Stress can have a big impact on the health of your employees – both physically and mentally.
A UK-wide survey from 2018 found that 74% of people had felt overwhelmed or unable to cope due to stress. The most common cause of stress is work-related, with 79% of people claiming they felt it frequently.
With high levels of stress and anxiety, employee health and well-being is sure to deteriorate.
Stress can have a big impact on your employees and will affect productivity within your company. In fact, 17.3 million working days are lost every year to stress-related reasons, so it’s important to do whatever you can to reduce stress in the workplace.
We’ve outlined five ways in which your organisation can improve employee well-being.
Communication
Poor communication is likely to leave your employees feeling unmotivated, unconfident, and lacking direction in the workplace.
Improving the way you communicate with your employees can have a direct impact on well-being and productivity levels.
Simply asking your employees about their job can be a great start. Try including these questions into your next conversation:
- How is your work/life balance?
- Is your workload manageable?
- Are you in a comfortable working environment?
Sending out a questionnaire or having regular 1-to-1 meetings with employees can open the doors to discussions about how you can make a positive impact on wellbeing in the workplace.
Four-day work week
Overworked employees tend to be less productive than those working the typical 37.5 hours.
Could you offer your employees a four-day working week? A 4-day working week gives your employees a longer time to relax and reflect on the week.
This improvement in the work/life balance will in turn help to increase the general well-being of your staff. A four-day week has shown to also improve employee satisfaction, and loyalty to a business while also not lowering overall productivity.
Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)
An EAP can help your employees with any issues they may have outside of work.
It’s designed to resolve issues before they hinder work performance, by having online physical and mental assessments, offering financial and legal advice, and counselling.
EAPs can help boost productivity, reduce sickness, and reduce staff turnover. Here at QiStaff, we’re proud to offer all of our employee’s access to an EAP to help keep their well-being at the top of the agenda.
Flexible working
We all like to work in different ways. Some people enjoy an early rise and to crack on with the working day, while others prefer to work in the evenings. So making everyone work the same way may not be the most effective way to do things.
Offering flexible working could really boost the overall well-being of your employees. More and more companies are offering flexible working options, including allowing people to work from home or unusual hours, so they can easily fit their life around their work.
This makes the day-to-day stresses more easily manageable and allows employees to focus on work rather than have their minds fixated elsewhere.
Recognition
It’s important to show your employees that you’ve recognised their hard work. If an employee works hard and finishes something quickly, it can be a bit demotivating if their only reward is more work.
A small token of appreciation can help employees feel appreciated and essential in the workplace. This can be something small like an email or face-to-face conversation recognising good work, or a bigger token like a box of chocolates or a drink.
Feeling valued will help improve your employee’s well-being and boost productivity in the workplace
These tips highlight that by boosting employee well-being, your organisation will also benefit through a boost in performance and productivity. How will you improve your team’s well-being?
FAQs
Wellbeing is determined by four key elements: mind, body, spirit and environment. It refers to how stressed they feel in everyday life and whether or not they feel valued as a person. Low wellbeing may lead to someone being stressed, anxious, depressed or irritable, whereas high wellbeing may lead to someone being happy, calm and enthusiastic.
Wellbeing is determined by many aspects of life including financial, social, and occupational factors.
Those with better wellbeing will be less susceptible to illness and injury. Lower stress levels mean a better immune system which leads to a lower sickness rate and a faster rate of recovery if they do become ill.
A higher wellbeing level also correlates with higher productivity rates. Those with higher-than-average wellbeing tend to do more in the workplace and in their communities.
Wellbeing can be a difficult thing to bring up. Here are some ideas to help make the subject easier to approach.
1. Set the tone and appear approachable
2. Show that you’re listening
3. Ask questions to show interest
There are many ways to bring higher levels of wellbeing into your workplace. Having a clear way for your employees to progress in their careers can help. This gives them a clear direction and motivation and will allow them to see their own progression. Another way is offering employees opportunities to build relationships with other members of staff. Bringing a social aspect to the workplace will reduce isolation, and directly contribute towards improving social factors that affect wellbeing.
