6 Integrating evaluation into wellbeing work
So they're bringing in a lot of policies and offering a lot of things, but I think there's no evaluating of that and seeing whether that's actually been taken up and used.
They do all these in engagement surveys, but they end up just being a ticking the box exercise. And then it gets stuck in a drawer to gather dust. And nothing's done with it and that completely then demotivates the workforce.
A common theme in our Fit for Law interviews was that, where wellbeing-related initiatives had been introduced, their impact was often not evaluated. Even if it was, the results of this evaluation were not consistently acted on.
There are a range of different ways to evaluate wellbeing work. One way could be to establish an initial reference point for comparison before beginning a project and then check whether there are changes at a later date.
Evaluating wellbeing initiatives
Imagine you are a Wellbeing Lead for a law firm. Your overall goal is to reduce employee burnout. Before implementing any changes, you send around a survey that measures employees’ existing levels of burnout.
The results of the survey demonstrate that employees are at a high risk of burnout. You then decide to introduce a ‘traffic light’ tool into your case management system. This rates people’s workloads as ‘green’ (appropriate), ‘amber’ (higher than average) or ‘red’ (too high). It therefore helps managers identify when an individual’s workload is too high and adjust it accordingly.
You re-run the original survey of employees after the ‘traffic light’ tool has been running for six months. By comparison with the initial survey, the overall risk of employee burnout has reduced.
The example above shows that establishing an initial reference point can help you to track the success (or otherwise) of activities and interventions. It is important to be aware that there are some limitations with this, for example, it is not always easy or possible to say with certainty that one specific activity or intervention has caused any change to the initial data.
Another way to evaluate wellbeing work is to focus on trying to measure smaller changes. For example, looking at levels of attendance at wellbeing-related events, or the number of individuals accessing an Employee Assistance Plan. This type of information can be easier to gather, but it needs to be treated with care. As an illustration, it may be that tackling stigma around mental health and wellbeing results in more employees accessing an Employee Assistance Plan, rather than leading to a reduction in use.
A different method, which can work alongside those described above, is to obtain feedback from individuals about their experience and views through one-to-one or group discussions. In the ‘traffic light’ tool example given above, this could involve chatting to a number of managers who have implemented the system, as well as a number of employees who have had their workloads adjusted as a result.
Gathering any data on wellbeing-related issues can involve sensitively balancing a range of considerations, including complying with existing data protection policies, respecting employee privacy and preserving anonymity where necessary. Therefore, an important part of your role is likely to be considering what data should be collected, from whom, and how.
To demonstrate the value of obtaining such data, it is also important to be able to show that it is being acted on appropriately and used to continue to enhance workplace wellbeing. This is likely to involve establishing clear feedback loops, for example, reporting to employees on the results of an evaluation and what changes this has led to.
Activity 6 Integrating evaluation
Spend time reading through your theory of change record and identifying ways to build in evaluation at each point. Think about the method(s) you will use and how you will use the results of the evaluation.
Next, go to 6.1 Integrating reflection [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .