FROM JULY'S RECRUITER MAGAZINE

Deloitte is undergoing a cultural change that favours wellbeing to “positively differentiate” the multinational professional services firm in a highly pressurised sector to best attract and retain staff – and enhance performance and productivity.

The emphasis on integrating wellbeing into the workplace is aligned to a strategy of being a sustainable, purpose-driven organisation, while ever-increasing regulation, greater client demands and the non-stop 24/7 world of connectedness ratchet up the pressure. 

Speaking recently to senior HR professionals at Richmond Events’ HR Forum 2016, Stevan Rolls, partner – global talent at Deloitte, acknowledged: “Our industry is not well known for wellbeing. It’s about ‘Come in, work on a bunch of stuff and maybe we’ll make you rich’.”

Deloitte hires 55,000 people per year globally into its 200,000 workforce across 140 countries. The company has taken a “holistic” approach towards wellbeing – as opposed to a compensatory approach – that acknowledges “the intrinsic connection between work and life”. While not built around the concept of work/life balance, the Deloitte approach is committed to “vigilance to the signs of stress and presenteeism”.

Peer mental health champions within the workforce are part of the strategy to support employees who may be suffering from stress, depression, anxiety or personal problems. One of the most common issues raised with the champions was managing medications. 

“They’ve [troubled employees] seen it as incredibly helpful to have someone to come and talk to,” Rolls said. 

Leaders from managers up to partner-level are receiving wellbeing training. Topics include understanding about the stresses on managers as individuals and nutrition, physical and psychological health “pitched in a way they like”, Rolls said.