Why credit unions should consider employee driven design

The vast majority of American companies implement wellness programs and redesign their offices in hope of boosting employee wellbeing and productivity. The connection seems like common sense, so why do wellness problems generally achieve none of their goals? 

A recent article in Harvard business Review points to a disconnect between the perks offered by companies and what matters to employees. The board room might come up with ideas like Fitbits, napping pods, meditation rooms, and bean bag chairs. But what’s really important to employees? 

According to a recent survey by Future Workplace, employees see good air quality as the most important wellness perk by far. Lighting, temperature, acoustics, a connection to nature, and access to healthy food also made the top ten. 

These things are often taken for granted, but research shows they can have an outsized impact on an employee’s wellbeing and productivity. Air quality tops the list for good reason, as empirical data shows a measurable impact of poor air quality on cognitive ability. Air quality has also been linked to overall happiness. Scientific research also shows similar links between health and other perks that ranked high on the study. 

What this research shows is that employees have a good understanding of what is good or bad for their health, and they can be a valuable resource for designing wellness programs and the physical workplace itself. 

We partner with Leesman, a workplace data firm, to survey our credit union partners’ employees before kicking off workplace designs. The feedback that we get from employees is extremely insightful and helps drive the design objectives in a way that maximized employee wellness. 

For example, out of all of the credit union employees we’ve surveyed, 82% say that temperature is very important to them yet only 25% are satisfied with the temperature in their workplace. 79% believe noise levels are important, yet only 28% are satisfied. 

It’s in identifying these gaps, which can vary greatly from one workplace to another, that you can understand what types of wellness perks your employees value the most and where your investments have the greatest impact. 

Next time you invest in a wellness program or launch a workplace design project, consider looking past the trends and first ask your employees what they think. And to learn more about wellness oriented design, check out the case study of HAPO Community Credit Union building the world’s first WELL Certified credit union facility.