Since the pandemic, employees have experienced record-high stress and burnout, and are increasingly drawn to organisations that genuinely support their wellbeing. In a financial landscape where universities are increasingly exploring ways to cut costs, resisting the temptation to jettison investment in employee wellbeing is crucial.
However, with this comes the risk of “carewashing,” where superficial gestures of care mask deeper issues. Many institutions fall into this trap – offering superficial solutions like mindfulness training or yoga classes in isolation, without addressing deeper systemic issues. Carewashing, akin to greenwashing, involves misleadingly portraying a caring culture while failing to enact meaningful change.
A 2024 Gallup survey indicates that the percentage of employees who strongly agree that their organisation cares about their overall wellbeing has plummeted from 49 per cent in 2020 to 21 per cent in 2024. This stark decline highlights the growing gap between organisational rhetoric and reality.
Token gestures are not enough; genuine care requires making structural changes and a solid commitment to addressing the issues affecting staff. For instance, universities must create policies that promote flexible working conditions, ensure psychological safety, and offer comprehensive mental health resources.
To match their actions with their words and tackle problems like work-life balance and psychological safety, universities must go beyond superficial measures. They must implement structural changes while demonstrating a deep commitment to supporting their staff. This may involve implementing policies that promote flexible working conditions, ensuring psychological safety, and providing comprehensive mental health resources. To avoid the pitfalls of carewashing, all levels of leadership need to implement and support these initiatives consistently. Your dedication to genuine care is vital in this process.
What causes carewashing?
Universities face several structural challenges that contribute to carewashing, not least institutional inertia. Many universities have deeply entrenched systems and processes that resist change, making implementing new policies that genuinely address employee wellbeing challenging. As a result, programs like mindfulness sessions or yoga classes are often introduced as quick fixes. While these require minimal structural adjustments, they lack the impact that more comprehensive changes could offer.
High-visibility but low-impact initiatives are often introduced to create an illusion of care. Token gestures, such as sporadic wellness workshops or one-off mental health days, are easier to implement and promote than comprehensive, long-term strategies. However, they fail to address the root causes of employee stress and burnout.
Lack of leadership commitment can be an issue. Actual change requires buy-in from the highest levels. Without a genuine commitment from university leaders, wellbeing initiatives often lack the necessary support and resources. In principle, leaders may endorse wellness programmes – but there’s a need to integrate these into the broader organisational strategy and culture.
Even when universities recognise the importance of employee wellbeing, they may need more resources to support meaningful initiatives. Budget constraints and competing priorities can result in underfunded programs that cannot provide comprehensive support to staff.
Institutions may prioritise other objectives, such as academic excellence or financial performance, over employee wellbeing, but neglecting wellbeing means they will never achieve the potential of these goals. This misalignment of goals can also lead to initiatives aimed more at enhancing the institution’s image than genuinely improving the working conditions for staff, resulting in a gap between the institution’s rhetoric and the reality experienced by employees.
Finally, universities must examine their policies, which are often all about compliance but lack the human touch. Examples include fertility policies hidden in maternity policy documents, bereavement leave policies that offer no provision for additional unpaid leave, counselling services, or flexible work arrangements during the grieving period, and grievance procedures prone to abuse.
Practice kindness instead
To properly support employee wellbeing and avoid carewashing, universities must make structural changes to support their commitments. This includes creating clear policies such as flexible working hours, remote work options, and adequate leave provisions. Additionally, it’s crucial to ensure psychological safety by cultivating a culture of open communication, trust, and clear reporting channels and understanding why this isn’t in place. Investing in mental health resources, involving university leaders in wellbeing initiatives, and gathering regular feedback are essential strategies for addressing carewashing.
Kindness plays a crucial role in supporting employee wellbeing and preventing carewashing. By embedding kindness into institutional culture, universities can create more supportive, engaging, and resilient work environments. Kindness fosters trust among employees and management, leading to psychological safety where employees can express themselves without fear of negative consequences. Acts of kindness also promote inclusivity and respect, creating a positive atmosphere where everyone feels they belong. Moreover, a kind and supportive environment can help build resilience and adaptability among employees, improving the organisation’s overall strength.
However, kindness can be challenging, especially in high-pressure environments like universities or when faced with challenging situations. It requires patience, empathy, and understanding and may necessitate setting aside personal biases or frustrations. It involves holding a mirror up to the dark corners of institutional culture, and the bad behaviour is ignored to the point that it is endemic and needs honesty. Despite its challenges, kindness remains fundamental to creating a supportive and inclusive work environment. Recognising the difficulties in practising kindness can encourage empathy and understanding among employees and help foster a culture where genuine acts of kindness are valued and appreciated.
To make kindness a central part of university policies and culture, institutions should implement training programs to educate staff and management on the importance and practice of kindness in the workplace. They should also establish recognition systems to reward acts of kindness and develop inclusive policies that reflect a commitment to kindness, such as flexible work arrangements and mental health support. Encouraging leaders to model kindness in their interactions and decision-making is crucial in promoting a caring culture.
Higher education leaders and policymakers: it’s time to join this movement. By prioritising kindness and wellbeing, we can set a new standard for academic excellence and create a more inclusive, supportive, and thriving educational landscape. Your teams will remember what you did for them.
