Building better workplaces — is there an opportunity to link Brain Health to ESG and corporate reporting?
By Linda Jarnhamn, Founder flow2thrive.
What if reporting on the amount of time spent in silence, amount of day-time breaks, and the collective level of psychological safety would be part of ESG reporting with regards to a company's own workforce? These are all examples of factors directly impacting employee wellbeing risk and performance.
If you reflect on the science behind the brain, how we do our best thinking and corporate reporting, you'll discover three important points:
Wasted brain potential: We work opposite to what the brain needs to be and work well
Data with little meaning: Companies report on things with little correlation to real people risk
Human/cognitive error: Most corporate failures and disasters have been triggered by human error and misjudgment
Current reporting practices and regulatory frameworks have resulted in enhanced standardisation, better discipline, and enhanced transparency and disclosure. Companies report on e.g. policy, intent, and on data related to diversity and inclusion, training, pay ratios, absence, physical injury and fatality rates, most with little to no direct correlation to brain health and performance potential.
Coming back to point 3 above. If you open up the sustainability report of any of the big consulting firms, Swiss banks or oil majors, you’ll end up reading a pile of stories of a (close to) perfect world. Yet, if you dig underneath the surface and look at what’s triggered headlines around corporate failures and reputational disasters in the past couple of years, the vast majority can be traced back to stress, burnout, fear cultures and unethical behaviour.
‘‘The potential of adding factors that correlate to brain health and performance and that can quantify people risk, into more formal ESG frameworks, is vast’’
One large division in one the world's largest brands, increased (self-evaluated) cognitive performance by 20% over 4 months by interrupting each other less, taking more breaks, and spending more thinking-time away from computers. Interestingly, high-performing individuals also reported 40% higher level of trust and psychological safety.
‘‘To better assess people risk and potential, we need to factor in what makes the human brain be and work well’’
Overall, when analysing data from the flow²thrive Human Sustainability Index, we typically see three factors that differentiate:
1. Mental clarity: Clarity and certainty of plans, and access to quiet space to rest, recharge and do focused work (30% higher).
2. A ‘‘grounded’’ environment: With psychological safety and trust, purpose, meaning, and belonging being 20-30% higher amongst cognitively high-performing individuals.
3. Self-motivation and control: Being rated much higher (25%), with fewer self-interruptions, and a stronger intrinsic motivation and drive.
However, as most of you know: it’s never either or, it’s always a combination of factors influencing and impacting brain health and cognitive performance.
This is why we’ve developed the flow²thrive Sustainable Human Talent Framework which includes a suite of tools proven to facilitate healthier, more sustainable and productive working practices.
To sum up, to enable people first buildings and to provide leaders and investors with meaningful data, we need to start reporting on factors directly correlated with brain health and performance risk. The future of work depends on it.