Kaitlin Luna: Welcome to Speaking of Psychology, a bi-weekly podcast from the American Psychological Association. I'm your host, Kaitlin Luna. The topic for this episode is psychologically healthy workplaces. We spend a significant portion of our lives at work and feeling miserable on the job can be detrimental to our mental and physical health and productivity. A work environment that is psychologically healthy is one that focuses on employee's health and well-being, and the bottom line. To explain more about what makes a workplace psychologically healthy, our guests for this episode are Dr. David Ballard, who leads APA's Office of Applied Psychology, and Bryce Veon, president and CEO of Autosoft, one of the winners of our 2019 Psychologically Healthy Workplace awards. Autosoft, based in northwest Pennsylvania, is an auto dealer management system provider. Welcome, David Ballard and Mr. Veon.
David Ballard: Thanks, Katelyn.
Bryce Veon: Thanks. Good to be here.
Katelyn Luna: First off, Dr. Ballard, can you explain what it means to be a psychologically healthy workplace?
David Ballard: Sure. Being a psychologically healthy workplace really just means paying attention to employee wellbeing and organizational performance and working toward the best outcomes possible for all of the people involved. So, that means employees, the organization, shareholders or owners of the organization and even the community that an organization is embedded in. And there's not one single way of doing this. There's not a one size fits all approach. It really is about taking comprehensive steps to create this kind of healthy and productive environment, and the types of things we see in organizations fall into some general categories -- employee involvement, growth and development opportunities, health and safety initiatives, work-life balance and flexibility, employee recognition and then good effective two-way communication in an organization.
In an environment like that where a psychologically healthy workplace is created, it helps employees and the organization thrive.
Kaitlin Luna: Yeah, how so?
David Ballard: Well, it creates a supportive environment so that those benefits and perks that come into play help employees be at their best when they're on the job so that they could manage the competing demands in their lives. They feel recognized and rewarded for their contributions to the organization and really be engaged in the work that they're contributing to the organization to move it forward and advance its mission.
Kaitlin Luna: And do you think by and large organizations understand what it means to be psychologically healthy?
David Ballard: I think increasingly they do. But, there's a lot of variability. Some organizations are really far ahead, and they've been doing this for years, and others are just starting to get on board. Overall, we've seen employers move from a really narrow focus on physical health to more of a wellness approach and now, increasingly a focus on well-being. So, really looking at the whole person in the work environment. So, they're not just focusing on health risk reduction and cost savings anymore. They're really looking at the full value that these efforts can contribute to the organization and to the employees who work there.
A lot of organizations know it's the right thing to do. They want to take care of employees and create a good environment. But, employers also get that this is smart business. This is their good business decisions, and therefore, the more they understand the importance of it. We have to do a better job of getting out information about how you actually accomplished this. So, more employers understand it, but they don't necessarily know how to do it.
Kailin Luna: And this also helps employees with employee retention. This helps productivity. You know, I think that's one of those things that may be an employer. Do you think they think, okay, if I'm letting people use time to exercise, are they being productive? But, research shows that it does help. It does boost productivity. And when people feel connected, right too, you know, to make people feel like they're supported, they feel more connected to their work.
David Ballard: Even in that example that you gave there's research that shows that even when employees take time out of their work day to exercise, they more than make up for that time in the gain productivity throughout the day when they do that. So yeah, overall these kinds of efforts benefit employees. They benefit the organization. You know, on the employee front, it contributes to higher levels of job satisfaction, better physical and mental health. The morale is better in a workplace. They're more motivated, and they're better able to manage the stress that they face day to day on the job.
But on the employer side, there are a lot of benefits as well. So yes, it can help reduce problematic things like absenteeism and turnover presenteeism, where people are physically on the job, but they're not performing up to their full potential because they're burned out or sick. But more importantly, it improves performance and productivity. It can improve product and service quality, customer service and satisfaction. Ratings reduce accidents and injuries. It can help an employer become an employer of choice. And that's really critical, because if you can attract and retain the best quality workers, that gives you a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Kaitlin Luna: And you do interviews in the media all the time about this very topic, and you've said that company culture matters the most. So, how did those perks in the center's fit in with the larger culture?
