Wellbeing programmes still need the proof of good data

Wellbeing programmes still need the proof of good data

A lack of good quality data continues to undermine the status of employee wellbeing initiatives, claims REBA, the Reward and Benefits Association.

From its survey of 309 wellbeing, HR and employee benefits specialists REBA found a striking increase in the number of organisations making use of management information to assess the effectiveness of wellbeing programmes, up to 92% from 74% in 2019.

But the actual value of the information was questioned: participants believed the biggest problems were the limited availability of data (49%), and its poor quality (43%). 36% said their organisation lacked the right data collection method; 31% didn’t have the required data analytics; and, 25% the expertise to analyse the data effectively.

REBA has highlighted how employers continue to measure the impact of employee wellbeing through ‘proxy’ measures such as changes in reported employee engagement. Other findings from the research pointed to how mental health continues to be the primary employee wellbeing concern for senior management – with 78% reporting plans to introduce mental health/resilience workshops this year.

EAPA funded the development of an EAP Return on Investment calculator with the Institute for Employment Studies in 2019. The calculator has led to the collection of more than 2,000 examples of employer calculations to date.

“The REBA research confirms the long-standing frustration of everyone who works in employee wellbeing,” said EAPA chair Eugene Farrell. “We know how important it is to organisations, their performance and stability, now more than ever before. But trying to quantify such a mass of variable factors will always be a trial.

“The ROI calculator is based on IES expertise and banks of previous research in order to provide a sensible, realistic guide to financial returns from the use of an EAP.  It’s also a useful way to check on different models, what the difference would be to ROI from changing the level of investment, an awareness campaign to increase usage etc. The more employers who use the calculator tool, the richer the dataset and the more useful it becomes for benchmarking – and for making conversations with the FD about wellbeing that bit more straightforward.”