by Ivana Tufegdzic
Table of Contents
Investing in employee well-being is not only a moral imperative, but also a strategic advantage that will help you build a company that your employees will not want to leave. By prioritizing our employees’ happiness, we can transform workplaces and help employees become the best versions of themselves.
Ever since I can remember, I’ve had two big passions in my life: learning languages and my desire to see the world through travel. I always knew that a job connecting me to other cultures, educating people and helping them achieve their potential, and spreading the love for the beautiful language of English, would bring me immense joy. This led me to pursue a career in education and English language teaching which later evolved into a career in Human Resources.
Coming from Serbia, an eastern European country, it wasn’t always easy to find affordable travel options or travel visa-free, especially in the 1990s and early 2000s.
‘To travel is to live’ -H.C. Andersen
In addition, travel wasn’t widely popular due to financial constraints, and for many young people, it unfortunately was not an option, especially during frequent economic crises. I’ve always felt the need to share the immense joy and happiness that travel brings, hoping to inspire others to seize every opportunity to explore the world.
A journey of wellbeing
As the Head of People and Culture at GreenerField LLC, a successful American start-up, I have been given an opportunity to combine and advance my personal passions and professional goals with the help, support and creativity of its owners who genuinely care about employee health and wellbeing and have always put their employees first.
When I joined Greener Fields, my mission was to establish HR processes from the ground up and design a people-centered HR strategy to drive the company forward. One of our primary goals was to create an exceptional employee experience focused on employee wellbeing and aiming to measure its impact on performance, retention and overall satisfaction.
In conversations with one of the owners, I shared my love for travel, and we discussed introducing a travel benefit to enhance employee experience and wellbeing. The Science of Wellbeing course by a Yale professor, Dr Laurie Santos, further inspired us, revealing that experiences are among factors that significantly contribute to happiness. The insights from the course pushed us to get creative, brainstorm ideas, and make important decisions about company benefits. As a result, we based many of our benefits on the knowledge gained from this course, making it a core aspect of our company culture.
Incorporating the Science of Wellbeing into company benefits
What truly makes us happy and how have we integrated this understanding into our employee programs and benefits? Extensive research from the Science of Wellbeing course reveals that, contrary to common misconceptions, happiness is not primarily derived from a good job, money, or material possessions.
Instead, the key factors contributing to happiness include:
- Kindness
- Social connection
- Time affluence
- Mind control
- Spending time on experiences
- Not comparing ourselves to others
- Being present
- Having healthy habits
Guided by these principles, we crafted the “GF travel adventures program” to enhance our employees’ lives by focusing on what truly matters – experiences.
This travel benefit allows employees to go on a long weekend trip (usually 4 to 5 nights) and explore the world, fully funded by Greener Fields twice a year. In 2024, we also introduced a week-long worldwide travel option enabling our staff to visit incredible destinations like the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Japan.
The only requirement is to take pictures and share your experiences with your team. In order to help our staff experience the joy of being kind to others, we require an act of kindness on each trip with an approved budget for it. Reflecting on the limited travel opportunities for young people in Serbia, and considering that most of our staff are based there, our travel program has enabled all employees to travel more frequently. Some have even flown on a plane or traveled to a different continent for the very first time.
The impact of this benefit alone on employee wellbeing, satisfaction, and retention has been phenomenal.
Over the past 2 years, our employee retention rate has remained at 100% and employee engagement has consistently increased according to our engagement surveys. Our company-wide pulse average score has consistently been 4.4 over the last 2 years, based on weekly employee check-ins through our performance management platform.
We have found out that we need to be cautious of people’s tendency to quickly get used to the good things in life, which can lead to hedonic adaptation. To address this, we have assigned the Science of Wellbeing course to each staff member. This course provides valuable strategies to help counteract hedonic adaptation.
Another program that has positively impacted employees’ lives and fostered healthy habits is our exercise program. This initiative is linked to the travel benefit, as employees must complete wellness challenges to qualify for travel rewards.
All staff members are required to exercise four times a week for at least 30 minutes, and we have been doing this as a team for about 18 months.
The company covers any costs associated with the exercise activities of their choice and provides all necessary support. Our employees have remained consistent with their exercise routines throughout the program, developing healthy habits that have become an integral part of their lives.
According to our wellbeing surveys, over 80% of our staff find the exercise program ‘moderately’ or ‘very effective’ in improving their performance and productivity. Our financial results for 2023 reflect this positive impact.
Additionally, 90% believe the program significantly improved their mental health and wellbeing as well as their ability to handle busy days and daily stressors at work. Reported benefits include: increased energy levels, sense of achievement, reduced stress levels and increased resilience.
Our objective is always to help employees introduce habits and behaviors that will enhance their wellbeing and increase their level of happiness (meditation, sleep, building social connections, healthy eating just to name a few). In summary, we are very happy with the results we have achieved by introducing these employee programs and plan on experimenting further in the future by coming up with creative solutions for our wellness challenges and company benefits.
A call to action for employers and HR professionals
I hope that sharing our experience inspires other employers and HR professionals to invest meaningfully in employee experience and well-being. Get creative, gather feedback on what matters most to your employees, or use science-backed research to introduce benefits and programs that will change your employees’ lives for the better. While profits are essential for a functional company, the modern role of a company is to enhance employees’ lives, not just by balancing work and personal life, but by helping them become the people they aspire to be.
About Ivana
Ivana has 15+ years of experience in teaching English in corporate environments and 10+ years of experience in People & Culture management and creating employee-centered workplaces. She is passionate about assisting start-ups in building their HR processes and strategy from scratch, finding top talent and leveraging company culture to create better business outcomes.
As the Head of People & Culture at GreenerField LLC, she leads the organization’s HR function ensuring the company is an exceptional workplace in the areas of talent acquisition, talent development, people operations, total rewards and employee experience & wellbeing.
Ivana is an avid traveller who firmly believes that exploring the world and other cultures greatly enhances our happiness and overall wellbeing.
