International Employee Happiness & Wellbeing Standard
The definitive framework for creating workplaces where people thrive. Global best practice in employee experience, happiness and wellbeing, codified into a comprehensive, measurable standard.
Independently certified by BSI
Workplaces Where People Thrive. Codified into One Standard.
The International Employee Happiness & Wellbeing Standard (IEHWS) establishes the requirements for creating, sustaining and continuously improving employee happiness and wellbeing across the whole organisation. It bridges the gap between organisational intent and lived employee experience, ensuring that workplaces are healthy, supportive, fair and genuinely fulfilling.
Built on global research across 40+ countries, IEHWS combines best practices from leading organisations with scientifically proven wellbeing principles. It covers the complete employee experience, from joining and onboarding through to growth, recognition and long-term engagement.
By adopting IEHWS, organisations gain a competitive advantage through improved engagement, reduced absence and attrition, and a clear pathway to a healthier, more resilient and higher-performing workforce.
Eight sections and the six dimensions of the Vector 6 model, independently certified by BSI, from a family of standards used in 40+ countries.
Six Dimensions That Drive Genuine Employee Happiness.
Six interconnected, interdependent dimensions that define and drive employee happiness, wellbeing and engagement: the architecture of IEHWS:01.
Values-Led Leadership
The values leaders share, prioritise and live by: the foundation of organisational culture.
The sum and priority of values shared by an organisation’s leaders is the foundation of its culture. Employees increasingly choose to work for, and remain with, organisations whose ethical, social and environmental conduct they identify with. Values-led leadership is essential to create and sustain a positive employee experience.
In the standard · Section 01Values Led Leadership: strategic intent, top-management commitment and the Employee Happiness & Wellbeing Pledge, with empowerment, communication and brand values embedded from the board down.
Environment and Climate
A safe, healthy operational environment, and an emotional climate that engages people.
Beyond the physical safety of the workplace, the emotional climate drives motivation, engagement and responsiveness. With the rise of hybrid and remote working, the challenge has extended to managing a positive, safe and engaging environment for a widely distributed workforce, addressing emotional and physical wellbeing together.
In the standard · Section 02Environmental Climate: the physical and cultural working environment, equal opportunities, freedom of expression, teamwork and team spirit, and genuine work-life balance.
Career Control
The degree to which employees feel real influence over their personal development.
Whether employees aspire vertically, develop deep horizontal expertise, or value stability in role, the common thread is the freedom to pursue their own ambition without being suppressed or trapped. Career control protects against bias on grounds of race, gender, religion, culture or any other dimension of diversity.
In the standard · Section 03Career Control: the employee employment journey, performance assessment and personal development that give people real ownership of their growth.
Teamwork-Led Supervision
How employees experience the way they are managed and the way teams function together.
Teamwork is both local, within the immediate team, and organisational, where the whole enterprise functions as one. Most employees leave organisations because of their relationship with a supervisor or manager: interpersonal behaviour, communication, respect and recognition. Strong teamwork-led supervision keeps people engaged at every level.
In the standard · Section 04Teamwork Led Supervision: effective teamwork, supportive supervision and the protection of employee rights across every team.
Organisational Effectiveness
How employees feel about the organisation’s competence and its fulfilment of customer promises.
Employees are aware when the organisation is not operating effectively or is failing its customers. Loss of clear purpose leads to frustration, disengagement and departure, at every level, from frontline to leadership. Effectiveness shapes the sense that the work matters and is being well done.
In the standard · Section 05Organisational Effectiveness: employee engagement, corporate citizenship and brand image that connect people to purpose and performance.
Reward and Recognition
How employees experience compensation, recognition and the reinforcement of contribution.
Financial compensation must be competitive to attract and retain talent, but recognition extends far beyond money. Formal and informal recognition, and positive reinforcement of contribution, are powerful motivational tools that drive engagement, productivity and loyalty across every level of the organisation.
In the standard · Section 06Reward & Recognition: fair reward and recognition, and the role of leaders, managers and supervisors in celebrating and sustaining great performance.
Independent Dimensions. Inextricably Interdependent.
The six dimensions are independent, but inextricably interdependent. Like the 5Ps marketing model, the Vector 6 model requires simultaneous, pan-model leadership attention: excellence in one element cannot compensate for weakness in another. The IEHWS:01 Standard sets out the assessment criteria, performance measurement and certification pathway, independently certified by BSI.
- Section 07Measurement of Performance
Employee happiness measurement, leadership measurement, brand perception analysis, benchmarking, employee confidence and exit interviews.
- Section 08Performance Measurement Results
Demonstrable outcomes: employee happiness results tracked over time, with top-management review evidencing real and sustained improvement.
Five Steps to Certification. Then Sustain.
Five essential steps to achieving IEHWS certification.
- Assess
Evaluate your EX maturity using the Experience Excellence Index.
- Implement
Apply the IEHWS 2023 framework and Vector 6 Model.
- Measure
Track happiness and wellbeing through structured criteria.
- Certify
Achieve formal certification to IEHWS 2023.
- Sustain
Build continuous improvement into your culture.
Begin with the Standard. Or Measure Where You Stand.
Select either the Standard or our Online Assessment, depending on where you are in your experience journey.
In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, please contact your country partner to purchase this standard.
Make Employee Wellbeing Your Standard.
Buy the standard to implement it in your organisation, or take the Online Assessment to measure where you stand today.