David Ballard: Yeah, that's a very important point because it's not just about the perks or the benefits or the policies or programs that an employer puts in place. Those values have to get instilled in the actual culture of the organization. I mean, employees are smart. They know when an organization doesn't mean it, and they're putting something in place to either squeeze more productivity out of them. And they know when employees don't really care about their well-being. So, it has to get embedded in the culture, and the organization has to walk the talk. You can't just say that you care about it and slap some programs in place. The psycho-social work environment is really critical, and this is why psychology is important in the workplace -- because those organizational level factors, the way work is designed and carried out in organizations makes a huge difference.
Having supportive supervisors, the level of trust that exists in an organization, whether employees feel valued for their contributions, whether they're positive interpersonal relationships and civility and the interactions that occur there, and whether employees are engaged in meaningful work where they feel connected to the mission of the organization. And they understand their role in helping to advance that.
Kaitlin Luna: Why do you think there's been this shift? I mean, do you think all of these wellness programs or and perks and things like that? Why do you think it's so important today? Do we see this in the workplace thirty, forty years ago?
David Ballard: Well, a lot of these efforts have existed for a long time, but they had a much narrower focus. So, I think it's coming from multiple angles. I think employers are increasingly coming to understand that creating a psychologically healthy workplace is good for employees and is good for business, too. I think there's a shift in expectation among workers who are entering the workforce that they expect to have more flexibility and to juggle the competing things they have in life. They expect to have a job where they feel like they're contributing your something bigger than themselves.
And then, even in public opinion, a lot more of this has talked about openly. So, if an employer is not taking these steps, employees will go elsewhere. They'll go seek out jobs somewhere else that they see is a better work environment.
Kaitlin Luna: Yeah, what does APA look for in award winners for the psychologically healthy workplace awards?
David Ballard: Well, the process for our award evaluation is actually quite rigorous. So, it's not just a vanity workplace award where you talk about how great you are in a short essay. And if it sounds nice, we give you an award. As a psychologist, we're held to a different standard, so we really want to bring our research to bear and our assessment skills in psychology to evaluate these applicant organizations.
So, there's a multi-step process that involves collecting qualitative and quantitative information from the organizations. We conduct online employee surveys of the applicants. We hear from employees themselves. One of the unique things about the program is we actually go out and do site visits. So, we tour the facility. We meet with the organization's leaders and do focus groups with employees and look for a convergence of data and from all of those sources to identify organizations that are doing this well.
So, we look for organizations that understand the importance of creating a psychologically healthy workplace and how that connects to employee well-being and the success and performance of the organization. And we look for organizations that are taking steps in all of those major areas I mentioned earlier -- employee involvement and growth and development, and so on. And we also look for positive outcomes on the employee-front and for the organization. So, we want to see that this is actually accomplishing something in the organizations.
And then finally, we look for an ongoing commitment from organizations that creating a psychologically healthy workplace, it isn't an in state. It's an ongoing process that even companies that are doing great can always work to improve things, and the environment changes. So, it's something you have to stay on top of and continue to make strides to make it even better moving forward.
Kaitlin Luna: Okay, let's turn over to Autosoft for a few. Mr. Veon, congratulations, your company's had good turnaround story that happened the past few years. Can you talk about what happened?
Bryce Veon: Sure, yeah, when I came to Autosoft, full-time, it was a family business. But, I stepped out for a while, and when I came back, you know, I had a vision that I wanted to take the company in a new direction because we're building a new products and he needed to move up market in our industry. And when I came back, I saw a culture that was missing. There wasn't a management style that really fit with how I wanted to run things. And I always had a value in, you know, the mixture of, you know, feeling like there's a, a purpose in the work and big goals, but also just having some trust and some, really excitement about the work that we do. And when I came back, we didn't have that here. We had a lot of people who, you know, didn't understand whether they were doing a good job or not. We didn't have, you know, reviews or one on ones.
