New Threats to Employee Wellbeing: How HR and Wellness Associations Are (And Aren't) Meeting the Moment
4 examples representing a range of engagement, with tips on how to make your voice heard
Employee wellbeing faces mounting challenges as the new administration takes action on multiple fronts (for example, by trying to gut the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the National Labor Relations Board; dehumanize the federal workforce; and sow chaos at the Occupational Health and Safety Administration), much of which has taken place under the guise of “anti-wokeism.”
I’ve been eyeing HR and wellness professional associations to assess whether their words and actions align with their values and their past advocacy patterns.
Historically, Associations Try to Influence Policy
Many HR and wellness professionals don’t realize their professional associations play (or have played) active roles in shaping national policy.
These roles include helping craft legislation; submitting opinions and expert analyses regarding federal agency rulings; mobilizing members to visit congressional staff members; publishing position papers and editorials; and hosting events.
Organizations that have, in the last quarter century, engaged in one or more of these policy activities include, in addition to those detailed below (like SHRM): Business Group on Health; American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine; Health Enhancement Research Organization; Art and Science of Health Promotion Conference; the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources; and WorldatWork.
I’d like our organizations to be outspoken against the new administration’s assault on worker wellbeing and to use their lobbying arms to protect worker inclusiveness, voice, health, and dignity.
For now, however, many seem to be pivoting. (In fairness, they — like others — may have been caught off guard.)
With tempered expectations, I’ll give some credit for at least acknowledging the threat, rather than, say, running for cover under the usual topics — like behavior change, flourishing, and leadership — while ignoring how worker wellbeing is being systematically undermined in real-time.
4 Organizations Demonstrate a Range of Responses
Wellbeing Think Tank: “Now Is Not the Time to Shy Away.”
Though not a professional association per se, the up-and-coming Wellbeing Think Tank, a values-driven operation, serves in a similar capacity. Its February newsletter exhibited a level of fearlessness that’s rare in HR and wellness:
“We’re seeing increased attacks on vulnerable workers, rollbacks of equity and inclusion initiatives, and the removal of critical health and safety information from federal websites... Dismantling protections for workers is the wrong move, and we are prepared to lean into our mission, vision, and values to protect the health and wellbeing of all workers.”
Echoing these comments on LinkedIn, Think Tank founder and CEO Chase Sterling added:
“Now is not the time for leaders in workplace wellbeing to shy away from hard conversations.”
Society for Human Resource Management: “We Need Reform.”
The day after Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress, SHRM — boasting more than 340,000 members — hosted a webinar, 50 Days In: Policy Changes, Workforce Impact, and How HR Can Respond, a pragmatic discussion representing both left-leaning and conservative viewpoints. An introductory video — featuring SHRM’s CEO Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. and head of government affairs Emily M. Dickens — took a moderate stand regarding workforce regulation:
“Let’s be clear: We need reform, not rescission.”
We’ve no reason to expect more. CEO Taylor has in the past cozied up to the Trump administration and last year made an ill-considered decision to remove the “E” from SHRM’s DEI framework.
American Journal of Health Promotion: “Retreat Nor Resist.”
The AJHP — which throughout the early 2000s mobilized its members and congressional leaders to advance legislation supporting employee wellness — recently published an editorial, Finding Common Ground in Health Promotion in an Era of Growing Distrust and Polarization. While decrying misinformation, the journal steers clear of partisanship:
“Neither retreating from nor resisting expected changes to public health policies will be as effective as walking into the shadows and looking carefully for common ground.”
“The health promotion profession risks being deemed steadfastly woke,” the editorial argues, “if it fails to allow for regional and personal variation in preferences.”
Among other ideas, it recommends “repackaging” DEI.
(The Journal previously used its editorial page to rail against “trolls” and “bloggers ill equipped in the veracity department.” That hurts my feelings.)
The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology: “Wellbeing, Engagement, and Productivity.”
On February 5, SIOP issued a call for policy briefs. Among a long list of how executive orders and policy change are poised to affect IO psychology, the organization cites ...
“the effects of labor law changes on employee wellbeing, engagement, and productivity.”
SIOP’s measured approach suits its role as an academic organization, and soliciting input from members is respectable. Its results remain to be seen, but the call and accompanying insights are superior to the inertia of organizations and leaders who are in denial about the immediate harms employees face.
Speak Out By Engaging… Or By Withholding
If you’re a member of an HR and/or a wellness association, a subscriber to its journal or newsletter, a conference speaker or attendee, or a prospective award applicant… your engagement is your voice.
Before you join, renew, register, subscribe, or apply, check whether the organization’s actions and advocacy align with the values it professes.
Our voice matters. But only if we use it.
