In the aftermath of the pandemic, employee wellness has increasingly become a hot topic. Candidates prefer workplaces that can support their broader needs, including ensuring their wellbeing. Plus, focusing on wellness creates a more positive culture, one where employees are broadly able to thrive.
Often, managers play a critical role in the wellness equation. If you’re wondering how great managers are ensuring employee wellbeing in the workplace, here’s a look at some widely embraced best practices.
Regular, Consistent Check-ins
When managers communicate directly with team members, the focus is normally on productivity and expectations. However, by scheduling check-ins that are designed to gauge an employee’s mentality, mood, and stress levels, managers can provide more assistance to ensure their wellbeing.
Speak with your workers one-on-one regularly and consistently without focusing the conversation on duties, responsibilities, and performance. Instead, find out if they feel that they have all of the tools they need to thrive, whether they’re struggling with obstacles, or if there is anything more you can do to offer them support.
Along with workplace challenges, creating a safe space where employees can talk about personal struggles. By doing so, you may learn about issues that you can help solve, such as by adjusting work schedules, altering workloads, or otherwise giving workers the room they need to handle those responsibilities and restore balance.
Update Your Delegation Approach
Delegation is a critical part of any manager’s job. However, most managers use a one-sided strategy, simply deciding who to hand tasks to and when. With that strategy, the employee isn’t necessarily playing a role in the decision-making process.
Before delegating a task, talk with the employee about them potentially taking it on before you put it on their plate. Find out the state of their current workload and whether a new responsibility would make things unmanageable. Gauge their enthusiasm for the task to determine if they’re genuinely the best fit for the duty.
You can also make delegation a more collaborative experience. By speaking with the team instead of just the employee you initially wanted to give the task to, you may discover that another worker would take on the duty enthusiastically. As a result, you can hand the activity to a passionate employee who has room in their workload to give in the required amount of attention, leading to better results.
Make It Easy to Use Resources
Many companies have a variety of wellness resources that employees can use to ensure their wellbeing, such as employee assistance programs, mental health benefits, informational libraries, financial coaches, and more. However, not all of them are easy to access, particularly for overtasked employees with limited time in the day.
As a manager, look for opportunities to improve accessibility. Invite various coaches to come into the workplace, and allow employees to use work time to attend a session. Bring fitness equipment or instructors in to make exercising regularly easier, and ensure workers can easily use their leave for mental health appointments.
Ultimately, managers can do a lot to ensure employee wellbeing. Use the tips above as a foundation, then seize other opportunities as you identify them.
If you’d like to learn more about how you can support your workforce effectively, the team at PrideStaff wants to hear from you. Contact us today.
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