So, actually, when I first came back, it took a lot of time to build some trust. Because when I started putting these new programs, even though these were positive programs, the first reaction was just skepticism. And maybe it was something new and it was change. So, that's where some of this started off, and it took us years to get to where we are today.
Kaitlin Luna: Yeah, how did you get past that -- those trust challenges you just mentioned?
Bryce Veon: Really just open communications, laying out a plan that they never really understood before. Didn't have a lot of his ability or ownership to before, you know, they a lot of employees, you know, didn't feel like they had the autonomy or the power to make decisions or help make, you know, plans or put new projects in place or accomplished new things that would help company so it really opened up a lot of trust in two-way communication across the company.
Kaitlin Luna: And can you now talk about how your company's culture is like today and what benefits you provide employees? I know that wellness programs are popular with Autosoft.
Bryce Veon: Yeah, no, we probably have too many programs in some ways. We would do a lot. And, you know, I think it's just, you know, as we saw some of the success out of these programs as we put them in place, I think we were always trying to, you know, look ahead. You know, it's an ever-evolving thing and the business is always changing, and the needs of the people are always changing, and the demographics are changing all the time. So, we're always trying to make sure we have the right fit to the right people, the culture in the business needs in the, you know and what we need out of the business as far as performance goes. And so, it's a balance all the time. But, we do all kinds of programs, both physical and mental. And, just even some of the way we interact here, you know, has a lot to do with, you know, having a healthy environment.
Kaitlin Luna: I want to talk about a couple of specific things you have going on. What's your “You've Been Caught” initiative?
Bryce Veon: Ah, the “You've Been Caught” is, it's kind of a peer-based program where, you know it really rewards people for, you know, giving some recognition that people for making the right choices in their life, whether it be healthy choices. You know, maybe they, you know, brought a healthy lunch. Or, you know, we're doing well on sticking to, you know, their diet or encouraging others to adopt healthy ways, things like that.
So, it's almost, you know, you could walk by and you could see somebody taking a piece of candy or something and say, “ah, you've been caught.” No, and it just kind of, you know, it's like dropping do ten pushups and, you know, there's a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a family feel of like, hey, you know, hey, we're going to help each other do better.
Kaitlin Luna: And how is that? How has that caught on with your group?
Bryce Veon: It's caught on really well. We've actually sort of evolved that program. Now we've included. We call it the Token Award program, so it now involves a little wider, pure-based program that includes some monetary and gift rewards for achieving goals, personal goals and things like that.
Kaitlin Luna: And you also have something called a “Take Ten Station,” which I found interesting, where employees can take a break from their work to de-stress. And they could do fun things like put together a puzzle, color or make a paper airplane. He talked about how that's helped your employees during the day.
Bryce Veon: Yeah, we have these stations throughout the buildings and on the different floors. And, you know, really, I'll see employees that maybe they're waiting for a meeting to get into a meeting, and they're kind of gathered around one of the tables, and they're kind of chit chatting and talking each other, get to know each other. But, also at the same time, you know, they're doing a puzzle together. They're just doing a project together that's kind of relaxing. And some time to think It eases their mind a little bit before they go into a meeting that might be a little stressful or a little tense and helps get them, you know, to relax and get to know each other a little bit.
Kaitlin Luna: And how does that help with employees -- just getting to know each other a little bit more of a casual way, and not just in a meeting environment or in the hallways, like doing something kind of fun together and definitely totally unrelated to their work.
Bryce Veon: Yeah, there's just, there's I mean, that camaraderie is important. I think there's also the trust factor, you know, just understanding each other and just understand that we're all working towards the same things as a team. And you know, that comes from interactions that are both in the business and doing the right things in the business together, in treating each other fairly and helping each other, but also outside, we have a lot of programs or, you know, a lot of events that we do outside, even like, you know, happy hours and bowling and different things that we get people together.
And they were diverse group. So, we don't always get to work together directly. So, when we get outside the office, this gives us a chance to get to know each other in a little bit about our families or what we like, what we don't like and helps us work better together so we can focus on some strengths and weaknesses.
