When we talk about well-being in companies, many SMBs look away. “That’s for the big players,” “we don’t have the budget,” “there are only a few of us.” It’s understandable. We were small too. We started in 1996 with three people.
But over time we learned something that is very clear to us today: well-being does not depend on the size of the company nor the sector in which it operates. It depends on commitment and turning that commitment into culture.
Today our Wellness Lab brings together more than 90 measures. They didn’t all appear at once or come from a manual. They arrived gradually, based on listening. Well-being doesn’t depend on size or sector; it depends on the will.
What you already have and don’t see
There is something we often see in SMBs: they care much more than they think. That permission to attend the school’s parent-teacher meetings. The shift change to accompany a parent to the doctor. The flexibility when a child is sick. Leaving a bit early on a Friday, after a tough week.
Those are invaluable gestures. But they are almost never written down, measured, or communicated. And when something has no name, it loses value. It is assumed. Over time, what started as a caring gesture becomes an acquired right that nobody appreciates… and that nobody takes care of.
That’s why we believe so strongly in pausing to diagnose. Sit down and answer honestly: what we already do, who uses it, what the team truly values, and what’s missing. Many SMBs would be surprised by all they have. Naming it is the first step to turning it into culture.
The difference between a benefit and a culture is easy to explain and hard to build. A benefit is received. A culture is shared. When the team understands why each measure exists, they use it responsibly, defend it, and care for it as their own. And when leaders live it with consistency, it stops being a concession and becomes a way of being.
The three pillars that sustain it
Over the years we have seen that a well-being culture rests on three pillars. None require a large budget. All three demand consistency.
- Active, cross-cutting listening. It is not enough to ask a few people or to run a yearly survey. Truly listening means reaching every person: those on the production line, in the warehouse, in the office, or on the road visiting customers. And listening in all directions, not just top-down. We do it through different channels, from interest-based WhatsApp groups to our anonymous happiness app, and with what we affectionately call “Radio Quinton”: hallway conversations and the coffee-hour chatter. But, above all, we do it by giving back. And where the values of trust and camaraderie are felt.
- Diversity. In a single team you have people under thirty and over fifty, someone who just joined and someone who has been here for more than two decades. Large families, single parents, childless couples and people who live alone. People from different backgrounds and beliefs. Those who live next to the company and those who travel many miles each day. And, of course, our pets, who are part of many families. Each person needs something different. That’s why we don’t believe in coffee for everyone, but in measures that accompany every stage and every lifestyle: a day off on the first day of school, permissions to accompany a family member to the doctor, the same permissions for grandparents, proximity-based work, mentoring the more analog in the digital world, and learning from the experience of senior talent. Managing diversity is, at heart, about allowing each person to be themselves.
- Adaptation to change. We have weathered the 2008 financial crisis, the pandemic, and the global uncertainty of recent years. And if there is one lesson we learned, it is that well-being cannot be a luxury of the good years. It is in times of change that a culture proves whether it is real. Adapting also means anticipating and changing our own measures as life changes. More than fifteen years ago, when buying online was just starting to become common, one of our simplest measures was born: turning Quinton into the delivery point for the team’s personal online orders. It may seem like a small thing, but it avoids waits, trips, and the occasional dash to beat the delivery driver home. A well-being plan that doesn’t evolve ends up talking about a team that no longer exists.
When care comes home
When well-being becomes culture, it doesn’t stay inside the company. It reaches families. We wanted to verify this and asked not only the team but also those around them: their kids, their partners and friends, their parents. The responses moved us. One kid wrote: “I love that my mom works at Quinton.” A mother thanked us “because what you do for my daughter, you also do for me.” And 99% of partners and friends considered Quinton a good place to work.
That is, for us, true 360-degree well-being. The kind that makes the team and their families happy. And the one that, in the end, lets us give our best.
We also measure it internally. Our happiness index has stayed above 95% since 2022. And when we asked the team if they would leave for a salary increase at another company in exchange for losing all the measures they enjoy, half said they would not leave under any circumstances. We don’t count that as a triumph. We count it as proof that when well-being is culture, it’s lived as something personal.
Where to start
No SMB needs to start with ninety measures. Just take the first step with honesty. Take stock of what is already being done and give it a name. Ask the team what they value and what’s missing, listening to everyone, not just a few. Communicate it so what exists is known and cared for. From there, choose one or two new measures that address real needs. And measure again each year to adjust as needed.
Little by little, what were loose gestures become a way of working. And what was a benefit becomes identity.
We still believe that well-being is a journey, not a destination. We don’t have all the answers, but we have one certainty: when a person can be themselves at work, they give their best. And that is not achieved by the size of a company. It comes from its commitment.
As the saying that has accompanied us for years goes: many small people in small places, doing small things, can change the world. SMBs are exactly that.
Cecilia Coll Sánchez, People with Values, Quinton Biotech Labs.
