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 2020enquiries@crworldwide.com

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 enquiries@crworldwide.comwww.crworldwide.com