Businesses are increasingly focusing on the mental health and well-being of their staff and thinking of new ways that they can support employees to be happier, healthier, and more productive. There is a solid business case for supporting better well-being in the workplace – it can help to retain talent, increase productivity levels in your business, and reduce tensions between colleagues. If you’re wondering what you could do in your business to better support employee well-being, here are some things to consider.
1. Create Workplace Champions
Without a dedicated capacity to support employee well-being, it can be challenging to embed this properly within the organization. Try to identify champions for mental health and well-being in the workplace who can help to push the messages across the teams and promote any initiatives as they become available. Opening the conversation up about mental health and well-being can help to reduce stigma, help staff members to talk about their own issues, and create a more open and non-judgmental environment.
2. Encourage Sports
Encouraging sports and exercise in the workplace can promote team building while giving your staff members the opportunity to take a break from work. Consider organizing activities like walks or runs during lunch breaks or after work. Depending on the size of the office space, you may be able to install games and other sporting equipment, such as a trampoline basketball court or a ping pong table.
In addition to promoting physical activity, it’s equally important to encourage regular health checkups among staff. According to this professional dentist in Springfield VA, supporting employees in staying on top of their general health—whether through annual physicals, dental appointments, or vision screenings—can lead to early detection of health issues, reduced absenteeism, and overall improved wellbeing. Creating a culture that values preventive care demonstrates your commitment to a healthy and productive workplace.
3. Welcome Feedback
With any aspect of your business, one of the best things that can help you determine what needs to change or improve is listening to people. Whether you want to find out what your clients want or what could improve the health and well-being of your teams, consulting and being open to feedback is critical. Listen to what your employees have to say about the culture and environment of the workplace and what they would like to see change for the better. Create multiple channels of communication for people to feed back their views, such as email, intranet, and face-to-face conversations or focus groups.
4. Create Goals
There is a fine balance between putting too much pressure on your teams and creating goals to help them stay motivated. Every good business should have objectives and overarching goals that they want to accomplish, and bringing your employees along on this journey is important if you want them to feel included and happy at work. Communicate the business goals to your employees and set individual goals for them to work toward. As well as ensuring there is something to measure progress against, it can help many employees to feel a greater sense of job satisfaction and security.
There are multiple ways you can consider supporting the well-being of your employees at work. Whether you’re planning activities to help connect staff members or thinking about making significant changes to your office space, make sure you listen to your teams and consider their views when designing a plan to support employee well-being.
This article was provided by Sara Edwards