Kaitlin Luna: And when you were going through the change when you took over, did you find that the importance of being transparent and sharing what was going on with your employees was helpful because I often know that information helps ease anxiety when people, you know, when you have a real restructuring and you have change, what was helpful for you?
Bryce Veon: I think it was helpful to lay out the plan in the course and how we're going to get to the destination we were headed for. And I think is a privately-owned company, smaller, you know, small to midsized company, you know, we actually share probably more than some of the public companies do with their employees. As far as, you know, financial information, financial goals, product goals, departmental and personal goals.
You know, we go through a lot of, you know, goal-setting exercises. And out of that, you know, it comes a lot of the transparency of what we're all trying to get done, and it starts to make sure we're all working together towards the same things and just builds out a lot of transparency and trust in the company.
Kaitlin Luna: And when you mentioned, you know, the previous days to now, you said that there were no annual reviews, and now you even go above and beyond that, and you have monthly reviews. So how has that helped your employees and what changes have you seen?
Bryce Veon: Yeah, it's part of that same very open, transparent, you know, communication and very direct. I mean, I'm personally very direct with people, so I'm not afraid to hold back or tell them what I really think. You're telling the truth. And I think some of that from the top down, you know, it starts to become part of the culture, the expectation that hey, if you feel a certain way or you don't agree with something or you do like being, you know, being transparent and open is a good thing to have. It helps us, you know, get things done faster and make decisions faster. And I think that, you know, having the, having the one on ones -- at one point we actually had one on ones weekly, and some departments would do, you know, just a just a quick twenty minute one on one with each of their employees and just to get a feel for how they're doing and with how they're feeling. And you know, is this a time that maybe shift some of your work so that you can, like, clear your mind a little bit or maybe get a little refresh? You know, sometimes, you know, change is good and then others would do you no bi-weekly or monthly were actually evolving that this year. Like I say, I think it's important to constantly evolve things. And I think we're moving to more of a, you know, still a bi-weekly to monthly one on ones. So, you get the real time feedback and very direct. But we also are moving to maybe once or twice a year, more thorough review so that we really understand, you know, what we need to work on and where we're doing well.
Kaitlin Luna: Right. Do your employees feel empowered to manage up, meaning they feel comfortable providing feedback to their managers or the company leadership?
Bryce Veon: I – not in all cases to be honest, I think that we have some room to improve there. I think that we need to do better at some of our 360 reviews and some of the open this, you know, in both directions. I think that there -- it just depends on the department of the group of people, the individuals and the relationship with their managers.
Kaitlin Luna: Right. And that is something you, David, mentioned or Dr. Ballard mention the beginning is the importance of always evolving. So that's something Autosoft is doing in that regard?
Bryce Veon: You know, all the time.
Kaitlin Luna: Yeah, and so you're a smaller company, and obviously we hear often about all the amazing perks a company like Google or Facebook can provide employees. So, but with a smaller company like yours, what advice do you have for other CEOs in that realm? Because obviously, we can always look to these big behemoth examples is like the pinnacle of employee wellness and incentive programs. But, obviously, we all can't provide those same things for a smaller company like yours. So, what do you what advice do you have?
Bryce Veon: I would say, start off small, but some we started, and a lot of it's really about the employees experience, and you'd be amazed at, you know, things like the open feedback and the little things like company T shirts or branded T shirts or little prizes for doing a good job and some rec -- a little bit of recognition goes a long way. I'd say just some of the small things to start out. I mean, that's the easiest way to get started and from there it builds and builds, and you'll kind of figure out where things fit the best and what gives you the most benefit from both the company side in the employee's side, and eventually you'd be like us and have lots of programs.
Kaitlin Luna: So, I want to get both of your opinions on the importance of two things. The first is employee development and pipelines to advancement, and the other is employee recognition. Dr. Ballard, I'll start with you. Overall, how crucial are those two elements to creating a psychologically healthy workplace?
