Lucy - BQ Magazine EditorYour employees are a huge asset to your business and that is why you have to make sure that you are not only taking care of them in terms of giving them a salary, you also have to make sure that you are putting their humanity at the forefront of your thoughts.
By doing this you are taking a holistic approach to caring for your employees and securing the future of your company with top talent. One way you can help your employees is by making sure that you are always catering to their emotional wellness. Here are some ways in which you can do this effectively.
Promote Work-Life Balance
One of the things you need to make sure you’re doing is creating a healthy work-life balance for your employees. Many people have embraced the idea of working from home at least for a few days per week.
It works wonderfully for many companies and you should try it in your own if you haven’t already. A hybrid model of work is often a great place to start. This will see your employees coming in for a few days per week and staying home for the rest of it.
This will help them to create a healthy work-life balance if they make use of the opportunity. They will get time to chill and relax with friends and family while still being energized and ready to jump back up on the horse come next work day.
Foster Open Communication
If you listen well enough you can often find out what is troubling your employees and make arrangements to fix it if you can. By fostering an environment where your employees can tell you what is working for them and what isn’t, you create a culture of trust and respect.
It’s a great idea to have regular check-ins, and feedback sessions and always have an open-door policy for your employees. Make sure you’re training your managers to listen and respond the right way to your employees.
Provide Access to Mental Health Resources
You should make sure you are providing access to emotional wellness resources for your employees. This means that you should create wellness programs, and have chaplains in the workplace that help keep employees emotionally well.
This should help your employees a lot. Often they are going through several things in their personal and professional lives. It’s important that you make a push to have these resources available to assist them.
Build a Positive Workplace Culture
As an employer, it is up to you to create a positive workplace culture for your employees. It’s not that difficult to do and you can get it done by following a few simple steps.
Recognise and Reward Efforts
One of the first things you’re going to need to do is to make sure that you are recognizing and rewarding the efforts of your employees. When you do this you are going to foster a positive environment that boosts their morale and makes them feel great about coming to work every day.
Always celebrate them and their achievements no matter if it is a tiny or small. People will always appreciate this. Wellness rewards can be as simple as a care package or even a glamorous chair massage at the office.
You need to make them know that hard work is truly valued. You can do this through a formal recognition program or through simple little gestures like a thank you note.
Encourage Social Connection
You need to make sure that you are pushing for strong social connections at the workplace. This can skyrocket emotional wellness as employees begin to feel as if they are part of a family and a team.
You can put together team-building activities for your staff members. This could be social events or collaborative projects. The bottom line is you have to create opportunities where employees can mix and mingle with each other so that they can bond and support each other.
Have that wild crazy picnic or keep that to
karaoke tonight where everybody sings and dances until midnight.
This will lead to a workplace that feels a lot more cohesive and supportive. The end benefit is that your employee’s emotional wellness will be nurtured and this will trickle over into their productivity.
Provide Professional Development Opportunities
You need to make sure that you are providing professional development opportunities whenever you can. Reach into the company piggy bank if you have to put aside some funds to invest in your employee’s professional development.
When you seek to elevate them in this way they will see that you truly care about their well-being. This will not only give them professional advancement but enhance their emotional well-being by making them feel valued on the job. It’s also a great way for you to retain top talent.
Lead By Example
Remember that the leader sets the tone for the workplace. As a leader, you need to be a model for emotional wellness. You also need to train managers to be this way as well.
Let your employees see that you also value your emotional wellness. You may have to find creative ways to do this but the whole point of it is to make sure that they understand that you are in tune with your own emotional wellness and want the same for them as well.
When you’re burning that candle at both ends and they can see you collapsing, their first thought is, if he or she don’t care about themself how can they value me?
They will think you would expect the same thing from them! Things can get uncomfortable fast. If you don’t want your employees to think that you are going to wear them down to the dust. Pay attention to what you’re doing
There are times when you’re going to have to backtrack and make sure that you haven’t missed anything. You can do this by making sure you are regularly assessing your employee’s wellness.
Dust off those spectacles and take a long hard look at past surveys and feedback. You can then conduct new surveys and get new feedback to compare whether or not you made any progress.
You can use all of this information to find areas where you need to improve and make adjustments. When you do something like this it sends off the right signal to your employees that their wellness is a continued priority.