5 Things HR can do to improve employee well-being.

As organisations strive to improve employee productivity, retention, and engagement, employee well-being has become a critical focus area for HR leaders. Employees who feel supported and valued by their organisation are likelier to be happy, engaged, and motivated to perform their best work. This article will explore five ways HR can promote employee well-being and create a healthier, happier, and more productive workforce.

1. Encourage better meeting schedules.

Back-to-back meetings leave people feeling more stressed out, less alert and sleepy. They are highly counterproductive and unnecessary - while optically, it may give the impression that busier employees are more productive and engaged, research has now proven it is, in fact, the exact opposite. But this is also common sense, and we need not wait for a study to prove observable and apparent things.?

Instead, promote a culture with at least 10 min breaks between back-to-back sessions.?

It is more humane, sensible, and better for productivity & efficiency.

2. Keep Team positions filled up.

The leading causes of Burnout are unmanageable workload, time pressure, and lack of supervisor feedback and support. Therefore the best way to prevent and manage Burnout is to reduce attrition, keep all team positions filled and ensure new managers get leadership training. Leading people takes work, and untrained managers can lower employee morale and productivity.?

Therefore,?address the root cause through training and development, regular employee feedback and creating a harmonious culture, as prevention is always better than cure.?

Employees need team support and manageable workload more than self-care or discipline to prevent and recover from Burnout.

3. Drive a culture of wellness from the top.

Most organisations will run wellness programs with little adherence or interest from employees. So while they start with enthusiasm, they often lose steam quickly. And the single biggest reason is that it needs the buy-in of the leadership team. If a program needs to be successful, it must first be followed by the leadership. If the C-suite is not engaging in the same practices, there's very little chance that the rest of the company will.

I will go so far as to say that the health and wellness program being run for the company should be more or less aligned with the wellness philosophy of the CEO. If the leaders are not involved in wellness, if the ones who run the ship are not taking care of their health or prioritising it, then there's a high chance the employees won't either. Because it just won't be encouraged.?

The best way to get the leadership team to start a wellness routine is to personalise it for them.

One way to do it is through a personality assessment which covers their inherent traits, environment and goals in life. (to learn more about this, contact me here )

4. Appreciate that professional and personal lives overlap.

I recently talked to a senior banker who shared that hiring people was becoming problematic as they had working Saturdays, and good talent refused to join. I identify with that as a 5-day workweek was a strict requirement for me when I was part of the corporate world as an employee. But, surprisingly, the last organisation I worked for suddenly changed the rules, and one day we got an e-mail saying, henceforth, Saturdays are working without any corresponding increase in salary or employee benefits. That was undoubtedly a dealbreaker, and it would be for anyone who values good work-life balance and high productivity. It was one of the pivotal events that made me realise how little wellness is understood and drove me towards bridging that gap.

Organisations should not encroach on personal lives or think of the private lives of their employees as the enemy. A happier, satisfied employee is far better than a disgruntled overworked one.

It helps to have policies that account for complex life events like divorce, bereavement, health issues, elderly parent care, mental health, pandemic etc.

Knowing that some relief is available if we ask for it is enough. Honest and authentic conversations at this time can benefit both the employee and the organisation. It is also the time to introduce and encourage employees to seek counselling and mindful practices like Yoga and meditation.?

5. Make stress management a priority.

Stress Management is an essential life skill that is as relevant in the workplace as in personal life or a war zone. Yoga and mindfulness are the best ways to learn stress management. Unfortunately, these are often overshadowed or confused with exercise. Many organisations also promote more active forms of Yoga with very few mindfulness components. While there's nothing wrong with active Yoga, it is not the same as mindfulness. And let me explain why.

Vigorous exercise is excellent and can help people feel recharged and invigorated. However, exercise uses a more goal-oriented, go-getter, push-yourself-harder approach to creating deliberate change forcefully. Mindfulness on the other hand is about cultivating intuitive awareness, non-judgement, being present and accepting feelings and sensations rather than trying to change them. Both exercise and mindfulness are essential to balance our personality and lifestyle. However, there's more focus on exercise (constant movement and activity) than mindfulness (stillness and acceptance).?

And this is where Yoga becomes necessary. There are many ways to be fitter and exercise harder, but there's only one way to do Yoga. It is the one practice that teaches breath and posture awareness, stillness, and non-judgement and cultivates intuition. But unfortunately, it often gets muddled with exercise.

HR teams need to understand this distinction between exercise and mindfulness or fitness and wellness so they can use both modalities accurately for the best results.?

In summary, employee well-being should not be the responsibility of employees alone. The environment and culture that surrounds them are of paramount importance. Moreover, for healthy habits like Yoga to be deeply integrated, honoured and respected in the organisation, leaders should first endorse and practise them themselves. And the best way to get leadership buy-in is by creating personalised programs for them unique to their needs and personality type.?

Namita Piparaiya?is a former corporate executive; she spent over a decade, from management trainee to business head, with leading MNCs, including Citibank, Aviva, and Generali. She is now the founder of Yoganama Wellness. The?Well-Balanced Newsletter ?is her initiative to bring practical wellness tips to the workplace. Please feel free to connect if you'd like to discuss Corporate Wellness Programs at [email protected] or book a 1:1 consultation with her on?yoganama.com