David Ballard: Well, those air to areas that in general, there's a lot of room for improvement. We do surveys of the U.S. workforce every year to look at issues that are top of mind and employee attitudes and experiences on the job. And one of the things we find is only about half of U. S. workers say they're satisfied with the growth and development opportunities that they have available to them on the job.
Lack of opportunity for advancement and growth in an organization also year after year is the number two top source of stress that U.S. workers cites. So, it's something that's getting in the way of their work performance, so there's lots of opportunity to improve there.
Similarly, only 58 percent of U.S. workers say they feel valued by their employer. And that's a striking figure when I think just over half of U.S. workers say they even feel valued for what they're contributing on the job.
From our research, we know that feeling valued is linked to higher levels of job satisfaction, higher levels of motivation and the likelihood that people are actually going to participate in wellness programs and training activities and involvement initiatives. So, it's not just isolated to reward recognition programs. This spills over into employee performance across the board. So, these are big deals for employers.
Kaitlin Luna: And so, we're talking about recognition. Do you think in some cases, recognition is more important than pay?
David Ballard: Recognition in organizations really consists of both monetary and non-monetary forms -- can be formal or informal. So, it's certainly pay. Pay is always an issue. You know, in our surveys, we find that's the number one source of stress is low pay that people cite. But it's one of those issues that went when it's insufficient or seen as unfair, it's a huge problem, and all the other perks and award programs and certificates and award ceremonies aren't going to make up for that. If people feel like they're unfairly compensated, it's not enough. But once you reach a certain point, it doesn't add value. Once, people feel like it's sufficient.
So, those other things really come into play. And it can be a simple thank you from a colleague or a supervisor for a job well done and feeling like your work was actually appreciated. And there's something in the psychology research that is called effort, reward and balance. And so, if people feel like what they're putting into their job and their work is out of whack with how they're being recognized and compensated along the way, then that creates additional problems in a workplace.
Kaitlin Luna: Yeah, that's very fascinating how it's not necessarily always be so tied. And so, with employee development and pipelines, that's something you're seeing more in the workplace today, that the company is coming up with these long-range plans for people?
David Ballard: People are thinking about it a lot more. Certainly, you know, the rate of change is increasing. The environment is changing all the time. And so, if organizations want to keep up and be competitive, in an increasingly global marketplace, with more rapid changes, then they have to prepare their workforce to be able to cope with the stress that they face, to be able to handle change and be resilient.
So, I think a lot of organizations are thinking ahead and understanding that they need to do this, but there's a lot more work to be done.
Kaitlin Luna: And Mr. Veon, turning over to you. How have those two areas helped your company -- that's employee development and pipelines and recognition?
Bryce Veon: You know, I think the pipeline is, things that we've done with developing career pipeline and pathways has really helped us separate those that have potential from those who may be either aren't a best fit for the company or the future of the company and make decisions on whether or not we can help people maximize their potential in their career here or beyond, or decide that you know, maybe their career has a better path outside Autosoft. So, those were some tough decisions that, you know, some of our managers have to make her help us make. But, that's part of the reality of making sure we have the right, the right culture, the right people.
And as far as the recognition goes, recognition has -- I would stay out of the surveys we do internally and in all the war programs that we participate in. The recognition is one of the top things that employees respond to and appreciate. They feel valued. They feel like a part of something big and like they're really efforts are well received and appreciated. And these, basically, seen by all including, you know, upper management and myself.
And I'd say one of the most difficult things I'm seeing for us as we're evolving and hiring more remote workers is how do you make the remote workers more of a part of the integral part of our culture and the rest of the people? And how do you give them the recognition as a remote employee and make them feel the same as the people that are here?
Kaitlin Luna: Yeah, that's a great point you make, Mr. Veon about remote employees. So, turning over to Dr. Ballard, how do you engage employees when they're not actually working in an office space that they're working remotely?
