Meet Mark Bertolini – when he turned CEO of Aetna in 2010, he wished to show that investing in worker well-being wasn’t simply “good to have” however a core driver of enterprise success. His revolutionary strategy was to assist staff get extra sleep.
It wasn’t a typical company transfer. In the period of hustle tradition and endorsements of longer work hours, Bertolini, impressed by his personal transformative expertise with continual ache and various therapies adopted a life-threatening snowboarding accident in 2004, noticed issues in a different way.
He believed that well-rested staff weren’t simply happier—they have been extra inventive, productive, and engaged. And he had the info to again it up: his analysis revealed that sleep deprivation was costing Aetna practically $100 million yearly in misplaced productiveness. Atena is a well being care firm that sells conventional and client directed well being care insurance coverage.
In 2015, Bertolini launched an unprecedented initiative, a sleep bonus he would pay staff to sleep. Through an incentive program tracked by Fitbit units, staff may earn as much as $500 a yr for persistently getting seven or extra hours of sleep an evening. “Sleep shouldn’t be a privilege, it’s a proper,” Bertolini declared. It was a daring transfer that left Wall Street skeptical, however Bertolini’s dedication didn’t waver.
The outcomes spoke for themselves. Within only a yr, Aetna noticed a rise of 69 minutes in day by day productiveness per worker, translating to $3,000 extra in annual productiveness for every individual. Aetna’s income surged, healthcare prices declined, and worker stress ranges dropped by 28%. This sleep incentive program wasn’t only a well-being increase—it turned a strong revenue driver.
Bertolini’s imaginative and prescient didn’t cease at sleep. He launched a collection of wellness advantages, from free yoga and meditation lessons to scholar mortgage compensation help, and even raised the corporate’s minimal wage to $16 an hour. These initiatives reworked Aetna right into a coveted office the place expertise flocked to use.
The influence rippled throughout company America. Companies like Google, Nike, and REI adopted swimsuit, creating nap pods, meditation areas, and journey days as a part of a rising wellness revolution. By the time Bertolini stepped down, Aetna’s inventory value had quadrupled, cementing his legacy because the chief who turned naps into earnings and confirmed that investing in staff is simply sensible enterprise.