Employees aren’t doing well—these psychologists can help HR fix that

While attending a wedding in 2017, Patricia Grabarek and Katina Sawyer found themselves catching up on all things work and life.

After meeting in Penn State University’s doctoral psychology program in the late 2000s, Grabarek pursued a career in people analytics and talent strategy, while Sawyer continued on in academic, teaching psychology, HR, and business management. And, in catching up, they realized they’d witnessed the same phenomenon in their work: Employees’ well-being was suffering, and employers didn’t know how to help.

“We both were seeing gaps. I was seeing it in practice, in my day-to-day [work] with clients, not really knowing how to solve these issues and not understanding the basic building blocks of a really healthy workplace,” Grabarek told HR Brew. “Katina was seeing it from [the] academic perspective, from what she’s hearing from students.”

So, they decided to step in. By late 2017, the duo founded research and consulting firm Workr Beeing, then started a podcast, Thriving at Work, the following year to share insights directly with people pros.

Grabarek and Sawyer spoke with HR Brew about how they’re drawing on their expertise in psychology and HR to help companies create better workplace cultures and support employee well-being.

What’s been going on? Employers often reach out to consultants when they have retention, engagement, or productivity issues, Grabarek said, but what they’re often overlooking is an underlying culture problem.

She said companies with retention or engagement issues often didn’t know that the problem was “the culture was not positive.” “[Employees] were having a hard time. People were having a hard time staying committed, and engaged in the organization, because they were stressed. They were burning out. There was toxicity in the environment.”

In addition to recognizing that these issues can stem from a negative culture, Sawyer said leaders need to stop viewing employee health and happiness as a “trade off” for productivity and engagement.

“Often people think…either people are going to be super, super productive, or they’re going to be happy and healthy. We show a way to do both,” Sawyer said. Many leaders, she added, dump money into wellness initiatives, like mindfulness programs or nutritional seminars, falsely thinking that “employees can use those and that’s what’s going to make them well.”

“What executives and leaders on the ground are missing is that their actions and behaviors are what’s key to driving well workplaces, not add-on programs that [try] combating a culture of overwork and relative unhealthiness,” Sawyer said.

What’s the fix? Leaders should stop trying to be “superheroes” and be vulnerable with their employees, Grabarek suggests.

“Employees want their leaders to be vulnerable, to be authentic, to share when they’re struggling too, so they can identify with that leader and feel like this person is a real human that also has challenges,” she said. “They trust me to share those challenges, so now I can trust them back.”

HR teams can help employees create custom well-being programs that are individualized based on the issues they’re facing, like burnout and stress, Grabarek said.

They can also become “boundary bouncers” for their employees, Grabarek said, helping them balance work and life by ensuring, for example, employees log off on time or having time to pick up their kids from school.

What’s next for the Workr Bees? After seven years spent balancing their consultancy, podcast, and respective full-time jobs, Grabarek and Sawyer are committing their expertise to paper in their forthcoming book, Leading for Wellness: How to Create a Team Culture Where Everyone Thrives, which will discuss how companies can tackle culture and employee well-being issues.

In wearing many hats, Graberek and Sawyer said they’ve had to put some of their research and advice into practice to support their own well-being and company culture.

“When you create an environment where people can support each other, that helps push through those difficult times, because sometimes someone has to take a step back,” Grabarek said. “But if the whole team can pull together and make it work, then you’re able to take that time, little extra time than you normally would for, and the team can support in the meantime.”