Why care about wellbeing at work?
Let’s start from data. Between 36 and 53% of young people experience stress at work for most of the time. The most vulnerable are women of generation Z.
Almost half of Millenials and Gen Z feel burned out due to the intensity of their workload. They see that people leave the company due to burnout. Around 20-25% workers say that their employer is not taking the issue of employee burnout seriously or taking steps to prevent it.
It seems that the topic of psyhical health in the workplace is extremely important. Especially when we are talking about remote work.
Champion Health reasearch shows that most employees feel anxiety, stress or even depression due to their work. Let’s take a closer look at the results.
When in another study Millenials were asked: “What matters most to you?” their responses were:
- 79% – Family
- 53% – Health and Wellness
- 39% – Friends
- 31% – Spirituality
- 27% – Career
That shows that nowadays Wellbeing is a key to effective work and satisfying job.
Addressing Wellbeing pays off!
According to the Gallup Institute:
For employers, the cost of poor employee wellbeing go far beyond insurance – they ultimately impact employee engagement, productivity and performance.
What is wellbeing?
And what is the difference between Wellness and Wellbeing?
Five elements of wellbeing
Gallup’s global research highlighted Five elements of wellbeing that add up to a thriving life.
Well-being types
Purpose wellbeing
Liking what you do each day and being motivated to achieve your goals.
- There is a leader in your life who makes you enthusiastic about the future.
- You like what you do every day.
- In the past 12 months, you have reached most of your goals.
- You learn or do something interesting every day.
Social wellbeing
Having supportive relationships and love in your life.
- Your relationship with your spouse, partner or closest friend is stronger than ever.
- Your friends and family give you positive energy every day.
- You always make time for regular trips or vacations with friends and family.
- Someone in your life always encourages you to be healthy.
Financial wellbeing
Managing your economic life to reduce stress and increase security.
- You have enough money to do everything you want to do.
- In the last seven days, you have worried about money.
- Compared to the people you spend time with, you are satisfied with your standard of living.
- Not enough money to buy food in last 12 months.
- Not enough money for healthcare or medicine in last 12 months.
Community wellbeing
Liking where you live, feeling safe and having pride in your community.
- The city or area where you live is a perfect place for you.
- You are proud of your community (or the area where you live).
- You always feel safe and secure.
- The house or apartment that you live in is ideal for you and your family.
- In the last 12 months, you have received recognition for helping to improve the city or area where you live.
Physical wellbeing
Having good health and enough energy to get things done daily.
- Use drugs or medication (including prescription) that affect your mood or help you relax almost every day.
- Smoke
- Had seven or more alcoholic drinks per week
- Obese
- Exercised for 30+ minutes three or more days in the last week
- Had five or more servings of fruits and vegetables four or more days in the last week
- Ate healthy all day yesterday
What can manager do to take care of well-being
- Approach wellbeing as a real area to address in your leadership role
- The younger your team, the more attention wellbeing needs
- Make it explicit in your virtual team by referring to wellbeing, informing about wellbeing activities, and discussing wellbeing. You might want to use a simple Start-Stop-Continue matrix for a team discussion on wellbeing
- Address employee wellbeing also in individual 1:1s
- Help your team understand how they can take care of their wellbeing plus support each other in the team
Tip: focus on career wellbeing first
Action items for leaders:
- Help employees discover their strengths and create a culture of high development by using a strengths-based strategy to design your employee experience.
- Don’t tolerate abusive managers. Remove managers who make employees’ lives miserable.
- Develop managers to be coaches. Move the manager mindset from being a boss to being a coach who drives employee performance and has regular conversations to provide meaningful feedback.
- Include wellbeing in conversations about career development.
More hints for virtual leaders
- Offer flexible work schedules and paid time off.
- Pay and reward employees for results and not hours “clocked.”
- Offer health and wellness benefits, but make sure they are convenient to access.
- Provide wellness tools and supports that contribute to work-life balance, including mental, social and emotional well-being.
- Create opportunities for collaboration across disciplines and organizational ranks.
- Adopt gamification software that promotes movement throughout the day.
- Make sure your organization’s higher purpose is clear.
If you want to learn more about this topic, check the full webinar: Wellbeing in a Virtual Team
Run your training with us!
If you want to work on your competence, skills needed in a remote work or wellbing in your team, ETTA Leadership & Culture specialises in and provides training on development programmes for leaders and teams. See the offer.
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