For Immediate Release

Contact: Lauren Kannry, Gallup, +1.202.715.3050

Over the past decade, Gallup has introduced the concepts of strengths-based development and employee engagement to more than 20 million people around the world -- largely through the #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath and the New York Times bestseller 12: The Elements of Great Managing, which was coauthored by engagement expert Jim Harter.

In Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements (Gallup Press; hardcover; May 4, 2010), bestselling authors Rath and Harter team up to share the results of a landmark study of wellbeing and its implications for organizations and individuals.

Their groundbreaking research reveals how organizations can help employees boost their overall wellbeing -- from their satisfaction with their careers to their financial security and level of community involvement. As it turns out, changing an organization's culture to help employees better manage and improve their wellbeing over time can result in substantial financial returns for the organization.

After conducting this extensive study, Rath and Harter discovered that much of what we think will improve our wellbeing is either misguided or just plain wrong. They write: "Contrary to what many people believe, wellbeing isn't just about being happy. Nor is it only about being wealthy or successful. And it's certainly not limited to physical health and wellness. In fact, focusing on any of these elements in isolation could drive us to feelings of frustration and even failure."

Based on a Gallup study of more than 150 countries representing 98% of the world's population, Rath and Harter identified five essential elements of life that transcend countries, faiths, and cultures:

• Career Wellbeing: How you occupy your time/liking what you do each day
• Social Wellbeing: Relationships and love in your life
• Financial Wellbeing: Managing your economic life to reduce stress and increase security
• Physical Wellbeing: Good health and enough energy to get things done on a daily basis
• Community Wellbeing: Engagement and involvement in the area where you live

Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements is a research-based blueprint for understanding what makes life worthwhile. Acting on Rath and Harter's discoveries will enable you to enjoy each day and get more out of your life -- while boosting the wellbeing of friends, family members, colleagues, and others in your community.

"When leaders embrace the opportunity to improve employees' wellbeing," write Rath and Harter, "they create more engaging places to work and greater returns for the organization. And they even help strengthen their employees' families. But when leaders opt to ignore employees' wellbeing -- dismissing it as something that's 'none of their business' -- they erode the confidence of those who follow them and limit their organization's ability to grow."

Publication Information

Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements

• Authors: Tom Rath and Jim Harter
• Gallup Press
• ISBN: 978-1-59562-040-8
• Price: $25.95 hardcover
• Publication date: May 4, 2010
• www.wbfinder.com

About the Authors

Tom Rath, global practice leader at Gallup, has written three bestselling business books in the past decade, including the #1 New York Times bestseller How Full Is Your Bucket? and the #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller StrengthsFinder 2.0. Rath's latest book, New York Times bestseller Strengths Based Leadership, encompasses decades of research on the topic of leadership. Published in January 2009, the book immediately became a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. In total, Rath's books have made more than 100 appearances on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list. Tom and his wife, Ashley, and their daughter, Harper, live in Washington, D.C.

Jim Harter, Ph.D., is the chief scientist for Gallup's international workplace management and wellbeing practices. He is author or coauthor of more than 1,000 research studies on employee engagement and talent as well as industrial and organizational psychology. Harter is coauthor of the New York Times bestseller 12: The Elements of Great Managing, and his research has been seen in the business bestsellers First, Break All the Rules and How Full Is Your Bucket? and in publications such as USA TODAY, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. Jim and his wife, RaLinda, and their sons, Joey and Sam, live in Omaha, Nebraska.

Increasing Wellbeing in Organizations: The Role of Managers and Leaders

(Excerpt from Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements by Tom Rath and Jim Harter, Gallup Press, May 2010.)

If you lead or manage people, your actions have a direct impact on the wellbeing of others. When leaders embrace the opportunity to improve employees' wellbeing, they create more engaging places to work and greater returns for the organization. And they even help strengthen their employees' families. But when leaders opt to ignore employees' wellbeing -- dismissing it as something that's "none of their business" -- they erode the confidence of those who follow them and limit their organization's ability to grow.

Over the past decade, Gallup has worked with hundreds of organizations to help their managers create engagement and boost the wellbeing of their employees. One of the best questions we have asked more than 15 million workers is whether their supervisor (or someone at work) seems to care about them as a person. Implicit in this question is the notion that an employee's manager or supervisor cares about him as a whole person, not merely as an employee or as a means to an end. This question serves as a barometer of whether an employee feels as if his manager truly cares about his wellbeing.

What we've discovered is that the world's best managers see the growth of each employee as an end in itself, instead of as a means to an end. They realize that each worker's wellbeing, and in many cases the wellbeing of his or her entire family, is largely dependent on their ability to lead and manage. Ritz-Carlton President Simon Cooper told us how he sees the greater purpose of his organization as serving not only its 38,000 employees around the world, but also their families. This type of progressive thinking is not uncommon among the best leaders we interviewed, as they often consider the broader influence they have on their followers and the networks that surround them.

Mervyn Davies, the former chairman of Standard Chartered Bank, described how he helped more than 70,000 bank employees (across 70 countries) know that the organization cared about their personal lives. Davies did so by being open about his own challenges as his wife battled breast cancer, while at the same time helping employees realize that the bank was just as concerned about their emotional and physical health. During his tenure, Davies initiated several programs aimed at boosting employees' overall wellbeing, and he always encouraged his direct reports to put family first. He knew there was no way employees could truly love their organization if it didn't have a heart.

When managers and leaders invest in employees' wellbeing, they are likely to influence organizational growth in the process. When we asked employees the question about whether their manager cares about them as a person, we found that people who agree with this statement:

• are more likely to be top performers
• produce higher quality work
• are less likely to be sick
• are less likely to change jobs
• are less likely to get injured on the job

This all adds up to a more efficient and higher performing organization. Through large-scale studies across more than 150 workplaces, we have found that what's best for the employee isn't at odds with what's best for the organization.

No doubt some leaders will continue to ignore employees' wellbeing as if it is beyond the scope of their jobs, but they do so at their peril. The research we conducted suggests that employees with low engagement and low wellbeing will quickly drag the group's performance down.

In sharp contrast, the most progressive leaders not only understand that they are in the business of boosting their employees' wellbeing, but they also use this knowledge as a competitive advantage to recruit and retain employees. They know it will be easier to attract top talent if they can show a prospective employee how working for the organization will translate into better relationships, more financial security, improved physical health, and more involvement in the community.

Leaders can't just tell employees that they care about their wellbeing. They have to take action if they want to see results. And this requires continual measurement and follow-up to help workers manage their wellbeing over time. Just as the most successful organizations have worked systemically to optimize their levels of employee engagement, they are now turning their attention to employee wellbeing as a way to gain an emotional, financial, and competitive advantage.

Suggested questions for Tom Rath and Jim Harter, authors of Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements

Q: What prompted Gallup to engage in such wide-scale research to assess the wellbeing of people the world over?

Q: Is having high wellbeing essential to being an engaged employee -- something you have talked about in your earlier books?

Q: What was the most surprising thing to you as you began to dig in to the data?

Q: Only 7% of the people you studied have thriving wellbeing in the five key areas you identified. What advice would you give to people who want to improve that figure?

Q: How much of low wellbeing can be tackled in the workplace?

Q: Of the five key areas of wellbeing -- Career, Social, Financial, Physical, and Community -- it seems that Community Wellbeing is the least obvious or perhaps most overlooked facet of personal wellbeing. Do you agree?

Q: Is any element of wellbeing more important than the other elements?

Q: If readers take just one message from the book, what do you hope that it will be?