David Ballard: Yeah, this is an important area, and one that there's not been a lot of work done. And in fact, in most organizations, managers are still working the same way they did in the Industrial Revolution. Like people are standing in an assembly line cranking out widgets when that's not most of the work that's getting done nowadays. But unfortunately, most managers are never trained in how to manage a remote workforce. That's an area where there's a lot more room for development.
Now there is research being done, and there is work happening. Unfortunately, is not translating yet to a majority of workplaces. But, increasingly we have access to the technology tools that we need to be able to actually involve and include people who may be working in remote locations, teams who aren't necessarily even in the same physical location at all. We have tools that can facilitate that online through video conferencing and chat functions. And so, it's a matter of figuring out how to effectively use those tools so that you don't lose the types of interactions that you have in a face to face work environment. So, there's a lot. There's a lot of work happening in that area, but it's a huge need for most employers and to this point, most managers still haven't even been trained in how to do that effectively.
Kaitlin Luna: And one other question for you, Dr. Ballard. I'm sure many listeners out there have worked someplace that was not psychologically healthy. Can you talk about how damaging that is for morale and what does that stress do to our mental and physical health?
David Ballard: Yeah, we've all probably worked an environment where you know we get up in the morning and we dread going in. And you know, no matter what job you're in, you know everybody has bad days. But there are a lot of environments, unfortunately, where it's just unpleasant to be in your day to day experience on the job is bad.
And stress is a normal part of life. It's a natural reaction that it's designed to help kick us in gear and deal with whatever challenge or threats are in front of us. But the reality is that as humans we're not designed to withstand that day after day after day. That's supposed to be a ramp up, deal with the threat and then get back to your baseline and go about your business.
So, when that chronic stress persists, it puts a lot of wear and tear on your body and your brain, and it can start interfering with your physical health, your mental health. It can interfere with interpersonal relationships; your job performance can suffer. And so, if this kind of chronic stress persists from a negative work environment, then it can actually affect people's job performance so that they not only they don't feel competent on the job, but they're actually not doing their best work.
So, it's really a shared responsibility between employees and employers to create this environment where people can bring their best to the job and employers are creating an environment that's conducive to them being engaged and having a positive work experience.
Kaitlin Luna: And I imagine the signs of that happening are probably high turnover or low morale, productivity, that sort of thing?
David Ballard: You see on the organizational side, you see higher levels of absenteeism and turnover. You see performance and productivity dropping. You may see more conflict, or incivility in a workplace. People disengaging and not really giving it their all.
On the business side of things, you might see profitability sliding, output starting to drop, customer service ratings dipping -- things that all could be signs of something bigger is going on under the surface.
Kaitlin Luna: Yes, you want to be, I guess, short for company. They want to address it before it gets to that point, because that's already you're seeing the effects of people not being happy -- not even is happy, but just being miserable on the job.
David Ballard: Yes, creating this psychologically healthy environment is an overall approach. And if you strive to do that in a general sense, then when things are tough, and the recession was a great example of this, if you've already been doing this, then you're better equipped to handle that. Your employees are, too. So even organizations that were very psychologically healthy, who were doing all the right things, the recession hit and that was an example of these. Air Force is bigger than the organization, so even good organizations got hit pretty hard and sometimes had to make cuts or layoffs or change things that weren't necessarily positive. But those who had paid attention to creating a psychologically healthy environment up to that point handled it better. So, it's not only what they're doing, it's how they're going about it. So, employees in those circumstances felt like they were in it together. The employer was being open and transparent with them, involving them in problem solving about how they were going to cope with it. And in fact, organizations that were really forward thinking at the time used it as an opportunity to position themselves to be even more successful when the economy turned around. So, that's a really concrete example.
But you don't want to wait until there's a crisis to start addressing some of these issues, because once there, once trust is broken, once there's negativity in the workplace, that's hard to dig out from, and it lasts a long time, and it takes a lot of consistency in the future to make up for that. So, it's much, much easier to create it to begin with and then use that to help you weather the storm.
Kaitlin Luna: But I guess it's not hopeless civic, and a company or an organization is having that experience where they're like, you know, managers are looking at this well, we've got to make some changes, but it takes a long time.
