By Carolyn Gregoire, Source: The Huffington Post

Workplace burnout has become a global epidemic. More than eight in 10 U.S. employees report experiencing stress at work, and stress costs American companies an estimated $300 billion each year. But it goes beyond the U.S.: neurologist Francisco Javier Carod-Artal has called burnout a “global concern” that compromises employee health and organizational effectiveness. Several countries have a specific word for the all-too-common occurrence of death and suicide related to overwork, and across the globe, job stress may be worse for an individual’s heart health than smoking.

Multinational consumer goods corporation Unilever — the company behind Dove soap, Skippy peanut butter, Lipton tea, Vaseline and a number of other household brands — knows that this kind of workplace isn’t sustainable, and they’ve committed to creating change.

The corporation’s leadership has determined that alongside traditional business goals of increasing profits and expanding around the globe, it’s imperative to also look inward — and so they’ve focused their attention on boosting the well-being of Unilever employees. And according to Paul Polman, Unilever’s CEO, these ambitions don’t contradict one another — they fit together in a way that makes perfect sense.

“Under the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan we want to improve the health and wellbeing of a billion people around the world,” Polman told The Huffington Post in a statement. “A key part of that is the well-being of our own people, not only their physical health, but just as importantly their mental health, particularly at times of change and uncertainty. By listening and responding to their emotional needs we give people a much better chance of fulfilling their true potential, which is good for them and good for the company.”

As part of this effort to connect the outward and inward aspects of its business, Unilever has launched Lamplighter, a well-being program in which employees receive individual coaching on exercise, nutrition and mental resilience. After an initial consultation assessing the employee’s health risk level, he or she develops a personal health plan, and attends six monthly follow-ups. The goal is to help employees stay committed to their new healthy habits.

A Unilever press release noted, “We have found that if we can keep employees motivated during the first six months of a program of change, positive changes are likely to remain.”

Read the rest at: The Huffington Post