It’s National Work Life Week from 11 – 15 October 2021 where employers and employees are encouraged to talk about wellbeing at work and work-life balance.
Adopting a positive work-life culture is key to building and retaining a healthy workforce. Quite alarmingly, in a recent survey conducted by Randstad, work-life balance was hailed as more important than salary for two thirds of Brits. Of course, it’s important every single year but this year, after spending the best part of 18 months doing everything from home, the work-life separation has become somewhat blurred.
With more businesses implementing hybrid and flexible working, here are our top 5 tips for business owners and their teams on how they can achieve a great work-life balance:
1) Start by listening
Use a confidential survey where staff feel free to tell you exactly how happy they are with their current work-life balance. Ask for their opinions on their top three barriers to switching off from work and what most affects their wellbeing at work. Knowing this will help you provide an effective range of solutions for your team to tap into.
There are a number of free platforms including Google Forms and Survey Monkey you can use to create your survey.
2) Extend the sense of support
Especially in today’s world, many employees dedicate their lives to their jobs and, more often than not, this can impact their personal lives. As an employer, it’s your responsibility to ensure that their downtime is kept exactly that.
Encouraging them to practise activities such as a 15-minute shutdown at the end of the working day, whether working from home or the office, will help to feel released from the work mindset, boosting productivity, motivation for tomorrow and a general feeling of accomplishment for today.
3) Stress relievers
Support your local business community by bringing in a variety of stress-relieving activities for your teams. From a simple pub lunch or lunch delivery through to escape rooms and spa days as rewards, bringing people together and rewarding them for consistently great performance at work strikes a healthy balance between work and play.
4) Prevent burnout
If you’re worried about taking quality time away from work, imagine if you were forced to stop working because of burnout. Provide a system for your staff to handover work during holiday time or shared shift patterns so they know they can switch off and recharge knowing the work isn’t stacking up while they are away.
5) Take care of your own wellbeing
Don’t forget, to be the best leader, your wellbeing must be looked after too. It’s important to take time out and practise what you preach to your team. There will be members of your team who will relish stepping up while you take some well-deserved time off!
It’s a stark fact that, according to the 2020 UK Workplace Stress Survey conducted by Perkbox, only 1 in 53 employees would choose to discuss their concerns with a superior at work, whilst 16% of people are prepared to leave companies that are causing too much stress.
Encouraging work-life balance should be a priority for businesses because attracting and retaining quality staff is the difference between being a good business and a great one.
