) and GuineaPig (an integrated Slack app offering live and recorded classes), we introduced five days of paid wellness leave, encouraging people to use the time to proactively nurture their physical and mental health. We also brought in an annual well-being bonus for people to invest in their personal well-being—whether that’s new gym gear, therapy, a babysitter to create some down time or whatever else self-care means for them. We’ve also just wrapped up a month dedicated to well-being. Three years ago, this would have only been a week, and we’d have talked about ergonomics, healthy lunches and organized a team yoga session on the roof. This year it was centered around understanding mental health in the workplace, workshops in creating psychological safety and practical training on becoming anti-fragile. The dramatic shift in attention toward our holistic and mental well-being is undoubtedly a sign of the times, but the additional time has created the space we needed to stop and truly engage in the hard conversations—because they are often hard. As senior leaders, it’s easy to think that these programs and initiatives are for other people. It is eye-opening to go through workshops and checklists and realize you’re ticking too many of the boxes. It’s uncomfortable to be vulnerable and say you’re taking a mental health day. But you also have a responsibility as a leader to embrace the discomfort if you want to see that behavior mirrored in your team. The level of honesty and openness in many of the workshops we ran was humbling, and as we went through the process, it struck me that creating the space and initiatives isn’t enough. Leaders giving themselves permission to fully participate in the conversation is vital if you want well-being to be a pillar of your organizational culture. It’s easy to be too busy and hide behind the work at hand. But it’s our actions, not our words, that can help break down stigma and make people feel safe enough to bring their whole selves to work and take care of themselves when they need to. The takeaway We’re all human and more fragile than we might care to admit. Even if, as a leader, you don’t really think these programs are for you, if you participate, you realize that they are—now more than ever before. All the well-being initiatives and mental health resources in the world won’t be enough if you don’t also create a culture where permission to take the time to fully engage is led by example.