Our Top Tips for Supporting Employee Health and Wellbeing
We recently did a very well attended and received HR Club webinar. A number of the attendees asked for some tips and resources for employers who would like to support their employees’ health and wellbeing.
Watch our recent HR Club Webinar on Managing Employee Mental Health.
In terms of the approach, perhaps you could implement an intranet page which focuses on wellbeing resources, or send out a wellbeing communication to your staff with resources they may wish to use to assist them to manage their own mental health.
You may also consider reviewing your employee recognition approach. This could include a peer/peer or manager/peer ‘thank you’ platform where people can get some recognition from their teams.
You should reflect on your culture and your benefit offering too and remind employees what is available to them. Your approach to wellbeing should reflect your culture and work environment. Consider what is realistic and would work best for your teams.
Useful Resources
We have compiled some available resources that may be useful.
These resources can help with your employees’ physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing and you could include details of how you can communicate and show appreciation for your employees. We mentioned a number of the following in our webinar.
Communication
- Introduce 25 or 55 minute meeting culture to allow for comfort breaks
- Introduce the concept of walking meetings where it is acceptable for some internal meetings to take place outside whilst going for a walk, or take a break from the desk by walking whilst talking.
- Keep the team connected through 1-2-1’s, team meetings, socials.
- Introduce ‘end of week’ events – Friday socials, going for drink, catch ups with the team.
- Birthdays – introduce a virtual team coffee and cake session for team member’s birthdays.
- Introduce formal switch off sessions. Some companies are introducing weeks where there are less meetings and less emails sent to allow focus time.
Recognition
- Introduce ‘thank you Friday’s’ (this could be part of the end of week social).
- Celebrate Kindness day/week – UK Kindness day is in November.
Physical Wellbeing
- Set up a group Strava page to share fitness achievements for those that are goal oriented and like a challenge.
- Walking meetings (as above).
- Bike2Work Scheme.
- DSE Guidelines & Working from Home Assessment.
- Gymshark Training App – The Gymshark Training App brings a new world of training to life, uniting the Gymshark community in one central place. Explore the workout library, train, create your own workouts, your own plans and track your progress.
- No more excuses -This is where you take your training to the next level. It doesn’t matter if you’re a lifter, or a HIITer, a beginner, an intermediate or a novice… what you need will be found in this app. They will help to reform your training, track your progress and unlock your potential.
- 305 Fitness – If you’re a fan of dance workouts then the dance cardio studio is offering free classes on their YouTube page. There are plenty of options for everyone to get involved with, including HIIT cardio and Cardio Party.
- Blogilates – Blogilates also has a huge YouTube following, offering free pilates and bootcamp sculpting workouts. You can access free monthly calendars workout plans to try on the Blogilates website.
Other Fitness Class Recommendations
We recommend the one and only Body Coach, Joe Wicks, who helped bring the nation together with PE classes for families during the first national lockdown. There are classes available on the Body Coach YouTube.
For those that love Yoga, try Adrienne’s free classes on her YouTube channel Yoga with Adrienne.
Emotional Wellbeing
- Ensure a healthy work/life balance – offer a flexible working policy.
- Building Emotional Resilience Workshop – If you would be interested in supporting your employees to manage their own mental health more effectively, Narrow Quay HR can offer in person or online workshops.
There are lots of resources to help with your wellbeing on the BBC, including their mental health toolkit.
Mental Health First Aid England
Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England is a fantastic organisation which normally travels up and down the country educating individuals and businesses on different types of mental health illnesses, spotting the early signs and how to provide the right support to individuals who suffer from mental health illnesses.
MHFA England have put together some guidance, along with a lot of helpful resources for ways to support mental health whilst working from home.
Podcast Recommendations
- Happier with Gretchen Rubin
- Feel Better, Live More
- Under the Skin – Russell Brand
- A bit of Optimism – Simon Sinek
- Juliette Burton’s Positive Mental Attitude podcast
The XpertHR Podcast (UK)
