Why Employee Well-Being Should Be at the Center of Profitability

Well-Being is at the Center of Productivity and Profitability

At Mary Jane's People, we transform businesses by putting employee well-being at the center of profitability.

We've worked with organizations across industries—from cannabis and healthcare to tech and retail—and we've seen one truth show up time and time again:

When people thrive, so does the business.

Yet too many companies still treat well-being as a perk, not a strategy. Meditation apps are offered while burnout is ignored. Mental health days are suggested, but policies still reward overwork.

We believe it's time for something deeper. Not just culture change. System change.

What Does It Mean to Center Well-Being in Profitability?

It means building HR, leadership, and operations around three key pillars from Self-Determination Theory:

Autonomy → Give people meaningful choices in how they work

Competency → Create growth pathways, not just job descriptions

Relatedness → Build trust, connection, and psychological safety

When you lead with these, you're not just creating happier employees—you're creating:

• Stronger performance

• Reduced turnover

• Higher engagement

• More innovative, sustainable teams

The Business Case for Well-Being

Let's talk numbers. Companies that prioritize employee well-being consistently outperform those that don't:

• Organizations with high employee engagement are 21% more profitable (Gallup)

• Teams with high well-being scores show 41% lower absenteeism

• Companies with strong cultures see 33% higher revenue growth (Deloitte)

These aren’t feelgood metrics—they're business imperatives. When your people are burning out, disengaging, or leaving, you're losing money. It's that simple.

Beyond the Surface-Level Wellness Programs

Here's what doesn't work:

• Offering meditation apps while maintaining 60-hour work weeks

• Providing gym memberships but penalizing flexibility

• Talking about "bringing your whole self to work" but not providing psychological safety

Real well-being isn't about perks. It's about structural support built into how work happens:

• Decision-making systems that empower rather than control

• Performance frameworks that develop rather than just evaluate

• Communication structures that connect rather than isolate

Profitability Follows People

We've helped companies:

• Reduce absenteeism by 30%

• Cut turnover costs by half

• Improve retention in the first 90 days

• Boost team creativity through restructured workflows

One cannabis client was losing employees faster than they could hire them. We redesigned their onboarding, management framework, and internal growth paths. Within six months, turnover dropped 40% and they became known as the employer of choice in their market.

A tech startup we worked with was experiencing growth pains—their culture couldn't scale with their headcount. By implementing our well-being architecture model, they maintained their innovative edge while creating sustainable work practices. The result? Four successful product launches with half the overtime hours.

How We Build Well-Being Into Your Business

At Mary Jane's People, we take a systematic approach:

1. Diagnosis & Discovery We analyze your current systems, identify structural barriers to well-being, and uncover hidden opportunities for improvement.

2. Structural Redesign We help you rebuild key operations, communication channels, and leadership approaches to naturally support autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

3. Implementation Support Our team provides training, resources, and coaching to ensure new structures take root and flourish.

4. Measurement & Refinement We track the impact on both well-being metrics and business outcomes, continuously improving your approach.

Let's Build Workplaces That Work for People

Whether you're scaling, stabilizing, or starting fresh, you deserve an HR partner that helps you grow with care. At Mary Jane's People, we help you align your people strategy with your profit goals, so your workplace becomes a space where humans and business thrive together.

The bottom line? When you commit to making well-being central to how you operate, profits follow. Not as an afterthought, but as a natural outcome of getting the people part right.

👉 Schedule a Well-Being Strategy Session

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This post was written by Heather Nicole Fowler, The Well-Being Architect™ and founder of Mary Jane's People.