Putting the wellbeing of employees into the ‘S’ of your ESG strategy
Employers, their stakeholders and regulators are placing greater focus on the link between employee mental health and wellbeing, and business profitability and sustainability. Employee mental health and wellbeing is therefore becoming a strategic business priority and a core part of responsible business. But it is not clear how it fits into an Environment, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) strategy.
This proposition paper from MindForward Alliance addresses that question. In doing so, we hope to provide businesses, their stakeholders and regulators with a clear direction.
Our hypothesis is that mental health and wellbeing of employees should form the measurable foundation of the ‘S’ within ESG. We believe this needs to underpin the success of business strategy which then enables other layers of ‘S’ activity and initiatives to be developed. We see wellbeing as an overarching output or result, from a range of important inputs, not as a subset of health and safety inputs, where many businesses currently place it.
To support our hypothesis, this paper explores the key component parts of wellbeing, and their associated operational initiatives. Our ambition is to provide an evidence-based approach for businesses to build and measure wellbeing capital. This in turn can become a critical part of the non-financial assessment of a sustainable and resilient business, informing ESG reporting.