Global Well-Being | Year 2
Overview
AECOM is a top-ranked engineering design firm with operations in markets ranging from transportation, energy and water to sports arenas and government. Safeguarding communities and its employees is core to AECOM’s business. One way to safeguard employees is by helping them reach their full potential by investing in their well-being.
AECOM’s wellness program for U.S. employees, introduced nearly 10 years ago, rewards employees and their families for prioritizing good health and well-being. With various wellness programs and activities occurring in other countries, AECOM wanted to create a consistent well-being strategy and continue to grow its culture of well-being globally. As a result, AECOM decided to engage its global workforce of nearly 70,000 people by launching a Global Well-Being program in 2018 during its first-ever Global Well-Being Week. Then, in 2019, they expanded the program to a month-long event, known as Global Well-Being Month, inviting employees and their family members to take action for their well-being.
Expanding to a global program was no easy feat for AECOM — they faced several challenges, including leadership engagement, resource and budget constraints, addressing the diverse needs of employees across over 150 countries and competing business priorities. One of the most significant challenges was that, although they had developed a multiyear plan, there was no budget allocated to the global well-being initiative. AECOM knew that to be truly successful, they would need to engage their external and internal partners at all levels of the organization — from senior leadership to employees. Two internal partners that were critical to the success of the program were Safety and Human Resources. Unfortunately, there weren’t Human Resources and Safety partners in each location to help AECOM implement and communicate a global initiative. Finally, AECOM was in the middle of a global technology implementation that impacted over half of its population and reduced the hours that the key stakeholders could dedicate to the global well-being initiative. The challenges were abounding, and AECOM needed strategic partners who could help them find solutions quickly.
Approach
AECOM knew that to have a successful Global Well-Being Month, they needed the buy-in, ideas and support of global leaders. They began laying the groundwork two years in advance by partnering with global business leaders, HR and Safety partners, as well as external partners such as Mercer and Blue, to develop a five-year global well-being strategy. Through interviews, surveys and focus groups, they gathered information on business alignment, alignment with the talent strategy and the readiness of their locations for launching a Global Well-Being program.
This strategic plan included engagement activities; a mission statement and objectives; key pillars of well-being: physical, emotional, financial, social and the planet; training and metrics of success. Additionally, key stakeholders at various levels of the organization were identified, including a network of Well-Being Champions (senior leaders) and Well-Being Ambassadors to help garner excitement, coordinate activities and disseminate important information.
The key to Global Well-Being Month’s success included global vendor and stakeholder engagement, shared vision, alignment between well-being and business strategy (in particular, safeguard values) and executive leadership support. To overcome their budget constraints, AECOM partnered with their global vendors to provide gratis resources and on-site events on a variety of well-being topics across the five pillars. These well-being resources and events were well-received and well attended with more than 200 on-site well-being events held at 99 worksites globally and more than 35 webinars hosted globally with over 800 attendees.
Even with the resource constraints presented by the global technology implementation and geographic spread of key stakeholders, AECOM was able to engage a broad group to support the well-being of global employees and their families, including executive leadership, people managers, Human Resources, Safety and Communications partners, employees and their families. In the end, Global Well-Being Month was a huge success and demonstrates that AECOM is well on their way to ingraining well-being into their DNA.
Results
A culture shift and better alignment with AECOM’s safety values within the organization
- Executive leadership support at the highest levels through CEO and CHRO
- Creation of a network of over 20 Change Champions (global leaders showing support for the program)
- Creation of a network of over 250 Well-Being Ambassadors
- 43 global managers recognized as Manager of the Month for supporting their employees’ well-being
- Increased employee engagement scores for managers’ support of well-being over a two-year period from 2017 to 2019
- High levels of employee participation:
- Better engagement/utilization of well-being resources through the global EAP
- Over 140,000 total touchpoints, which reflect engagement and include total views, opens, likes, comments, downloads, impressions, event participation and more.