Author: Mark C. Crowley
_Mark C. Crowley_
Reading time: 20 minutes
Synopsis
The Power of Employee Well-Being (2025) says we should stop using old ways to measure how engaged employees are. Instead, companies should focus on all their needs. This includes their feelings and their freedom to make choices. When companies focus on well-being, both people and their work do very well. This brings better results than old engagement programs could ever achieve.
What’s in it for me? Go beyond employee engagement to embrace their well-being.
In 2013, Gallup made a surprising announcement: only 30% of American employees felt truly involved at work. For people in HR, this was a clear warning. It showed that employees not feeling engaged was slowly making work less productive and costing companies more money.
More than ten years later, you might expect things to be much better. Now, engagement is an important company goal. It is a very popular word. But the latest numbers tell a difficult story: engagement rates have hardly changed. They are still around 31%.
Why has nothing changed? Often, measuring engagement has become just something companies did to tick a box. They did quick surveys that showed numbers but didn’t lead to real change. The truth is, asking employees to be more “engaged” completely misses the point.
We need a big change. We must stop measuring engagement and start taking care of people’s well-being. When companies support the whole person – their health, happiness, feeling of belonging, and career growth – the results are clear. This way is not just kinder; it works better.
Blink 1 – The emotional workplace
Here is a question to think about: When did feelings get such a bad name at work?
Long ago, in ancient Greece, Plato said that feelings and logic worked together. He believed they were two main forces that drove how people acted and made choices. But this balanced idea did not last. Over time, thinking and feeling became separate. Logic was seen as better. Descartes famously said, “I think, therefore I am.” He did not say, “I feel, therefore I am.” This made feelings seem unimportant and not reliable for our lives.
Most workplaces have followed Descartes’ idea. Reason and logic are most important. Feelings are seen as distractions. They should be controlled, hidden, or left at home. In this view, feelings have no place when making decisions at work.
However, research tells us something different. Scientists at the Salk Institute have shown that even when we think we are being fully logical, our feelings are quietly guiding our thoughts. Researchers at Yale say that up to 95% of our decisions and actions are driven by feelings alone.
This is very important at work. What truly drives how much work people do, how loyal they are, their well-being, and their commitment is not how managers make employees think. It is how managers make them feel. Feelings are not just background noise; they are valuable information. Stress, worry, fear, and anxiety harm well-being and performance. Happiness, confidence, and feeling important do the opposite. They inspire and give energy.
So, how can managers help these strong, good feelings grow? By caring about employees as whole people. This means giving chances for growth and learning. It means offering coaching and support. It means building confidence. It also means showing employees how their work truly makes a difference.
When companies finally accept that feelings are central to success at work, they fully use the true power of well-being to make big changes.
Blink 2 – How to manage humans
Here’s a truth that seems clear but is often forgotten: employees are not robots! They are humans – interesting, sometimes messy, not perfect, and wonderfully unique. How well managers can accept this shared human nature, messiness and all, directly affects how well they can inspire true well-being.
In theory, everyone knows that colleagues have different ideas and backgrounds. In real life? One of the biggest problems for managers is when others act in ways they don’t agree with, find suitable, or simply understand. There is a reason for this problem. People say that opposites attract, but psychologists have found we naturally want to be with people who think like us. Overcoming that natural urge is very important when working in different teams.
And teams are indeed diverse. Employees bring very different life experiences, cultural backgrounds, and personality types. Some are quiet, others are outgoing. They are also at different stages of life and have different goals. The key is not just to accept these differences but to truly value them. When managers use different ideas, they find creative ways to solve problems and create new things. Thinking that is all the same cannot do as well.
Remember too that everyone has a life outside of work. Maybe someone is going through a divorce, helping a child who is struggling at school, or taking care of an elderly parent. In the past, companies said people should not bring their problems to work. But showing kindness, taking a real interest, and making suitable changes works much better for encouraging well-being and loyalty.
People are also not always predictable. There is a lasting wrong idea that work is always about clear, logical facts. But employees do not just bring skills, ambition, and hard work to their desks. They bring fears, wrong ideas, past experiences, and feelings. These strong feelings can sometimes take over even the calmest professional. Managers lead much better when they understand that how people act at work is not only a reaction to work situations. It also shows their past emotional burdens.
If you try to manage humans like robots, nothing will move forward. If you accept and value your team’s full human nature, you will see well-being grow.
