Wellbeing wellbeing everywhere! It's not rocket science. Put these simple practices in to place now and you'll really notice the difference.
Have a proactive ‘hands on’ approach to wellbeing. Things have been tough throughout the pandemic. Many employees silently struggled as they worked from home. By conducting regular 1:1’s with EVERY team member to check in on how they’re doing will help them feel valued and listened to. It should be a conversation about that person’s wellbeing, NOT their work. This ‘hands on’ approach to wellbeing will leave employees feeling more engaged.
Communicate, communicate and if in doubt communicate! The sudden move to working from home (WFH) led to some employees feeling isolated and left out of conversations – despite the numerous team meetings, coffee mornings and quizzes. Finding new ways of communicating with your team and communicate more than feels necessary is imperative now. This is especially important for those WFH as teams working back in the office have the opportunity for unscheduled work conversations potentially leaving WFH colleagues feeling ostracised.
Debunk the stigma of working from home. The outmoded stigma attached to WFH led some team members, particularly in the height of the pandemic, to be on their devices all day for fear of missing an email or call. This then became their normal way of working. This stigma has well and truly been debunked. The average length of time an employee working from home is logged into their work computer has increased by over two hours a day since the start of the COVID-19 crisis. This is the same in the UK, Austria, Canada and the US according to data from the business support company, NordVPN Teams. When WFH you miss the distractions of colleagues chatting or moving around for meetings, so your 8 hour day is now the equivalent of a 10 hour day – often with poor self-management of breaks and rest.
Reduce expectations of a straight 8-hour workday – encourage breaks. The Guardian reported research by the remote team-building firm Wildgoose who found that 69% of employees from the 133 companies surveyed wanted to continue homeworking. That same research found 44% of UK employees reported being expected to do more work whilst working from home. And almost a third felt their mental health had been adversely affected. To help avoid this, set realistic workloads and allowing your team autonomy for setting their own daily schedule of breaks, for rest, family time and exercise. This will improve their wellbeing, motivation and productivity.
Develop a Health and Wellbeing strategy. Currently only 45% of businesses in the UK have a Health and Wellbeing strategy. Don't be tempted to buy an off the shelf plan. Your Wellbeing strategy needs to be tailor made to your own team. Plan and prepare your objectives and strategy with your employees to get their buy in, this will be more effective and not another HR strategy that sits in the draw.
Having a ‘Hands on’ approach to your employees wellbeing will improve employee engagement, attendance, productivity levels, reduce absence and presenteeism and ultimately attract and retain talent.
If you would like to chat further about your teams wellbeing and see if we're a good fit to work together please contact me. emma@redwoodellis.co.uk
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