The pressure that comes with running a small business can really impact on the health and wellbeing of teams, yet many business owners feel they lack the time, budget, and knowledge to invest in staff wellbeing initiatives.
Promoting health and wellbeing at work not only helps to improve individual health and quality of working life, but employers reap the benefits from improved staff morale and job satisfaction, increased productivity, better performance at work and less days off sick.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to wellbeing, but there are plenty of ways that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can promote wellbeing to suit their business, their staff and themselves.
Look after your team’s physical health
Good physical health leads to good mental health, and vice versa. Look after your team’s physical wellbeing, by encouraging them to exercise and eat well. You could try challenges like ‘Step Count Challenge’ or ‘Couch To 5K’and offer a prize to the most active team members.
Help employees connect with each other
Humans, by their nature, need to feel like they belong as part of the tribe. When working remotely, it’s far harder for us to feel connected to our teammates. Arranging regular 1-2-1 catch-ups with your team members is crucial.
Use instant messaging apps like Microsoft Teams or Slack, and consider setting up chat rooms dedicated to discussing different interests like films, TV, or reading. Encourage your employees to help each other out. By making social wellbeing part of the wider conversation at work, it can nudge your teams to regularly check in with and support one another.
Take care of their emotional wellbeing
Emotional wellbeing goes hand in hand with social wellbeing. So much of our emotional stability comes from the people around us.
To support the emotional wellbeing of your employees, make sure they know you’re there for them. Monthly wellbeing newsletters and an open door policy can go a long way to strengthening their emotional state of mind.
Don’t forget financial wellbeing
Financial wellbeing refers to how secure your workers feel about their finances and the extent to which they have control over the choices available to them.
Offer things like regulated financial advice hotlines, payroll savings options, discounted fitness and health-related memberships and grants of advanced payments to manage financial emergencies to help them feel supported.
Prioritise your team's wellbeing
For more tips on how to prioritise wellbeing, with contributions about Mental Health and Wellbeing Training in the workplace from Sarah Mayo, Co-Founder and Coach at Point3 Wellbeing, download our guide.