As an employer, you may have taken on staff for a variety of reasons. Perhaps you found that, as demand for your products and services began to grow, you were unable to complete all of the tasks your company needed to fulfill or additional skills to enable growth. You may have found that you needed assistance within a niche or specialist area of operations. Whatever the reason for taking on staff, one thing remains true; you’re going to need to make sure that you take full responsibility for your staff and their wellbeing while they are working for you. Employee wellbeing – or the overall mental, physical, emotional and economic health of your employees – is extremely important for you and your business. Not only is ensuring wellbeing a moral imperative (at the end of the day, these are the people driving your profits and success), it is important for productivity and staff retention too. Now, it’s all well and good to recognise the importance of this area of your business and its operations, but how do you ensure your employees’ wellbeing? Here, we’ll take a moment to look further into the subject and answer this question.
Ensuring Your Employees’ Wellbeing
There are countless ways that you can ensure your employees’ wellbeing in the workplace. It would be impossible to list them all here. But by implementing just a few changes that are specifically tailored to improving your team members’ wellbeing and happiness, you can see dramatic, positive changes in your business’ working environment. Some perks that you may want to consider starting out with include healthy breakfasts, funded gym plans or fitness classes, job flexibility and more.
Why would you provide perks for your employees?
Perks give employees something to look forward to and to feel grateful for. They encourage productivity and they also help your employees to feel valued. This can reduce chances of workplace dissatisfaction, drive performance, and can prevent valued members of your team from looking for other roles with different companies that are providing the perks that they’re looking for.
Why would you allow employees time for exercise?
It’s recommended that the average adult gets one hundred and fifty minutes of moderate aerobic exercise a week, but with many of us now carrying out jobs and tasks that require minimal physical exertion, many people are struggling with their health and fitness. By providing your team with physical activity or gym plans, you can maximise their physical wellbeing, boost their mood and even reduce time taken off sick.
Why would you be flexible with working hours?
Since the pandemic, increasing numbers of businesses are switching to remote working contracts and flexible working hours. By being flexible with your team, you can keep them happy, acknowledging that they are humans with commitments that may take place in working hours, and allowing them to make their time back up later, rather than quitting or finding a job that will accommodate their needs.
More Ideas
Of course, there are methods that you can use to promote happiness and job satisfaction that are likely to appeal to any individual. Money based incentives, such as higher salary or bonuses, and more flexible working environments are bound to appeal to anyone. However, as a business owner, you do also need to take a look at your own team and determine what will tick their individual boxes. Some benefits will appeal more to some than others and it’s important to ensure that you’re providing what your team needs. Some good examples could include team building exercises or paid mental health leave.
Why would you want to encourage team building exercise?
Team building is extremely important for team members who thrive in collaborative environments and whose role entails ongoing communication with others working within your company. Of course, many people tend to shy away from social interactions and situations which are unfamiliar to them.This is where team building exercises can prove to be great for employee wellbeing. They break the ice, allow your team to get to know one another, and create a more positive working space for everyone to feel comfortable in.
What’s important about taking mental health days off work?
Nowadays, we’re growing increasingly aware of the prevalence of mental health conditions and how huge an impact common mental health conditions can have on an individual’s entire life – including their work. Providing staff with mental health days off work gives them the chance to recuperate, take the break they need and return with a much better frame of mind. This isn’t only beneficial for the individual. It can also prevent burnout, and a lack of productivity or a negative working environment within your team.
Conclusion
As you can see, employee satisfaction should feature highly on your list of priorities. By focusing on your employees’ wellbeing, you can craft a positive reputation for yourself and maximise employee retention levels while encouraging a more productive working environment. For more information, or assistance with employee wellbeing, don’t hesitate to get in touch here. A member of our team will be more than happy to help!
