Indeed FutureWorks 2024: Unlocking Profit and Performance with Employee Wellbeing

Jan-Emmanuel De Neve and three top wellbeing leaders on why happy employees make for better companies — and what your business can do to improve its metrics.

Key Takeaways

Companies on Indeed’s 2024 Work Wellbeing 100 list outperformed leading stock indices, demonstrating how employee wellbeing positively influences financial performance.
H&R Block, which is ranked No. 1 on the Work Wellbeing 100 list, saw its stock price skyrocket by 220% after it deepened its focus on work wellbeing.
“Belonging” ranks as the top driver of work wellbeing, surpassing pay and flexibility.

Doing what you can to make sure employees are happy isn’t just the right thing to do, it impacts a company’s profitability and performance — and Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Professor of Economics and Director of the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, has the numbers to prove it.

Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Professor of Economics and Director of the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, interviews three customers on stage at Indeed FutureWorks 2024.

While some employers have put higher emphasis on wellbeing in recent years through workplace wellness programs and other efforts, only 22% of employees surveyed by Indeed report high work wellbeing.

One reason companies should aim to improve? A multi-year analysis of Indeed’s 2024 Work Wellbeing 100 list reveals that companies that excel in work wellbeing also outperform leading stock indices, showing an 11% higher return than the S&P 500 as of July 2024. So far, this holds true even through volatile markets.

A chart showing that companies on Indeed’s Work Wellbeing 100 list outperformed the stock market (S&P 500, Russell 3000 Index and Nasdaq Composite), as tracked from January 2021 to July 2024.

Indeed’s Work Wellbeing 100 list shows that companies on the list outperformed the stock market from January 2021 to July 2024. “This shows that workplace wellbeing is a leading indicator of business performance,” De Neve said.

The Impact of High Work Wellbeing

Onstage at Indeed FutureWorks 2024, De Neve interviewed three leaders from companies that rank in the top 10 of Indeed’s Work Wellbeing 100: Dr. Tamarah Duperval-Brownlee, Chief Health Officer at Accenture; Maria Tarsia, HR Vice President of Total Rewards at IBM; and Melissa Holthaus, Vice President of Total Rewards and People and Culture Operations at H&R Block.

Here are a few benefits of prioritizing employee happiness and health:

Productivity boost. A study of British telecom call centers by De Neve and colleagues from Erasmus University Rotterdam and MIT found that happy employees made more calls per hour and booked 12% more in sales. De Neve noted that the correlation was particularly powerful for tasks that require social and emotional intelligence, such as dealing with a disgruntled customer or trying to sell a more complex product. “You cannot relate to people, or be creative, or activate your social and emotional intelligence, or show any altruism or empathy if you yourself aren’t in a good place,” he said.

Talent attraction. In an MIT study that tested how Indeed’s Workplace Wellbeing scores impact job search behavior, job seekers were 80% more likely to apply to companies that had high wellbeing scores. Likewise, employers that climb up the list also receive more applicants. “I’m willing to bet that the extra applications are coming in because you’re a good workplace,” De Neve said.

Employee retention. De Neve’s research shows that companies with high Indeed Workplace Wellbeing scores have lower turnover, while those with low scores experience higher turnover. As Holthaus noted, H&R Block increased its retention rates from 89% to 93% over the past few years. Employee surveys indicate that this is due, in part, to its benefits, which include giving employees a full “reboot week” off.

Jan-Emmanuel De Neve speaks onstage at Indeed FutureWorks 2024.

Jan-Emmanuel De Neve speaks to the audience about the powerful correlation between work wellbeing and employee productivity.

What Actually Makes Employees Happy May Surprise You

While many may assume that pay and flexibility are the top drivers of work wellbeing, employee surveys tell a different story. Belonging, inclusion and feeling energized are the three biggest drivers, with belonging ranking at the top. “Belonging means being treated like a human,” De Neve said. “Bringing your whole self to the workplace and having valuable social relations — and, who knows, even making friends at work.”

Dr. Tamarah Duperval-Brownlee, Melissa Holthaus, Maria Tarsia, and Jan-Emmanuel De Neve converse onstage at Indeed FutureWorks 2024.

From left to right, Dr. Tamarah Duperval-Brownlee, Melissa Holthaus, Maria Tarsia, and Jan-Emmanuel De Neve discuss why happy employees make for better companies.

How to Track Employee Wellbeing Programs

IBM’s Tarsia emphasized the need to set quantifiable goals when creating wellbeing initiatives, saying, “If you can’t measure it, then you don’t actually know if it’s achieving what you want it to.”

H&R Block measures its initiatives through associate engagement surveys, which include questions about employees’ happiness, whether they feel they have a purpose at work and work-life balance. Since H&R Block began focusing more deeply on employee wellbeing three and a half years ago, it has not only improved its employees’ self-reported scores but achieved remarkable financial success. “I’m sure there are lots of things that have contributed to this,” Holthaus said, “But our stock price has gone up 220% over the same time period.”

Accenture looks at insurance claims data to learn if its teams feel well enough to come into work and surface better ways to support employee health. “We’re definitely showing that when you invest in those areas, you start unpacking them very transparently [...] then you see a lot of movement upward, both in company performance as well as person performance,” Duperval-Brownlee said.

Four Things You Can Do to Improve Work Wellbeing

Get commitment from leadership. “We have all of our people leaders sign what we call a ‘connected leadership pledge,’” Holthaus said. “They have to commit to developing themselves and others and commit to continuing that wellbeing culture as part of their role.”

Create a process to open up dialogue and reflect on that feedback. That includes soliciting feedback via employee surveys, as well as encouraging wellbeing-focused conversation among teams. “Just having a culture of open conversation and having leaders and managers that really care about their teams…” Tarsia said. “Managers have that day-to-day contact and that’s one of the most important factors of how you reach out to employees.”

Look at online resources to learn about how employees feel — and find ways to improve. HR leaders can check their company’s wellbeing score on Indeed to learn about their baseline and where they can do better. (Even companies without enough data to generate a wellbeing score still have helpful employee reviews.) Then, said Tarsia: “Have the conversations with your employees around what they think you’re missing and what they think will actually be the most helpful. That will help to inform your vision.”

Think holistically. “We want to make sure that we’re supporting the whole self and our associates’ families,” Holthaus said. That includes financial, physical, mental and emotional health.

Leaders interested in learning more about the data behind why work wellbeing matters can find additional resources on Indeed.

Read more Indeed FutureWorks 2024 coverage:

Seeking wellbeing at work? Take a deep breath — no, seriously. Indeed FutureWorks 2024 featured therapeutic essential oils hand selected by Essentially Grounded. Attendees could customize a blend or select a pleasant scent to enjoy. Essential oils might not impact a company’s work wellbeing score, but they certainly created a moment of joy for conference-goers.

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