David Ballard: Every organization goes through tough times, and there's lots of change happening in organizations. A survey we did a couple years ago, about half the U. S. workforce said they were currently going through major organizational changes or had just gone through them. And that's stressful.
Times are going to change. There will be ups and downs but thinking bigger picture about how do we create this healthy environment that's going to support workers, support the business is going to lead to environment where everybody can win in the long run.
Kaitlin Luna: Do you think this is an exciting time to be an employee? I guess it's a funny way to say that by the same. You mean like, is it a time where employees feel empowered about the kind of work they're choosing? And they feel like their employers will create better environments for them?
David Ballard: Yeah, I think this is one that it depends a lot on the company, I think, in really high performing organizations that understand this psychologically healthy workplace concept and are taking those kinds of steps. You know, employees do feel like they have a voice. They do feel like they're involved in decisions that affect them on the job. They have sufficient autonomy and control and flexibility in their life that many people didn't have in the past. And so those air great things.
But overall, in the U.S. workforce, that's not necessarily the case. You know, in our surveys of U.S. workers, although about two-thirds of working Americans said that their organization is open with them and communicates with them regularly, only just over half said the organization actually asks them for feedback regularly, and only about four out of ten say the organization actually listens to their feedback and uses it to make changes.
So, I think these successful organizations are doing it better and better, but on average, in the U.S. workforce, we have a lot of room for growth.
Kaitlin Luna: And I want touch on another survey that your office did. So now we're only a few months from summer, so that means vacation time. So last year, APA issued a work and wellbeing New Component survey that found that taking time off helped employees recharge. But those benefits faded after only a few days for most people. How can employers make sure the vacation time is actually beneficial and also what tips you have for employees to make sure that recharging feeling lasts beyond a couple days?
David Ballard: I'm sure. I'm sure most of us have had the experience where we take some time off and whether it's a staycation or whether you go somewhere, somewhere exciting. You come back to work, and there's the mountain of things waiting for you that have piled up while you were away. And so, all that relaxation is out the window the second you go in and you're actually more stressed than you were before you left because you're behind and everything is due, deadlines are waiting and you know it's worse than it was before and you hear people all the time say this is what I get for taking time off.
And so unfortunately, we know from the research that when that happens, when there's a backlog and people come back to that kind of heavier demand, the bigger that is, the faster those benefits of taking time off fade away. So, yeah, there's some things that employees and employers can do. And again, this is one of those shared responsibility issues to try to make those last longer.
I mean, it's in the best interest of employees and the company, to try to make the company the most gains from people to having time off. So, on the employee side of things, when they're off, they need to make sure they're getting the adequate stress recovery experiences and from psychology research, we know to recover from stress and prevent burnout, you need to have time when you're not working. When you're not thinking about work if you're not at work, but you're getting pinged with messages and you're constantly ruminating about your deadlines coming up when you get back that prevents you from actually recovering from stress. You need to engage actively in some relaxation activities. Whatever that is for you, it may be laying on a beach. It may be reading a book. It may be doing yoga or meditation. Whatever it is that relaxes you, you need to engage in that.
You also need to stay connected and involved in some other interesting, challenging activities that aren't work related. Something that stimulates you beyond just work. And then finally need to get enough good quality sleep, and that's an issue. Sometimes you know, you pack so much into a vacation that you're exhausted when you come back. You said I need a vacation from my vacation, right? So, those are things that during the vacation experience employees need to do in order to recharge and come back at their best.
Now the shared responsibility piece, and this requires some planning ahead, and some work when you get back to the office and employees need to do this with their teams and with their employers. One is actually plan ahead. So, when you know you're going to be out, have a concrete plan. Who's going to handle the things you normally do while you're out of the office? Share your expectations about your availability while you're off. Are you going to check email if an emergency comes up? Should people contact you? That way there's not a misunderstanding with people feeling like they don't want to bother you or knowing that you are going to check it and not feeling like you're on call twenty-four-seven, while you're taking that time off.
