MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Reimagining HR for Better Well-Being and Performance

Humans have been challenged to adjust to new ways of working since the first farmers abandoned the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. But the demands of work today exact a high price on employee well-being, as workers strive to cope with the rapid pace of technological change, the overnight disruption of entire industries by new upstarts, and the rise of uncertainty and volatility in every global market.

Roughly half the U.S. workforce struggles with burnout.1 Seventy-six percent see workplace stress negatively impacting their personal relationships.2 Excessive stress at work accounts for $190 billion in health care costs each year, plus hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths.3 And in the past three years, the stressors and disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic have spun a rising storm into a full-on tornado — and made employee well-being an urgent priority for many business leaders.

About the Author

Gabriella Rosen Kellerman is chief innovation officer at BetterUp. Martin Seligman is the Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the university’s Positive Psychology Center. This article is adapted from their new book, Tomorrowmind: Thriving at Work With Resilience, Creativity, and Connection — Now and in an Uncertain Future (Simon & Schuster, 2023).

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