Frank Giampietro and Rachel Hodgdon live from the Nasdaq Marketsite ESG Event Putting “H” Health and Humanity into ESG.

Hosted by Humanity 2.0 & International WELL Building Institute (IWBI)

In this captivating segment Frank and Rachel break down key topics including:

• Day in the life of a Chief Wellbeing Officer at EY
• EY Leading its own ESG Metrics
• Advice to Chief Wellbeing Officers getting started in the role

FULL COVERAGE

• Watch complete coverage of the Putting “H” Health and Humanity into ESG Event

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS: Frank Giampietro is the Chief Wellbeing Officer at EY and Rachel Hodgdon is the President and CEO at IWBI

Rachel Hodgdon, President and CEO, IWBI (00:00):

Hi, I’m Rachel Hodgdon, President and CEO of the International WELL Building Institute. And I’m thrilled to be here with Frank Giampietro, the Chief Well-being officer for the Americas at EY. So Frank, as you know, our organization, IWBI Is a huge proponent of the CWO or Chief Wellbeing Officer or Chief Wellness Officer by any other name. Yep. Um, you know, quite simply we think that if you want to take human health and wellbeing, seriously, you gotta make it someone’s full-time job. And we’re big advocates for, uh, permanent position in the C-suite for folks who are roles like yours. So tell us what is a day in the life of a CWO at EY look like.

Frank Giampietro, US Chief Wellbeing Officer, EY (00:48):

Thanks, Rachel. Um, so I’m about two months into the role. So, you know, each day’s been, uh, been pretty interesting we’re, you know, we’re, we’re lucky, I’m particularly lucky stepping into this role at EY because we’ve been on this journey for almost a decade. Um, we really we’ve got amazing programs and resources and tools in place for our folks. So we’re not starting this with the, you know, the addition of my role and me stepping into that role. But when we went through the pandemic, um, like many other organizations, we used as an opportunity to step back and say, Hey, what do we want that employee experience to look like on the back end of this, what’s really important to our people. And there are really three priorities that came out of that conversation. One was around growth and learning. One was around flexibility and the loudest was really around wellbeing.

Frank Giampietro, US Chief Wellbeing Officer, EY (01:32):

So even though we are a decade into this journey, and we’re really focusing on our people, they’re still telling us we have a longer road to go. And so a lot of the beginning of my, you know, stepping into the role was doing more and more listening and making sure we really understood where were the programs and resources and tools that were being effective and where did we have other opportunities? And then additionally, what was the rest of the environment that we needed to address? You know, what did we need to do from a culture perspective, a behavior perspective and an environmental perspective, and that really where a lot of my effort is gonna be focused on. And so we say, you know, it’s really, it’s time. We put the we and wellbeing that we really need to attack this together and not make individuals accountable for wellbeing, but make all of us accountable for each other’s wellbeing.

Rachel Hodgdon, President and CEO, IWBI (02:17):

Hmm. I love that. Put the we in wellbeing. I also just really am enamored with that idea of the listening tour, um, because you know, historically participation in workplace wellness programs is abysmally low. And I think a lot of that just has to do with those programs and offerings, not being well tailored to the population that they serve. Um, how are you seeing the work that you lead show up across your company’s performance? And is it part of how EY is leading when it comes to its own ESG metrics?

Frank Giampietro, US Chief Wellbeing Officer, EY (02:47):

Yeah, it’s a great question. I think unfortunately in a lot of, uh, organizations, people think about business performance and they think about wellbeing and they almost think they need to make a choice. Am I gonna focus on delivering the results or I’m gonna focus on my people and their wellbeing. It’s a false choice. We know that the data and research tells us that what we’re trying to do is educate our leaders to understand when we take care of our people, they take care of our clients and they take care of the business. And one of the ways we’re doing that is with the introduction of a wellbeing index. So it’s a dashboard that sits on all of our leaders, desktops that gives them, you know, information about the experience of their people, um, from a wellbeing perspective, how are those people feeling about their own wellbeing across nine dimensions? But in addition to that, we look at the operational indicators that allow them to understand what’s happening in the business right now that might be causing wellbeing to be high or low. And then what’s the consequence of that. What could that mean from a nutrition perspective, from a performance perspective, etc. So we’re really trying to educate how wellbeing sits in the center of this spectrum from a performance perspective.

See Related Article: Mona Naqvi of S&P Global with Rachel Hodgdon of IWBI- Putting “H” Health & Humanity into ESG

Rachel Hodgdon, President and CEO, IWBI (03:49):

Fascinating. Okay. So last question for you. Um, you meet another CF CWO and definitely you’re at the beginning of this new frontier of chief wellbeing officer. So what are the three pieces of advice that you would offer them as they’re getting started in their job?

Frank Giampietro, US Chief Wellbeing Officer, EY (04:06):

Well, I’m glad that the, the first resonated with you, which is, I think it’s really important to listen. Yeah, right. I mean, I think it, wellbeing is very individual and, you know, the, in an organization like ours, like many others, there’s so much diversity in terms of the generation, the caregiver responsibilities, you know, the, you really have to understand each of the parts of your population and what their needs are. Um, and, and that’s not a one an done exercise that’s ongoing. So I think that’s really first and foremost, two is really then assessing, where can we have the biggest impact? How can we show people that we really mean what we’re, that we’ve put this role in place, but it, you know, it’s followed by a set of actions. So what are the one or two or three things that you wanna accomplish right off the, the bat.

Frank Giampietro, US Chief Wellbeing Officer, EY (04:48):

And then I think the third is really getting your leaders to understand that, you know, wellbeing is a business priority. It’s really a business imperative. So if you’re gonna do that, then you have to measure it and you have to sustain it in a way that you would with any other business metric. I really look at that last piece is we think about long term value. And we think about ESG, you really, we’re going to see wellbeing, move to the forefront as that kind of long term view of whether we have a sustainable model in terms of how we’re managing our workforce.

Rachel Hodgdon, President and CEO, IWBI (05:15):

I love it. So listen, assess for impact and then measure and monitor to hold yourself accountable.

Frank Giampietro, US Chief Wellbeing Officer, EY (05:22):

Well said.

Rachel Hodgdon, President and CEO, IWBI (05:22):

Awesome. Thank you so much for being with us today, Frank, and, uh, thanks for being with us at NASDAQ.

Frank Giampietro, US Chief Wellbeing Officer, EY (05:27):

Thanks for taking the time.