There’s a new member of the C-suite in companies across America. Say hello to the CHO, the chief health and wellness officer. In a development underway before, but vastly accelerated by, the pandemic, the physical and mental health of employees seized top priority—because without it, productivity ceased and companies couldn’t even do business.
If the CHOs’ first order of business was deciding whether or how to operate in a pandemic or when and how it was safe to reopen, they are enduringly fixed on safeguarding the mental health of workers at home and ensuring they don’t burn out. As ongoing members of the C-suite, they guarantee that mental health gets attention beyond the largely peripheral yoga class and meditation moments. The across-the-board spike in stress and anxiety levels, the sudden awareness of the extraordinary demands on working parents, and the blurring of work-life boundaries mandate an ongoing orientation to how the structure of work interacts with employee health and wellness.
There’s plenty of bottom-line rationale. Healthy employees are not only engaged and productive, they also keep medical insurance costs down.
The role isn’t completely new. In fact, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, based in Akron, Ohio, with 65,000 workers worldwide, brought on a CHO a decade ago, in 2011, to develop the company’s global health strategy and provide leadership for its medical clinics, health benefits and programs, and health-related emergencies.
Over his 10 years of service, Brent Pawlecki, M.D., not only created special initiatives to acknowledge workers who are caring for the sick or elderly but also literally helped create a healthy environment when the company built its new headquarters. And when the pandemic struck, he was able to quickly coordinate policies with public health authorities.
Prompted by the pandemic to grasp the importance of health and wellness and to adapt to quickly shifting health realities, many more companies—Delta Airlines, Constellation Brands, Stanley Black & Decker— have brought on a CHO. Executive search firms report it’s a “burgeoning area” of business.
In addition, CHOs are getting attention at the highest levels worldwide. Last fall, the World Economic Forum announced that it was establishing a new cross-industry community of chief health officers to share visions and best practices because, it said, well-being matters more than ever: “Workforce well-being has become a business priority. There is increased awareness of its links to business performance, operational resiliency, and sustainability.”
Calling the pandemic “a wake-up call for employers,” the WEF also pointed to deeper problems underlying the increased anxiety, stress, and physical ill-health employees are reporting. It specifically cited systemic racism, massive job losses in some sectors, unpredictability of working conditions, and burnout.
Reporting directly to the CEO, CHOs work with other senior executives to develop and implement strategic policies that take care of employees’ overall health, as well as remote work guidelines and in-office safety. CHOs also enforce existing mental health policies designed to help employees achieve work-life balance. The difference is, the efforts are significantly more targeted and organized with a central figure in charge.
Organizations can also expect CHOs to do a deeper dive on issues driving mental health problems, including racism and gender discrimination, that contribute to toxic work cultures.
The advent of top executives who make mental and physical health a priority in business is worth celebrating. It’s just a little too soon to know how big a difference they can make.
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