Good morning, and happy Friday.
One of the most important changes in business that has arisen from the ashes of the pandemic is an increased focus on employee “wellness.” And the definition of that phrase has broadened significantly. A CEO roundtable held by Fortune and Salesforce yesterday highlighted the importance of the trend. Some excerpts:
“I would say that it’s really about the future. It’s really about: what does health and safety need to look like as we think about the economy where it’s at, as we think about the conversations around mental health, and frankly, productivity, and employee retention and acquisition. We want the best talent, we want them to stay with us and we want them to thrive with us because we know that that’s the same we’re going to give our customers and be able to do as a business.”
—Geeta Nayyar, chief medical officer, Salesforce
“So this concept of Mind, Body, Spirit—an example would be something we’ve recently implemented where once a month, our physicians come into a grand round setting and talk about how they have felt from a behavioral and mental health perspective—the stresses and the strains that they have felt through COVID and in a post-COVID world.”
—John Couris, CEO, Tampa General Hospital
“Employee wellness is an imperative. It is one of the criteria that people use to choose a job and whether to stay at a job or not. And it covers a lot of ground…Safety was sort of the lowest bar…to help us navigate through the pandemic safely and make sure the environment is safe. But it also covers psychological safety and emotional safety. And even that’s too low a bar now. You have expectations that have been significantly raised around employees’ needs for agency and flexibility. And they start talking to us around articulating what the business does, in a purpose-driven way. People are looking for companies that have a mission that they can connect to.”
—Francis deSouza, CEO, Illumina
“People want to have purpose at work. And when you’re transparent and trusting of your employees…they understand that you’re going to bring your total unique self to work, and that you’re going to provide flexibility in work hours, whether it’s in the office or working from home… People understanding that we embrace their uniqueness actually drives better connection to the company and better employee performance.”
—Michelle Keefe, CEO, Syneos Health
More news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
TOP NEWS
Combustion engines
It will no longer be legal to sell combustion-engine cars and vans in Europe in 2035, per an agreement struck late last night by EU lawmakers and representatives of the bloc’s member states. The deal will also force vehicle manufacturers to halve their products’ CO2 emissions by 2030. Euronews
German chips
Germany’s government is reportedly set to approve the takeover of a local semiconductor manufacturer by a Swedish subsidiary of China’s Sai Microelectronics. The news has caused a stir, coming days after the government’s approval of China’s Cosco buying a stake in a Hamburg container port. Critics say Germany is setting itself up for a fall, just as it did by embracing Russian energy supplies. But many German companies have recently learned not to count on Beijing as they once did. Politico
Brazilian election
Sunday will see the decisive vote on whether the far-right Jair Bolsonaro should continue as Brazil’s president, or whether the historically rather corrupt leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva should stage a historic comeback. Lula may have a slight lead, but it’s really too close to call. Financial Times
AROUND THE WATERCOOLER
‘The bird has been freed’: Musk ushers in the new Twitter era after taking control and firing 3 top execs, by Associated Press
Apple avoids the recent gloomy results of rivals Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta. But it still warns of a slow holiday ahead, by Bloomberg
The global energy crisis is a ‘shock of unprecedented breadth and complexity,’ IEA warns, but it may also be a ‘definitive turning point’, by Tristan Bove
Imagine a scoreboard where all your direct reports rank you: That’s real for Salesforce managers, by Chloe Berger
This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer.
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