That also helps encouraging teams to schedule vacations in advance so that too many people aren't out right when right deadline is looming and that coordination across the work unit is important.
Organizations need to develop supervisors as well, so that they're tracking employees' vacation time and use of that. They're encouraging and supporting employees in taking that time off so that employees feel like they can actually take time off and that won't be viewed negatively.
And then training supervisors to better understand work stress so that they can identify it if they're seeing it in their employees and direct them toward resources or strategies to help manage that stress effectively. Cross training workers on your team is another great one. So, if you have somebody out, there's somebody else who actually has the skill set to be able to pick up that work temporarily while the other person's out.
On the back end of vacations, easing back in is really important, and I mentioned coming back to that mountain. If you can ease yourself back into work. So, maybe the first day that someone is back, they're doing – they're working remotely or telecommuting. Or maybe they're, they're blocking out time on their schedule to catch up on the hundreds of e-mails that are piled up. So, they don't walk in the door and have ten people at their office waiting for them and the expectation that they do it all immediately. So, try to ease it back in and dig out rather than getting overwhelmed immediately.
And then I think the final -- the big picture issue is looking at the culture in an organization. So, in most companies, you're not going to have somebody actually saying well, you shouldn't take time off and then I'm going to penalize you or look badly on you if you're, if you're actually using your vacation time, that doesn't usually happen.
But, what does happen a lot of times is, you know, what's being communicated indirectly in an organization? Are you holding up as an example of the perfect employee, the worker who never takes time off or who responds to e-mails, you know, at midnight on Saturdays? And if you're saying this is the gold star employee, then indirectly, you're communicating to your work force that it's bad to take time off and that you should be on call twenty-four-seven.
So, even if those are not explicit expectations that are laid out, look at how things are being modeled by leaders. Look at what's being reinforced, and if it's reinforcing things that are negative or not what you intend, clarify those expectations and adjust that. So, I think those bigger cultural issues a really important, too.
Kaitlin Luna: So, one final question. Where can people go to learn about the psychologically healthy workplace awards and also about the office of applied psychology?
David Ballard: People can go online to apa.org/applied-psychology and there's information about the psychologically healthy workplace awards available there.
Kaitlin Luna: Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Dr Ballard and Mr. Veon. It's been a really fascinating conversation.
David Ballard: Thank you.
Bryce Veon: Thank you.
Kaitlin Luna: If you've been a long-time listener or are new to our podcast, please consider giving us a rating in iTunes, and if you have time, write a review. We'd really appreciate it. Also, we'd like to hear from you directly, so if you have any questions, comments or ideas to share, you can email me at kluna@apa.org. That's kluna@apa.org.
Speaking of Psychology is part of the APA podcast network, which includes the podcast, APA Journals Dialogue about new psychological research and Progress Notes about the practice of psychology. You can find all our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also visit speakingofpsychology.org to listen to more episodes and to see resources on the topics we discuss. I'm Kaitlin Luna with the American Psychological Association.
David Ballard PsyD, MBA, is APA's assistant executive director for applied psychology. Ballard has provided research and consultation services to government agencies, medical schools and universities in the areas of public health, prevention and health care finance and has experience in management, marketing and consumer research. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Health Enhancement Research Organization, The Health Project/C. Everett Koop National Health Awards and the National Business Group on Health's Workplace Emotional Wellness Advisory Board. Ballard is regularly interviewed for print, radio and television by sources including
The Wall Street Journal
,
The New York Times
,
The Washington Post
,
Newsweek
and Forbes.com.
Bryce Veon is the president and CEO of Autosoft, an auto dealer management system provider based in Northwest, Pennsylvania. Autosoft offers innovative, intuitive technology that helps dealerships increase productivity, efficiency and profitability. The company is a three-time winner of the DrivingSales Highest Rated DMS Award and a four-time winner of the Stevie Awards for Customer Service Excellence. The company has also been named one of the 100 Best Places to Work in Pennsylvania by the Central Penn Business Journal and one of the Best Places to Work in Western Pennsylvania by the Pittsburgh Business Times.
