Prelude

More than two millennia ago, the celebrated Roman poet Publius Vergilius Maro, more familiarly Virgil, pronounced: “The greatest wealth is health.” Arguably, such a sagacious statement really needs no elaborate explanation or scientific enquiry, but until only a few years ago the issues of health, well-being and happiness scarcely flickered on the radar of real estate research or market analysis. Nowadays, you can hardly read a report on the outlook for the global real estate industry without witnessing the sudden and significant rise in the primacy of ‘health and wellness’ in the priorities of property policy, practice and performance. To what extent this is fashionable lip-service, modish branding or box-ticking correctness, in much the same way as ‘green buildings’, ’resilient cities’ or ‘agile organisations’, is hard to fathom. Nevertheless, just like these latter epithets, there is an underlying truth leading to a radical shift in collective mind-sets and a new strategic direction for the world of property.

The Business Case

It seems only common sense for employers to seek to increase the engagement, productivity, satisfaction and retention of cherished staff to enhance their business success. Sometimes, however, it is a struggle to achieve those diverse outcomes. But one key strategy is beginning to emerge: the creation and nurture of a more humane, hale and caring workplace. Several recent studies show that organisations, of all kinds, reap rewards from fostering more compassionate environments, including better employee performance, improved health and safety, and greater worker satisfaction and commitment. Indeed, the evidence shows that employees, across the sectors, not only thrive in caring workplaces, but also become more actively engaged in shaping their own and the organisation’s future.