Paying attention to your employee’s wellbeing during these difficult times builds stronger connections and promotes a healthy company culture. Everyday lives have changed significantly and companies should do their best to improve employee wellbeing during pandemics. If you don’t know how to tackle this issue, the following ideas will make it easier for you and make your employees happy.
Practice regular non-work-related check-ins
By now, you’re probably used to having online meetings and video team discussions. This ensures that the work gets done, messages are conveyed right and that your team communicates regularly. However, you should also practice non-work-related check-ins with your team members and employees.
If you’re a team leader, find time to check with each one of your team members at least once a month. In case you’re an HR professional, you’ll probably be in charge of talking to each and every member of your company. Either way, let them know that you’re available to provide the help and support they need.
Ensure they have the tools for a successful WFH experience
Not all people know how to set up a proper home office. They might need tech support so make sure to provide technical support to all your employees. Take into account that this setup might be temporary for some, so give them an option to borrow their office chairs and desks. This will create an optimum work setting, ensure productivity, and better performance.
Look into the company’s health insurance plans
Analyze the company’s health insurance plans so you’ll know how to adjust them to suit your employee’s needs. If your health insurance doesn’t cover mental health support, find out how you can include mental health support. These times are hard and stressful and many people are struggling to cope with the fears of the pandemic. Include telemedicine support into the company’s health plan so your employees will be encouraged to seek professional help.
Promote the healthy eating challenge
You can hire a nutritionist to come up with a healthy eating meal plan everyone can follow at home. This way you’ll show your employees you care about their health.
And prove that you’re willing to give them the tools to achieve a healthy eating goal. Staying in all the time leads to higher calorie intake and less activity to burn that energy. This can also be another team bonding experience where the entire team can commit to this plan, support each other, and praise each other’s hard efforts. You can even host virtual cooking nights on Fridays to build team rapport and connect online.
Motivate your staff to stay active
For those who still work from the office, you can set up a wellness room and implement a system for safe usage. Calculate how many people can be in this room per square footage at the same time. Write a wellness room etiquette guide so people will know when and how to use it safely. Equip this area with ultra-quiet exercise bikes, exercise mats, resistance bands, and dumbells, and encourage your employees to use the room regularly. When it comes to motivating those who still work from home, you can set up daily challenges and weekly goals. Reward those who completed all of the activity goals set up for the month with fruit baskets.
Share stress and anxiety-reducing tips
Stress among employees will be on the rise because everyone reacts differently to the new normal. You can conduct a survey among your employees and encourage them to share their stress-reducing tips. Combine all of their answers and put them in an official document everyone can access. You can also make a sheet with free online resources, online training, and guided meditation videos. So, if someone is in the mood for yoga or a guided meditation, they can call a colleague to join them virtually.
Introduce mandatory virtual coffee dates
Social distancing, lockdowns, and general fear trigger a range of emotions and increase loneliness and depression. Those employees who have a family will feel less isolated than those who live alone. One of the ways to encourage people to socialize and reduce the negative effects of social distancing is to encourage virtual coffee dates during lunch breaks or different times during work hours. Pair people randomly across departments or teams.
Let them know who they are supposed to meet online for the day and encourage people to connect even though they never spoke before. Share some rules regarding these virtual coffee dates – the length, topics of conversation, and the suggested times.
Regular check-ins, proper communication, motivation to move more, eat healthily, and connect across teams and departments will show your employees you care.
Allow breaks
Taking breaks is crucial when working. Not only does it improve the wellbeing of the employee, but it also boosts productivity. A common result of working more from home is that employees tend to sit long hours in front of the computer because they can’t get up and chat with other employees and team members. A big problem with this is also that long hours in front of the screen tends to cause tired eyes and eye strain. This can cause long-lasting issues, and therefore, it is a good idea to take precautions to ensure that these issues do not appear in the first place.
