Business leaders must prioritize employee well-being

Fast Company

2 days ago

As I've been watching deep cuts unfold across the federal government and nonprofit sectors, I can't help but feel deeply sad for the work that is at risk or has been cancelled, the knowledge that will be lost, and for the people who did the work.
I know firsthand what it means to be on both sides of the equation. I've been the leader tasked with executing layoffs, and I've also been the one laid off. Both experiences gutted me. They made me reflect on what leadership really means and what we should be measuring when we define success.
The problem is that we often gauge success by revenue, efficiency, and productivity while completely overlooking a key factor:the well-being of the people doing the work. A 2024 Gallup report revealed that only 21% of employees strongly agree that their organization cares about their overall well-being.
While I agree that there are inefficiencies in every bureaucracy and organization, leaders have a responsibility to balance financial performance with other measures of success.
At Catapult Design, a social impact design firm, we've made well-being a non-negotiable metric—on equal footing with financial performance and creative excellence. Because if an organization's work is meant to improve lives—whether in social innovation, government services, or private enterprise—how can we ignore what's happening inside our own walls?
Well-being is the missing metric
I worked at one consultancy that had indicators for measuring the quality of work and the financial health of the company. I thought that was amazing. It really kept the company on track because both were reported quarterly. The work was consistently good by many measures, and the company was very healthy from a financial perspective.
When I left there to take a CEO position, I suggested to my new board that we measure the quality of our work and financial health but also add another indicator around team well-being.
At first, this was around ensuring that we had the best benefits that a small business could offer. We were thoughtful around vacation time, sick leave, training days, and professional and personal stipends. But over time, we realized that well-being isn't just about benefits or hours worked—it's about how people experience their work.
We started paying closer attention to overwork—not as the cause of burnout, but as an early signal. Research shows that burnout is less about working too many hours and more about things like lack of clarity, autonomy, or alignment with values. Still, sustained overwork often points to deeper systemic issues. We use it as a 'check engine' light of the well-being of the team.
That's why we've built a practice that if anyone is consistently working more than 45 hours a week, they message me directly. Then we talk about why. Is it a broken process? Poorly scoped projects? Is someone quietly drowning? We bring those issues to the board and leadership meetings, treating them as seriously as financial projections.
As we've deepened our approach to well-being, we've also learned it's shaped just as much by leadership behavior as by organizational policy.
A few months ago, my team asked to formally review me. Their feedback was honest, thoughtful, and generous. One thing they shared was that when something seems obvious to me, I tend to move forward without discussion. But what's clear to me isn't always clear to others—and they wanted more transparency and space for shared decision making.
That feedback was a gift. One small but meaningful change I made was to begin sharing my weekly board emails with the entire team. It's helped remove ambiguity and reduce stress about what's happening behind the scenes.
We all know at Catapult Design that we are not immune to what is happening in the U.S. government right now. While I'm happy to see efforts for efficiency in financial performance, I worry about what's being lost in the process. As budgets shrink and priorities shift, how will the quality of government services be measured? And what happens to the well-being of those providing—and relying on—those services if we fail to track what really matters?
4 ways to prioritize employee well-being
Prioritizing well-being isn't just a leadership philosophy; it's a strategic decision. We're always refining what this looks like, but here's how organizations can make it real:
Make well-being a key performance indicator. Measure engagement, workload balance, and psychological safety as rigorously as revenue.
Normalize feedback loops. If leaders aren't being reviewed by their teams, they're missing critical data about what's working (and what's not).
Recalibrate workloads. If overwork is the norm, the problem isn't employees—it's leadership. Project scoping must align with reality, not just ambition.
Champion transparency. When teams understand the organization's financial health and strategic direction, they feel more invested—and less anxious.
Well-being matters more than ever
We're in a moment of reckoning. Layoffs are making headlines across industries—from tech to media to government—and many organizations are under pressure to do more with less. It's not surprising that burnout and questions about leadership are surfacing more often in the process.
In a world where talent is mobile and exhaustion is widespread, the best organizations won't just be those that survive financially—they'll be the ones that create workplaces where people want to stay, grow, and thrive.
I've learned the hard way that leadership isn't about having all the answers. But I do wonder, if we don't prioritize the people who make the work possible, will anything else matter.