Employee Perceptions of Well-Being Programs

Measuring the effectiveness of well-being programs in the workplace is important for optimizing the return on investment and selection of programs that meet organizational objectives. A pilot study was performed to assess employee well-being using the Happiness Mini-Survey and a one-sample pre–post study design intended to quickly allow employees to subjectively rate their well-being before and after participating in various classes as part of a well-being program. The findings demonstrated statistical significance in employee subjective ratings; they reported feeling better emotionally, physically, and mentally after participating in the classes. The employees’ self-rating for stress level also had statistically significant improvement after class participation. These findings are relevant for organizations that intend to offer and evaluate classes with an objective of increasing employee well-being. Recommendations for future studies include the use of more controlled conditions, and a control or comparison group to more robustly test for improvement over time, and the use of qualitative interviews to discover employees’ narratives of how workplace well-being programs can improve work productivity and quality of life