The pandemic changed the way we work. The change was sudden, almost overnight, and four years later we are still looking for a new equilibrium; a working pattern that meets the needs of both the employer and employee, and which factors in our wellbeing needs.
During the pandemic isolation and uncertainty impacted our mental health for many of us. The upside was the active encouragement to connect through on line team chats and regular check ins. The need and benefit for this was recognised and so we sought to engineer the type of conversations that previously had happened naturally in the workplace.
Post pandemic, policies and practical support systems are still trying to find the right balance for a flexible workforce. People need to feel connected to their colleagues, to be part of their team, and to adopt and retain the company ethos and values. Feeling a part of the organisation you work for is important to how we feel about our job, ourselves and our wellbeing. Many businesses are still seeking to get that balance right.
Mental Health is More Than The Absence of Mental Illness
So what is it to be mentally well? For me, mental and emotional wellbeing are not simply the absence of mental illness; it is a healthy state of flourishing.
With our physical health, many workplaces promote this within their workforce by offering annual checks. We are advised about our diet and exercise because employers understand that the preventative work of keeping people physically well is a better option than dealing with the fallout of injury or ill health.
I would argue for a similar approach to nurture our everyday mental wellbeing. That is, caring for our emotional wellbeing as a regular activity and not leaving things to slip into anxiety or burnout before we take action.
Learning how to better manage and process short-term stress that occurs in response to difficult work situations is a skill that can be developed. It calls for recognising the emotional reactions that stressful experiences generate in us and learning how to calm and reset our nervous systems afterwards. These skills build resilience and generate the confidence that we can deal with situations as they arise.
In the office some of these constructive coping strategies would have happened naturally; a quick chat with a colleague would let us off-load, but these conversations now need to be built in more proactively.
Nurturing Your Teams
To promote a thriving workforce in hybrid workplaces takes a bit of additional structure. Businesses need to:
⦁ Enable and Prioritise Connection: Factor in team-building activities and regular check-ins with no particular agenda. Encourage open communication and ways to build shared values.
⦁ Recognize Accomplishments: Good work can go unnoticed and uncelebrated with a dispersed team. Public recognition and thanks keeps employees motivated and learning. Staff need to feel seen and heard, to know their contributions matter.
⦁ Empower Autonomy: Trust is key to getting the best from people. What is important for a business is that the work gets done and done well not that a person is at their desk continually through a working day. Allowing employees flexibility and control will support this approach.
⦁ Create Meaningful Work: Find out about employee’s strengths and goals so that they can select some aspects of work that best suit their skill set and interests.
⦁ Invest in Support: Benefits such as coaching, counselling, wellbeing training and employee assistance programs are increasingly important to attracting and retaining staff.
New Routes To A Positive Work Culture and A Sustainable Future
There are many positive lessons to take from the changes we adopted during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. Changes that are worth taking forward such as actively prioritising staff wellbeing and fostering the kind of supportive environment where employees feel safe to share how they are feeling and are able to access support.
Building empathy, understanding, and flexibility into how we work can create a more resilient workforce, and a resilient workforce is a more positive, productive and sustainable workforce too!
Wellbeing should be more than a tick box exercise because true wellbeing strategies are sensible business strategies.
We need to find and promote ways to replace those quick catch ups or the pre-meeting information sharing conversations. Try online coffee breaks to promote the creativity that flows from an off the cuff conversation. The little interactions add up to something bigger than they seem.
By investing in staff wellbeing, organizations not only enhance employee satisfaction but they can boost productivity, reduce turnover, and strengthen their employer brand.
It's an investment with a powerful return.
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