As we approach the start of 2023, many organisations will be considering how to improve working practices, increase productivity and retain their staff.
In the past, offering higher salaries or more perks have often worked well, however, since the pandemic and with a new generation of workers entering the workforce, leaders are waking up to the fact that wellbeing at work is quickly becoming paramount for employees.
So if cash is no longer king in terms of attracting and keeping your people – how can you look after them throughout the year and beyond?
Your Year of Work Wellbeing
This is where you have an opportunity to create a Year of Wellbeing for your employees. It may sound daunting at first – don’t worry! I’m here to break it down for you and offer you several solutions.
Ideally you will have a Work Wellbeing Strategy with monthly themes focusing on different aspects of wellbeing at work.
A good place to start with these is to look at national or international awareness months, weeks and days. For example; the month of April is Stress Awareness Month which is a great opportunity to introduce initiatives to help alleviate stress amongst your staff.
You could opt for a range of the following:
- Daily meditation sessions
- Weekly yoga or kickboxing – or both!
- Discussions with each employee to understand what causes them to feel distressed at work and then create a plan to help with this. Potentially reducing workload or lengthening deadlines or introducing flexible working.
- Running several talks or workshops such as my Tame Your Stress Monster session to understand more about how stress occurs and how to minimise it as well as use it as to your advantage.
I realise that this is very easy to say and in an ideal world you or your HR team would have all the time to create and run monthly work wellbeing sessions.
However, chances are that the time is not there or other projects often take over. If you fear this will happen then I suggest you bring someone like myself – a work wellbeing specialist – in to run a full Work Wellbeing Audit with your staff so as to understand what they really need and want. It’s an anonymous questionnaire which is then used to create the foundations of your Year of Wellbeing with different areas of focus, such as:
January: Fail Better – learn how to cope and even prosper from failure.
February: Embrace Your Inner Imposter – get confident at work.
March: Switch Off To Sleep – it’s national Bed Month so let’s use this to help your employees fully switch off from work so they are recharged and raring to go.
April: Stress Awareness Month means it is finally time to Tame Your Stress Monster.
May: based on the previous month use this month to build your Resilience with a Be A Palm Tree session.
June: we’re halfway through the year and your team’s motivation may need a boost so why not Park Procrastination & Overcome Overwhelm.
July: If your people are still struggling or about to face the trials of juggling work and school holidays then it’s time to Beat Burnout.
August: Summer is here and therefore a great opportunity to encourage your employees to get out and Move More.
September: celebrate International Happiness at Work Week by finding our what makes your and your team Happy @ Work.
October: focus on Life Work Balance this month to help your people survive the final push to the end of the year.
November: As Christmas approaches it may be prudent to focus on Financial Health with your employees so they are in a strong financial position for the end of 2023 and to see in 2024 without any money woes.
December: start as you mean to go on with solid goal setting and planning for the year ahead for Your Best Year Yet.
By creating a strong Work Wellbeing Strategy and plan with a different area of focus each month, your staff can pick and choose what they need and when.
As long as you provide a variety of ways in which they can get involved such as live webinars, monthly challenges, confidential counselling or coaching sessions then chances are they will progress through the year without the need to be signed off sick with stress, without the urge to find somewhere else to work and with the confidence to cope better.
As long as you look after them then they will look after you and your business.
Kx
