22 Jan Make the most of your employees’ energy to boost wellbeing!
The New Year is the perfect time for HR professionals to set a wellbeing agenda and make the most of the energy that it brings for employees!
The CIPD’s Health and Wellbeing at Work 2018 report found HR had a crucial role to play in driving the wellbeing agenda. The British Safety Council’s report released in the same year, reached a similar conclusion: “Workers health and wellbeing can no longer be demoted to the bottom of to do lists, absent from strategy meetings or exempt from financial predictions”
As a HR professional, make the most of January when staff are thinking about wellbeing in 3 steps:
When HR leads, others will follow.
January is all about planning for the year ahead. When establishing a wellbeing strategy, outline the problem you are solving; whether that’s beating stress, boosting productivity or building a healthy culture. Wellbeing efforts should be designed with clear goals in mind; helping the team to feel happier and healthier.
Communication is king when it comes to wellbeing…
You should involve as many people as reasonably possible in the approach and implementation of your strategy. Buy-in from senior leadership and line managers is key. They don’t need to be experts or hands on, however they do need to understand why workplace wellbeing matters. Engaging different people and teams will help boost awareness across the firm about what you do.
Listening and feedback should sit at the heart of your culture.
Working with people is complex. Learn from what works and what doesn’t.
75% of UK adults failed to keep all their New Year Resolutions in 2017 (Source: YouGov) research shows missing one opportunity to perform a behaviour does not materially affect habit formation.
Equally, not all wellbeing activities will work perfectly. The most important thing to remember is that improvements are made. Feedback is important, learning what works well in January in order to design the plan. There should always be a core team that organises the strategy, however it should be based on feedback from what everyone wants at the business.
Remember, change takes time and happens over time.
The more energy you put into a wellbeing strategy, the more benefits the business will see throughout 2019. Always remember to lead from the front to increase awareness and value of a healthy workforce, build a strategy based on listening to the people, your colleagues you are trying to help.
Workplace massage is a great way to introduce wellbeing into the business. Seated acupressure massage is ideal for both male and female employees and for all ages. It targets areas of tension and muscle soreness in your back, neck and shoulders, arms and hands providing relief from muscle aches and pains often aggravated by repetitive strain and posture related issues. For more information please contact Kathy Scott on info@handsonatwork.co.uk