Transforming your office into a place employees want to go can seem challenging. But, with the right approach, you can make it happen.
Google, Facebook, and other tech industry employers plow millions of dollars into their workplaces to make them more staff-friendly. However, even small firms can make changes to facilitate a culture of wellness.
Here’s what to do:
Provide Colleagues With Mental Health Support
The first step is to provide colleagues with mental health support in the workplace. That could mean offering employee assistance programs, hosting mental health workshops, or referring them to specialists.
When you prioritize mental health, you create a new kind of culture at your firm. Employees don’t try to sweep depression or other conditions under the rug and pretend they aren’t there. Instead, they take them seriously, letting them address them.
Once a culture is in place, more people will come forward and get the treatment they need. Over time, absences should decrease and productivity improve.
Make Your Community More Supportive
The next step is to make the community more supportive. Lead from the top by discussing your mental health challenges and what they mean for you. This way, you can normalize the discussion and reduce stigma.
You can also build a supportive community by changing how your firm operates. Instead of viewing everyone as “colleagues,” try to instill closer relationships. You can do this by:
- Arranging social events
- Making more volunteering opportunities available to staff outside of working hours
- Engaging in team-building activities that employees actually enjoy
Promote More Mindfulness
The next step is to promote mindfulness, something that’s just as important as maintaining physical health. Most colleagues don’t understand the value of this practice, but it is an excellent way to improve how a person feels. The technique, like meditation, can beat burnout, stress, and cynicism.
Maintain Hygiene
Many commercial offices smell bad and don’t put the environment first. That’s why it’s critical to hire a commercial cleaning company. You want a system in place where your office is fresh and clean the moment you walk in at 8 am.
Make sure you empty bins and clean the bathrooms daily. You’ll also want to regularly clean the kitchen to prevent pests, and vacuum and wipe down keywords, door handles, and mice to stop the spread of infection.
Don’t make the mistake of leaving cleaning duties to your employees. Most will resent you for it and complain you’re not hiring a proper company to do it. Even firms that pay low wages to outsource cleaning tasks to keep staff happy.
Encourage Healthy Eating Habits
Bad eating habits are costing your company a lot of money. Unhealthy workers are less productive, more likely to sleep in the afternoon, and more likely to call in sick.
How you support healthy eating habits will vary according to the type of firm you run. If you operate a large site with a canteen, ask chefs to prepare healthy meals with more vegetables. Try to wean staff off their reliance on fries, processed meats, refined flour, and sugars. Get them to consume a whole-food diet of mostly plants, particularly at lunchtime. This approach should keep them more energized during the day, meaning they get more done.
If you have a smaller business, you could partner with local farm stores or restock vending machines with healthy snacks. You could also hire health consultants for your firm to teach your staff how to remain healthy. Remember, most people live in a constant state of confusion regarding what they should eat and how they should live, thanks to mixed messages from the media.
Make The Day More Physical
Lastly, explore how you can make the day more physically active. Find ways to get staff members moving more.
The easiest way to do this is to offer incentives for people who walk or cycle to work. For example, you might provide bicycle vouchers to colleagues who bike three days a week.
Another option is to go on walking meetings around your building. Getting people out of their chairs helps them think more clearly and creatively.
You can also try adding a gym to your premises so colleagues have somewhere they can train at lunchtime.
Conclusion
In summary, you can do many things to create a culture of wellness in your workplace. What’s more, many of your options are cheap. You don’t need to spend your entire budget on these ideas. Once you start implementing them, you’ll notice your staff becoming more productive, helping your enterprise achieve its goals.