What is wellness?

We all know that wellness is something we should really be looking at, but for many of us, the multibillion-dollar industry trying to sell us “wellness” (see Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Team) has turned us off thanks to confusion, misinformation, and the general exploitation of our physical vulnerabilities.

The overall happiness and positivity cult that evangelically sells abundance and excess as the symptoms of being well has done quite a bit of damage in making most people feel quite unwell.

That is because wellness is not a commercial enterprise. It can’t be acquired, colonised, purchased, downloaded or found. It is one of those things that you have to “do”.

The World Health Organisation defines “wellness” as: “A state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”.

Looking at that as a concept, wellness isn’t just about being free from disease. Wellness is about an optimised human state – understanding that we occupy physical bodies that need to be well; that we have mental processes and emotions that need to be well; and that we live and are connected to other people and those relationships also need to be well.

What is the prize for getting this trifecta of physical, mental and social wellbeing?

The World Health Organisation describes it as a state of wellbeing where every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community.

That is the optimised human position – wellbeing – and it is simply more complex than the formula of $300 peptides in a bottle or a regular gym schedule.

Taking nothing away from peptides or exercise – they can both be beneficial in terms of optimising performance – but we might need to pay less attention to that and rediscover wisdom about how our own emotional and social wellbeing can incontestably increase and optimise our human existence as well as the existence of those around us.

What has any of this got to do with real estate?

It seems that we, and the people in the industry around us, are not doing very well at being very well. Real estate has been declared a high-risk industry for suicide and mental health concerns, and we know from research spanning the past six years that our people are disproportionately affected and unwell compared to their counterparts in other professions.

Why?

Well, real estate has quite a few unique stressors that have nothing to do with gyms, tans and teeth.

For one, there is a lack of connection between the effort that is put in to work and the rewards, because other people have to make decisions to buy, sell, let, and lease homes. Low levels of autonomy in this regard is a well-known stressor to humans.

This is particularly true for property managers whose experience involves knowing the “correct thing to do” but is bound in the middle by client instructions or not having the authorisation to act.

Another factor is the amount of time spent at work. Real estate agents, on average, work a 45-hour week compared to their full-time counterparts in other professions who clock off after 38 hours.

Income is inconsistent for sales agents, and for many property managers, it is not enough yield in comparison to hours worked and both the skill and responsibility required for that type of knowledge work. Financial stress is a leading cause of physical and emotional health issues such as lack of sleep and loss of appetite, but it is also a social stressor causing mood swings and conflict with the people closest to you.

Workload and routines are often out of whack due to client demands and “emergencies”, and therefore, there is quite often a lack of routine. Our brains are not engineered for protracted stress or crisis and do well in rhythms and routines.

And this is just to mention a few of the systemic and environmental stressors created by the model of real estate that we have been working on – a model which has been shown to be inherently flawed and causing both unhappiness and a lack of motivation. Not awesome.

The research is clear that the mental wellness of the real estate industry is troubling. However, it can also be seen as the biggest opportunity that exists for those willing to face this wicked problem and create an industry that can be both customer-centric/profit-driven and human-friendly for the people working in it.

As a service-driven industry, there is only one way to provide better service and increase volume of sales, and that is to optimise the service human at the centre of the transaction, which is the real estate agent and the property manager.

“Well” humans – that is, those in a state of physical, mental, emotional and social wellness – perform better and produce more. To pretend that the real estate humans in the service offering can continue to work harder is a ridiculous and clearly flawed idea.

Wellness is about looking at human sustainability in the workplace. We must begin to care. We must create environments and systems that enable workers in the real estate industry to achieve personal optimisation with a whole-of-person perspective on their participation in our organisation.

I run a real estate business; how is this my responsibility?

Well, not only do you have a legal obligation under the workplace health and safety legislation in your state to provide a workplace that is both physically and mentally “safe” for the people under your care, there is a strong business case for investing in your team from a social and emotional perspective.

Here is the business case for it:

Beyond Blue (2014) reported that 21 per cent of Australians have taken time off work because they felt stressed, anxious, depressed or mentally unhealthy, while further reporting that 46 per cent of workers consider their workplace to be mentally unhealthy.

Medibank Private estimates that six working days of productivity each year per Australian employee are lost due to a lack of mental and emotional health.

A mentally healthy workplace seems like a great place to start to retain and nourish your team – while benefiting from their capacity to present to the workplace and actually be productive.

If you have 10 staff, that means you are likely to be losing 60 days of productivity per year in your business. Having a “well team” would be like having an extra staff member for an entire quarter each year (52 workdays per quarter).

The Australian government agency Comcare reports that organisations that do not manage health and wellbeing “well” are four times more likely to lose talent in the next 12 months. Splice in the post-COVID great resignation and staff shortages and you won’t only face issues of recruitment costs and service failure with a lack of people – you might also struggle to recover.

What are the benefits of “well” people in my organisation?

Well employees are three times more productive than unwell employees and take nine times less sick leave.

The Global Wellness Institute report that if an employee identified their company as “caring about their health/wellness” (and only 37 per cent of respondents did), that employees’ overall health, stress and job engagement satisfaction improved significantly.

On average, the return on investment for organisation spend on wellness and wellbeing initiatives is $2.3 for every dollar invested. For small businesses, this ROI could be as much as $15 for every dollar invested.

Now is the time to act.

Our industry, customers and expectations have changed more and quicker in the last couple of years than in the previous couple of decades, which has made it both exciting and very challenging for our teams.

There is right now a huge turnover and exodus from our great industry, and it is predicted to accelerate in the new year.

There had been a growing movement over the last 24 months within our industry from some change leaders focused on how our industry will not only be sustainable for our people but a place for them to thrive. This is a focus on care, well being and nurture so that our team of carers are able to care for our customers now and into the future.

The Real Care app is a fully funded resource designed by the real estate industry for everyone in the real estate industry and their families. Whether you or someone you love needs remedial relief for a mental health challenge or if you would simply like to be more well, you can find assistance in the Real Care app.