Office Wellbeing: Tips to promote health at work
Zoe | April 5, 2022
Support your teams’ health and wellbeing at work with these simple initiatives that will help your workplace culture thrive.
Health and wellbeing at work put simply is just about ensuring your employees are safe, healthy, satisfied and engaged with their work. It, therefore, makes sense that having a healthy workforce will in turn help increase productivity, reduce sick days and will support a positive workplace culture you can be proud of. As an office manager or facilities manager, part of your responsibility is to support your team in feeling happy at work.
Supporting your team can help to attract and keep talent. In fact, research shows that 86% of employees believe their employer is responsible for their health and wellbeing. 62% say the support they receive makes them less likely to move elsewhere.
However, work stress is actually on the rise in the UK and in 2020, a staggering 79% of us commonly experience work-related stress. This is up from 2018 when 59% of us commonly experienced work-related stress. Undoubtedly, some of this increase was due to the impact of COVID, lockdowns and quarantines. However, work-related stress is still the highest type of stress felt by us Brits. So what can you do as an employee to help?
Agile and flexible working
These approaches both gained traction during covid enforced lockdowns as businesses realised that people can successfully work from home or remotely. The physical office will always have its place in business but more and more people now expect the flexibility from their employer to be able to work remotely if required. This may look like a split between working from home some days throughout the week and includes a less rigid structure in working hours to fit around your team. This flexibility empowers your team and it’s an effective management approach that’s built on trust. Want to learn more about how you can look after your team when remote working?
Positive Communication In The Office
People enjoy a pat on the back and positive reinforcement for their achievements so if you’re in a management position be sure to recognise your team’s success. Positively recognising your team helps them feel valued, boosts wellbeing, supports engagement and increases productivity. In a survey, 79% of employees say recognition makes them work harder. 78% say recognition also makes them more productive. Your team will highly appreciate their health and wellbeing at work being focused in on. As a result, along with positive communication, your team’s results will only go in one direction.
Perks at work
82% of UK workers said that they’d like have liked their employers to use the pandemic as a catalyst to revamp employee perks and benefits. 71% of UK workers value office drinks, travel schemes and flexi-hours over pensions, reflecting a major shift in priorities compared to before the pandemic.
Other simple yet beneficial perks like employee discounts, gym memberships and rewards all help to show your team you support and value them. Other research revealed that 75% of employees agree that having a high-quality coffee experience also shows that their employer cares about them. Quality coffee is an easy win to help support your workplace culture and helps to keep your team happy and hydrated.
Encourage friendships
A study from LinkedIn found that 46% of professionals believe that having work friends are important to their overall workplace happiness. In another study, 70% of people said that friends at work are the most crucial element to a happy working life. Just some ways that employees can do this are by:
- encouraging team activities
- arranging away days with team building activities
- creating Slack channels or WhatsApp groups
- allowing regular coffee breaks and a full lunch hour where people can socialise.
Wellbeing at work ideas
There are hundreds of potential wellbeing at work ideas you can implement into your office space and working team.
- agile and flexible working
- breakout rooms
- relaxing lunch areas
- coffee break rooms
- consistent feedback
- clear goals for individuals
- promoting break times
Healthy Lifestyle Options For The Office
It’s very easy to end up working through lunch, staying late or end up working in the evenings or at weekends but this can ultimately lead to burnout. Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is essential for people’s mental and physical health and helps to keep your business running smoothly. As a manager, you should lead from the front and encourage your team to take regular breaks. Also to regularly review workloads and have open lines of communication so if people are struggling, they can ask for help.
Why is office wellbeing so important?
As you have seen in this blog, here at FreshGround we value health and wellbeing in the office very highly. So why is office wellbeing so important in your workplace? Firstly, you keep members of your team happy and positive. A good team morale goes a long way in terms of productivity in the workplace. Whilst keeping productivity high is a vital part of any business a recognition of consistent breaks and a valuation of members of your team is just as important to keep them feeling like they want to go the extra mile in their role.
All of these extra steps will be noticed by members of the team, leading to an increase in job retention. A lot of your workforce won’t be asking for much to assure their happiness in the workplace. With these steps and a recognition of why health and wellbeing in the office is so important to your company will see you as a very popular employer.
Get in touch
There are lots of other ways to support your workforce to maintain a healthy work-life balance with lots of great resources online. Mind offers some helpful guidance on how to be mentally healthy at work. If you are looking to provide your team with a quality coffee experience, we can help with that! Just get in touch with us or check out our coffee machines.