Blink 3 – Belonging comes first
Imagine a manager’s normal day. They probably have reports to write, budgets to check, important people to keep happy, and about a thousand unread emails. In all this rush, making sure team members feel truly connected to each other is probably not high on their list of things to do, if it’s on the list at all. But here is why it should be a top priority.
A 2022 Gartner survey found something important: when companies actively help employees build relationships, those employees are five times more likely to be on a high-performing team. They are also 12 times more likely to feel connected to their colleagues. Simply put, strong friendships – and the feeling that the company truly values these connections – are directly linked to employee health and happiness.
The COVID-19 pandemic made these connections much weaker. They need attention now more than ever. Thirty years ago, almost half of all Americans had a best friend at work. Today? Only one in five. This trend at work is like wider social changes. People are more isolated, less involved in their communities, and have fewer unplanned interactions. We are more connected online but somehow more alone.
Why is this so important? Because belonging – that feeling of being part of a larger group we fit in with, where we make an important contribution – is very important for people to do well. Social support is always found to be the best sign of happiness and well-being. It is also a very important way to stay strong when times are hard.
So, what can managers do? Find creative ways to bring teams together, more than just video calls. Add small traditions to meetings and gatherings. Maybe start with check-ins, share celebrations, or finish with reflections. A sociologist named Émile Durkheim called this “social electricity.” This is the energy created when people come together in meaningful, repeated ways that make their group connections stronger.
When managers make connection a priority, they are not adding another task to an impossible list. They are investing in the base that makes everything else possible.
Blink 4 – Boost your positivity ratio
Relationship expert Dr. John Gottman did an important study on what makes married couples stay together. His most interesting finding? It was the number of good interactions compared to bad ones. Happy couples had about five good interactions for every one bad interaction.
What counted as good? Showing real interest in a partner, talking openly and regularly, listening carefully, giving praise and showing thanks, and working together on shared projects. These are simple actions, yes – but they are powerful.
Gottman’s magic 5:1 ratio has since been found to apply to work relationships too. The challenge? Much of work has things that cause stress. These include tight deadlines, difficult talks about performance, demanding tasks, and needing to follow rules. But here is the thing: these work realities do not stop a leader from being a positive force.
Managers can actively increase positive interactions using Gottman-inspired ideas. Start meetings by recognizing recent wins, even small ones. Make time for short one-on-one talks focused only on listening to employees’ ideas and worries. Give specific, real appreciation – not general praise, but thanks for certain contributions. Celebrate milestones and progress, not just final results. Ask about employees’ lives outside work and remember the details. These moments build up.
Psychologist Barbara Fredrickson’s “broaden and build” model explains why this matters so much. Positive feelings do not just feel good at the time. They also make our thinking wider and build long-lasting strengths. When employees feel positive, their creativity increases. They solve problems better, and they build stronger relationships. This creates a cycle that gets better and better. Positivity creates more positivity, which leads to better performance, which creates more chances for positive recognition.
Work will always have stress and challenges. That will not change. But when managers actively create a 5:1 positivity ratio, they create a place where employees do not just get through difficulties. They truly do well despite them.
Blink 5 – Staying curious
Curious leaders do not just ask better questions. They build stronger teams, start new ideas, and create workplaces where employees truly do well. When managers are curious, they show that learning is more important than always having the right answer. They also show that being open is better than being too certain. The result? More engaged employees, better problem-solving, and a culture where well-being naturally grows.
We all start life very curious. It is what helps us learn, grow, develop, and even survive. When leaders keep learning, question how things are done now, and stay open to change, they become more innovative. They also become more flexible and good at understanding feelings. These are key qualities for good leadership in complex situations.
But at some point, many adults stop being curious. What turns questioning children into adults who are not curious?
Several things work together to stop curiosity. As adults, our egos prefer feeling knowledgeable and successful to admitting we are unsure. We often look for information that proves what we already believe, instead of questioning it. There is also the fear of looking “stupid.” This fear is especially strong at work, where being good at your job feels like money. Admitting you do not know something can feel dangerously risky.
But curiosity needs exactly that risk. It means listening carefully, which research shows most people struggle with a lot. Studies show we listen with only about 25% effectiveness. We are distracted by devices, thinking about what we will say next, and more worried about sharing our ideas than hearing someone else’s.
