Build Authentic Accountability Between ESG Scores And Employee Well-being

There is a profound Kurdish saying that goes like this: "The root of all health is in the brain. The trunk of it is in emotion. The branches and leaves are the body. The flower of health blooms when all parts work together."  

This is the undeniable truth that binds life and work, the personal and the professional. The unfortunate tragedy in the life of a young professional that hit the headlines recently is a hard-hitting jolt that reinforces this truth. In today’s era of sustainable business, how can we make the social ‘S’ of ESG actually count—for both professionals and businesses? What is the authentic accountability we can build between ESG scores and employee well-being? 

Commitment to ‘Humane’ Business 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) sets out three components of health. One is mental well-being. The second is physical health. And the third calls for supportive social relationships. 

Well-being straddles three important dimensions—people, the workplace, and work design. Flexible scheduling, feedback systems that build trust and transparency, adequate staffing for a comfortable ‘stretch’ challenge without the ‘stress’, effective and compassionate employee assistance programmes (such as health insurance, skill development, and mentoring), and the design of physical spaces that improve well-being are important points for organisations and their leaders to consider. 

Now, let’s look at the ESG score. In short, an ESG score measures an organisation’s exposure to environmental, social, and governance risks that a typical financial analysis could fail to unravel. It acknowledges that factors such as energy efficiency, employee belonging and security, emotional well-being, and diversity do have serious financial ramifications. Increased stress levels, lack of motivation and purpose, inadequate communication within the team and organisation, poor psychological safety, and uncertainty about job security and career progression—these seemingly small daily issues can rapidly spiral and deteriorate to tip professionals over the edge. 

A ‘humane’ workplace committedly and purposefully aligns the social aspect of work to measures that resonate with both organisational goals and employee aspirations. And it goes a few steps beyond too. It invests in policies and actions to visibly perpetuate humane professionalism at work. Leaders, managers, and team members are made aware of the social criteria at work—social vulnerabilities, disadvantaged and priority demographics, health and wellness risks, among others. 

Health & Wellness Integral to ESG 

Human Capital Management (HCM), which is a significant part of the ESG agency’s scoring criteria, requires an integrated approach to employee well-being, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and employee experience (EX). Customer experience is an automatic outcome of the right blend of these three factors. 

The question is, how do we set metrics to consistently evaluate both the letter and spirit of employee well-being? Obvious and useful KPIs to track could include employee satisfaction scores, retention metrics, participation in the organisation’s well-being programmes, attendance and absenteeism records, measuring sentiment levels, etc.  

Most importantly, let us not approach well-being solely as a means to bolster ESG scores. Instead, let us look at the ESG score as a lighthouse to guide us to becoming a more humane workplace. This will take inclusion to a whole new level, where individuals, teams, managers, and leaders consider themselves stakeholders of a purposeful community to thrive now and in the long term. 

Making the world a better place starts by making the world of work a more empathetic place. Getting the employee experience right is a non-negotiable part of any ESG strategy because it is the rock-solid and unshakeable foundation for building any social improvement—which, in turn, creates satisfied customers, integrated communities, and voluntary governance towards a better world. 

(Anjali Raghuvanshi is chief people officer and senior director, business innovation, Randstad India.)