Employers invest in human capital for both their internal and external communities. At Milken Institute Health, we view the workplace as its own community, in which organizational leadership is uniquely positioned to introduce, model, communicate, and normalize a “whole-person” approach to health that prioritizes physical, mental, and financial well-being equally. Investments in whole-person health can come in the form of expanded health benefits, changes to internal policies and programs, shifts in workplace culture to allow people to bring their “whole selves” to work, and increased levels of opportunity that recognize the many roles and responsibilities employees take on, such as caregiving.
Sabrina Spitaletta, senior director, Public Health at the Milken Institute, and Alexandra Guenther, chief information officer, Leidos, sat down to discuss ways leadership within organizations can lead with a whole-person health approach in mind.
Sabrina Spitaletta: Employers are defining "whole-person health” in various ways. From your perspective as an employer, how do you envision a whole-person health approach in the workplace and in community investments from the employer?
Alexandra Guenther: Throughout my career as both an individual contributor and now a manager, I am excited to see companies transition to support “whole-person health” initiatives. Whole-person health means that, as an employer, Leidos takes into account all aspects of an employee’s needs, regardless of their physical location around the globe. The support that Leidos provides to each employee through Leidos Life options, as highlighted previously in this series by Health & Civil President Liz Porter, includes physical, mental, financial, and social support. In addition, as chief information officer, I seek opportunities to leverage digital capabilities that elevate employees’ experiences by accommodating their whole-person health needs. The value of this approach is a win-win for employees and employers, as it removes physical barriers to work, enhances collaboration, facilitates inclusivity, and enables employee effectiveness. The value is compounded when leaders are managing teams distributed around the globe. In other cases, the physical location of employees can be an integral part of management—not just due to logistics but also due to well-being. Providing whole-person health support ensures employees are able to contribute their best work and enables employers to have access to excellent talent—wherever that talent may be.
What are the risks if employers do not adopt or move toward a whole-person health approach?
At best, employers are facing a sub-optimized workforce when they do not embrace a whole-person health approach. At worst, employers are setting themselves up to disappoint or isolate a sizable portion of the workforce, preventing the desire to work at said company. In the information technology sector, during a global talent shortage, employers are motivated to give themselves—and their workforce—every opportunity to succeed; the whole-person health approach does just that.
The IT sector is expected to face a shortfall of 85 million jobs by 2030 according to a study by Korn Ferry. These are not AI-driven jobs; these are human-skilled positions. It requires creativity and compassion to solve this kind of shortage, including seeking opportunistic ways to connect human capacity with open positions. Looking beyond upskilling and reskilling, a whole-person health approach allows employers to see employees as more than just the skills they bring. Instead, a whole-person health approach extends an employer’s view of the person and their skills to include a broader set of capabilities. This presents opportunities to connect unique missions and problems with individuals who feel connected and motivated to solve them. In many remote or isolated workplaces, for example, we are selecting motivated, talented individuals who have a personal passion for the mission. Without being open-minded and looking at a whole-person health approach, employers risk missing significant opportunities to connect individuals with career-advancing positions.
What steps are employers uniquely positioned to take to normalize and achieve a whole-person health approach?
Employers have opportunities to normalize whole-person health approaches with the sheer volume of employee interactions they have on a recurring basis. From the recruiting process to onboarding, to daily responsibilities, to offboarding, employers can demonstrate their commitment to whole-person health. As chief information officer, I look at each interaction with an employee from a qualitative and quantitative perspective to constantly improve our ability to not only react to employees’ whole-person health needs but also to anticipate them. If a technology-enabled digital assistant bot can see there is a planned out-of-office scheduled on an employee’s calendar, it can prompt the employee to ask the bot to generate a request for leave or put up an out-of-office message. Reducing the friction and administrative toil between the employee and its technology and corporate processes relieves the mental load and time for the employee. Seeing each employee's interaction with technology through the lens of a whole-person health approach is not just about “increasing productivity” but about making the employee’s experience more enjoyable, seamless, and effective—therefore leading to increased productivity.
A few years ago, there was a phenomenon occurring around the globe called “quiet quitting.” Disenfranchised workers weren’t actively leaving their jobs, but their productivity and engagement were plummeting. There is a new trend occurring called “quiet hiring,” which refers to an employer’s ability to subtly re-engage with employees to increase their connectedness to their work and their output. At Leidos, we prefer to think of this as “ethical quiet hiring,” as we are intentional about training and compensating employees for increased responsibilities. These types of gains are a direct correlation with the whole-person health approach. Empathy and support from an employer create connectedness and contentment in the employee, translating into benefits for both parties.
In your opinion, which organizational leadership roles or positions need to be involved for this integrated approach to be adopted across the organization and in the surrounding community?
The most senior leaders are responsible for setting cultural norms, although it’s a shared responsibility for embodying the culture each and every day. All levels of management, as well as the employees, can continuously normalize a more integrated whole-person health approach in their regular interactions and discussions. Starting with a top-down focus and supportive policies and practices, employees, including management, have the opportunity to show empathy for other humans and create a clear path to foster the growth of whole-person health initiatives. A “humans helping humans” mindset is free of charge, and it can reap great benefits, as engaged employees are better performers and more likely to produce better results. A recent 2024 Gallup poll study found that “Highly engaged teams outperform the rest in business outcomes critical to the success of your organization. Engaged employees have higher well-being, better retention, lower absenteeism, and higher productivity.”
How do employers build a sustainable whole-person health approach that anticipates the ebb and flow of the external environment, whether those are shifts in the economic, social, or political landscape?
As an employer, one word I use with my team is “empowerment.” The word means that individuals are more than just set up for success; they have everything they need within their spheres of influence and control to implement success. This is key to building a sustainable whole-person health approach that can outlast the ebbs and flows of the external landscape. Empowering employees—and communicating that to them—allows them to see and navigate their pathway to success, regardless of some minor shifts in the external environments around them. Employers should stay connected with employees to monitor these shifts in case they require a reset by management or an intervention.
Click here to learn more about whole-person health and the Milken Institute Employer Action Exchange.