Being curious means truly listening completely. It means not just telling employees their ideas are valued, but actively showing them. Do this by paying attention for a long time and truly caring about their ideas.
When people feel truly heard, they know their ideas matter. This helps create a culture of curiosity. Employees feel safe to actively take part in talks, projects, and problem-solving. They take new ideas that might not work, share unusual thoughts, and bring all their creative skills to work.
Curious leadership is not a small skill. It is the base for building workplaces where well-being and performance grow together.
Blink 6 – More responsibility, less stress
It is well known that managers and top executives earn the most money and get the best benefits. The bad side? More stress – or so people usually think.
Sir Michael Marmot, a professor of public health at UCL, completely disagrees with this idea. In a very long study that lasted many years, he found something unexpected: the lower a person’s rank, the higher their stress level. How could this be true? After all, managers have more ownership, more responsibility, more at stake. Surely that creates more stress?
Marmot’s main finding was this: lower-ranked workers had the least control over their workdays and tasks. And not having control, it turns out, is very stressful. Having more ownership, surprisingly, led to less stress, not more.
What this means for employee well-being is clear. When workers get more power, flexibility, freedom, and responsibility, their well-being greatly improves. Yet many managers are still unwilling to let go. They fear that without direct control, employees will not do well or will make mistakes.
This fear is normal but can be easily lessened with the right approach.
Start by telling people clearly what is expected. When employees understand what success looks like, they can guide themselves well. Not being clear causes worry; being clear creates confidence.
Learn to trust, perhaps building it slowly. Start by giving smaller tasks. Then, give more responsibility as trust grows between both sides. Trust is not given blindly. It is earned and given step by step.
Measure performance and share the numbers openly. Being clear about how work is judged removes uncertainty. It gives employees power to fix things themselves and get better.
Be flexible about when and where employees do their work. Strict schedules and places often help managers, not productivity or well-being.
Finally, set up regular weekly check-ins. These are not for watching every small detail. They are for staying connected, offering support, and making sure everyone is on the same page.
When managers let go of control in a smart way, they do not lose control. They gain something much more valuable: a team of empowered, less stressed employees who do better work and feel more involved in their jobs.
Blink 7 – “We” not “me”
In the early 2000s, Microsoft used a system called stack ranking to manage how employees performed. Here is how it worked: managers had to rank employees against each other. A certain percentage were always put at the bottom – no matter how well they actually performed. The result? A harsh internal competition where colleagues became rivals. Teamwork fell apart as employees tried to harm each other to avoid the dreaded bottom rank. Talented people left in large numbers. Microsoft had accidentally created the opposite of a high-performing team.
The lesson? “We” is always better than “me.”
When teams work together well, care about others, and truly want to help, both they and their companies perform clearly better. Yet many workplaces still stick to cultures that celebrate individual stars. This puts employees against each other in competitions for recognition, bonuses, and promotions where only one can win.
There is a better way. Instead of celebrating individual stars while leaving others in the dark, focus on what the group achieves together. Deal with people who are not performing well not by shaming them publicly or forcing ranks. Do it through coaching, support, and real chances to improve. When someone struggles, the question should not be “How do we rank them lower?” but “How do we help them improve?”
This way of working together is not just nice; it is deeply part of human nature. Working together and helping each other are in our DNA. These are instincts from evolution that helped our ancestors survive and do well. Humans succeeded not as single individuals but as groups who worked together. They shared resources, protected each other, and solved problems as a team.
When people work in groups that feel like family – where they feel safe and truly cared for – something amazing happens. They take new ideas that might not work, knowing failure will not mean being left alone. They create new things freely, building on each other’s ideas instead of keeping their own. They make themselves open, admitting mistakes and asking for help without fear of being judged.
Microsoft eventually stopped using stack ranking. They realized the harm it caused. The change towards cultures that work together and support each other is not just morally right. It is what helps teams reach their full potential and drives lasting success for the company.
Final summary
In this summary of The Power of Employee Well-Being by Mark C. Crowley, you have learned something important. We must stop measuring how engaged employees are. Instead, we must focus on their full well-being. This is a complete new way of thinking about workplace culture. It means accepting employees’ full human nature – their feelings, different ideas, need for connection, and desire for freedom. We should not treat them only as logical people who need to be controlled and measured. When companies put positive interactions, curious leadership, giving power, and working together ahead of competition, they create places where people do not just perform better but truly do well.
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