There is no doubt that your employees will be much more productive and work harder for you if they feel happy and healthy. As an organisation – you have a duty of care to make sure that they are looked after when they are in your place of work – and in turn create an atmosphere where people feel valued and motivated. We’ve put together some ways in which you can do this as an employer.
Make Sure your Mission is Communicated
The way you have designed your office should coincide with your company core values and mission. Instead of having teams and employees segregated – it can be a good idea to create a more open plan office space to promote collaboration between team members and departments. By asking their opinion on your mission and vision statement, it will not only encourage some great feedback – but give you an idea as to whether or not you have been successful in communicating it with others. Long gone are the days when these types of things were created from a boardroom meeting – things are now a much more collaborative approach.
Take Away the Distractions
When there are lots of phones ringing, and conversations happening in the background – it can make I difficult for some of your employees to concentrate. Although you want to encourage collaboration, a lot of noise can cause employees to be distracted easily and not conducive to a healthy working atmosphere. There are ways around this, for example – you might not want to place a phone in the center of an office that’s open plan or have desks placed so there are lots of people continuously walking past them.
Encourage Some Exercise
If you have a team that does a lot of office work that requires them to be sitting at a desk for a long period of time, it’s a good idea to encourage some exercise. If you promote a healthy working environment where employees walk to work or cycle, not only will the fresh air and exercise do them well – it will also improve their energy and productivity levels when they are in the office. To make this easier, you can do things such as install changing rooms, or make showers accessible so they feel more comfortable doing that. You could even offer staff a discount at a local gym as part of an employee benefits scheme.
Promote Healthy Eating Habits
If your office is based in the city center, it’s really easy for your team to head to accessible nearby fast food places and eat things that aren’t too good for your health. If you have office space that’s big enough – a café with healthy food options can be a great introduction to your office. If that’s not feasible – there are services that would allow you to host pop-up juice bars, or even get fruit delivered to your office. You can also design your office in such a way that there are break-out areas where people can easily get away from their desks for periods of time and get a chance to unwind a little with a healthy snack.
Project Management Effectively
One of the biggest issues in terms of employee wellbeing is stress which can be caused by poor project management. Kanban software can be a great way to do this. What you need to know about Kanban software is that it acts as visualisation tool where you can see a process through every single step of the way. You can make it as detailed as possible, for the best results. The people accountable for certain portions of the project will be in full view which makes the communication process easier, and any issues within the process can be easily identified – making it easy for you to make any necessary improvements needed.
Make a Life Coach Accessible
There are now options to have a pop-up life coach come to your office which can be great for the team. It means that if there is anything that’s stressing them – or even something in their life that could be causing a delay in their development and progression in the workplace – that this can be taken care of. It’s a fairly new concept – but is something that’s proven to be incredibly successful with companies and well received by employees.
Employee wellbeing is essential, not only for the health of your team but as a company. When your team feel taken care of and have adequate resources to help with any stresses and strains within your organisation – they are much more likely to stay loyal and work better.
Photo credits: Pixabay
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