"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life."
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As we head into the final quarter of the year with increased productivity and focus, combined with shorter, darker and gloomier evenings, we need to focus on our wellbeing now more than ever. W/c 07 October is National Work-Life Balance Week, and this is a perfect time to raise awareness amongst our teams as to the importance of focusing on self-care and steps we might take to achieve this. National Work-Life Balance Week is an annual campaign that helps to raise awareness of this and encourages individuals and organisations to focus on their workplace wellbeing.
In our blog this month, we wanted to explore some ideas that can help enable HR teams to support their colleague's wellbeing. Naturally, we hope there is already a wellbeing strategy in place that will provide you with a holistic framework of your organisation’s wellbeing approach. If you have not yet had a chance to consider this in-depth, here are some ideas to get you started:
1. Educate and train your teams
Start by raising awareness of the importance of workplace wellbeing. This might include workshops to help individuals define what their work-life balance looks like, stress management, MHFA training, building resilience, nutrition or sleep workshops to name a few. There are many elements of wellbeing so providing the support and training needed will help employees feel valued. Sharing resources and ideas that teams can also implement themselves alongside the workshops will also help.
2. Hybrid working
One of the key elements that can cause huge stress on employees is if they have to care for either a young family or elderly parents. Offering your teams a hybrid or flexible working solution and enabling them to alter their start times or being able to work from home a few days a week, can make it easier to work around these commitments. Not only does this help practically but it can also help your teams to feel valued and trusted, creating greater loyalty.
3. Increase support for working parents and guardians
Many organisations lose talent, especially Mums to childcare duties. Whilst not limited to Mums consider how you can support working parents and guardians, not just from a practical time perspective with a hybrid working approach, but also financially as well. Not all offices can offer childcare provision but offering voucher schemes that help with the cost of childcare is a great place to start.
4. Lead by example and practice wellbeing at work
Encourage a culture of wellbeing in the workplace and ensure senior leaders lead by example. By this, we mean to work reasonable hours, encourage movement, connection and a sense of purpose. Many employees also spend a lot of time in front of a screen, so practical ideas could include:
Lunchtime exercise classes to encourage people to get away from their desks and move.
Encourage teams to get up and talk to each other, rather than send an email.
Encourage people to take the stairs rather than the lift.
Encourage walk and talk meetings to get people outside in the fresh air.
Encourage employees to take regular breaks.
Encourage mindful working hours eg: leaving on time and not working late or over the weekend.
Encourage people to book and take their annual leave, rather than carrying it over.
Create a social side to work through team building away days and social events.
5. Review workloads
Regularly review your team and individual workloads to ensure they are achievable. Through conversation be aware of the impact asking an employee to do “just one more thing” might have for them. A seemingly small task might take an individual longer to do, due to unforeseen complexities or barriers. Managers and leaders who regularly talk with their teams will know who is busy, under pressure and who might have capacity.
6. Volunteering
Research shows that more and more people want to work for organisations that have a clear CSR policy. Giving back to the community and supporting the causes that are personally important to them is key. Start by encouraging teams to volunteer for local charities for one or two days a year. This is a great way to not only support those charities but also fulfil a sense of purpose.
Focusing on workplace wellbeing is no longer a nice to have, with 1 in 4 adults on average struggling with mental ill-health it is a continued very real challenge for organisations. By encouraging a happy workforce, who achieve a positive work-life balance you can help to reduce absenteeism and improve employee retention.
Acknowledge that every employee is different and will have different personal challenges. By regularly asking them how you can help and support them in what they need is a great move towards achieving a positive work-life balance.
In Summary
At The Mind Hub, we help organisations implement successful wellbeing strategies and frameworks to help their teams not only achieve a positive work-life balance but also become the best version of themselves. We do this by offering a wide range of wellbeing training solutions from webinars and workshops to drop-in clinics. Topics include mindful movement, sleep, online yoga or Pilates, and Nutrition workshops. To see how we can help your teams achieve a positive work-life balance please get in touch to arrange a no-obligation discovery call.
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