How EY leans into data to make well-being decisions for 65,000 employees

Employee well-being means different things to different people. That makes finding the right benefits challenging for people leaders — especially when you're looking for solutions for a workforce of 65,000 employees. 

Yet at accounting firm EY, data is helping them understand exactly what is making the biggest impact, and how employees are engaging with the company's offerings. Their Vitality Index is a 10-part survey sent to employees three times per year, giving leaders a deep dive into the full employee experience. 

"We're obviously a firm that values data in everything that we do, so it was really important for us to put it into the [wellness] space," says Frank Giampietro, EY's chief well-being officer. "It adds some level of credibility, but we also want to make sure we were spending our time and attention on stuff that had the maximum impact." 

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For example, EY's index revealed that employees who took their PTO throughout the year, rather than saving it for the end, had a better experience overall and were more likely to stay at the company. Knowing these data points can help managers be more intentional with their planning and communications, Giampietro says. 

"One of the things we learned was that people who take two days a month during the course of the year have the best overall well-being experience, and we also know it increased the likelihood to stay by 1.6 times," he says. "So we can bring that insight to our leaders and say, 'Hey, we can give you the data, but it's really important for you to make sure you're having conversations and being planful about taking time off on a regular basis.'"  

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Additionally, EY's index found that employees who received regular recognition and rewards also had a higher level of well-being. This is helping EY invest in and be more deliberate with their recognition efforts, and leaning into the idea that well-being is a "team-sport," Giampietro says.

"If we can work together at that team level to put good behaviors in place, it really is a place where we see a lot of lift," he says. "How do we support each other and how can we do that in the context of what our work days look like?"

Driving those questions is the broader desire to create a more mindful work environment, an effort EY has put their analytics behind, too. The company's four-pillar program includes online training courses for managers, live meditation and mindfulness drop-in sessions, and a variety of other workplace well-being initiatives. 

EY surveyed participants at the start and end of the program and found an 18% increase in energy, an 11% increase in employees' ability to think more clearly, and a 14% decrease in rumination, which often can be a distraction to productive work. 

"This idea of focus and working in a non-distracted way, we recognize the impact to our brains and our bodies," Giampietro says. "We really look at mindfulness as a great personal tool and practice to be able to operate in that state on a regular basis at work and at home." 

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With good data at hand, EY can empower managers to carry out all of the initiatives the company hopes to implement. While Giampietro acknowledges that managers are not expected to be professional mental health counselors, and also have their own well-being to tend to, it's important employees feel supported and heard. 

"We're not expecting any of our leaders to be clinicians and we understand that there's a proper role for them to play," he says. "That is really to just have a good sense of how their people are doing, and then direct them to the right resources. We have some really good data that's shown what teams have been able to do by focusing on this together."