Indeed, a leading global hiring platform, has joined other leading companies as a founding member of the World Wellbeing Movement with an aim to improve wellbeing across society.
The World Wellbeing Movement comprises a coalition of global leaders from business, civil society, and academia that have come together to help put wellbeing at the heart of decision-making in both business and public policy.
In doing so, the movement will leverage the expertise of its academic partner at Oxford University, and its global network of corporate and philanthropic founding members, who include BT, Cisco, HSBC, Oxford University, Snam, and Unilever, amongst others.
The World Wellbeing Movement will officially launch on Friday 8 July at a three day conference at the University of Oxford.
LaFawn Davis, Senior Vice President, Environmental, Social & Governance at Indeed, said:
“Measuring wellbeing is key to creating happier and more productive organisations, which is why Indeed is thrilled to be joining the World Wellbeing Movement to help build a better world of work. The timing could not be more crucial. As more and more people prioritise wellbeing at work, employers have an important role to play in creating less stressful environments and in doing so improve people’s lives and society. Policies designed to improve wellbeing for all can also help close the stress deficit that research suggests disproportionately impacts women and minority groups.”
The movement advocates for stronger wellbeing measurement including metrics that can help measure the social impact of organisations in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting. Its key objectives are:
1. To promote a simple and universally acceptable standard for measuring wellbeing as a key ESG indicator for social impact.
2. To share best practices and provide insights into how to improve wellbeing.
3. To build a community that takes action and creates momentum for positive change.
Workplace wellbeing
The launch of the coalition comes on the heels of a new Indeed-commissioned research by Forrester that found overwhelming belief in how we feel at work matters. A survey of 10,090 working adults in the UK, US, and Canada found that 90% believe that how we feel at work matters and 86% of people believe that work can provide more than just a paycheck.
There was also a strong message to employers: 57% of people reported an increase in expectations around overall wellbeing at work in the last few years and 82% of people think it’s important to find companies that care about how they feel.
Measuring wellbeing also has implications on hiring in a tight labour market. Parallel research on Indeed found employers who performed well at workplace wellbeing were more likely to attract candidates. Analysis of jobseeker behaviour shows that a Work Happiness Score that is either average or above increases the probability of jobseekers applying to available positions by 14.2% on average.
Sarah Cunningham, Managing Director, World Wellbeing Movement, said:
“There can hardly be a more important goal for business leaders and public policy makers alike, than the wellbeing of people. The evidence from Indeed shows that workplaces with higher employee wellbeing, and countries with higher citizen wellbeing, are seen as more attractive to work at and live in.
“That’s why I am so excited to bring the World Wellbeing Movement’s mission to life, and to partner with our trailblazing co-founders, who include Prof. Lord Richard Layard, Prof. Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, and Snam.”
Notes to editor
Sources:
- 1Indeed Work Happiness Report, based on a commissioned survey (n=10,090 across US, UK, CA (5,026 US; 2,518 UK; 2,546 Canadian) conducted by Forrester Consulting, 2022
- 2Workplace Happiness and Job Search Behavior: Evidence From A Field Experiment, MIT Sloan Working Paper 6607-22, Indeed Data (US) 2021
