Soft skills crucial to employee wellness in virtual world

By Lucy Morgans - creative director at Hendrix Training

With meetings and presentations moving online, does your company's Wellbeing Programme take into account how stressful the virtual world can be?

Before the pandemic many organisations were investing in wellness schemes to improve their workers’ health and wellbeing, but have schemes changed enough with so many people working differently?

Employees worry about presenting to fellow staff, at an event or when pitching to new customers and these same concerns can be heightened when online.

It can stop someone sleeping, harm their confidence and productivity and lead to absenteeism.

A report by The Economist Intelligence Unit found that stress remains a serious problem in many workplaces.

Here are some top tips to be more confident when contributing to, or presenting during, online meetings:

• Remember to breathe - one of the most powerful stress-relievers is to think about your breathing and breathe from your diaphragm to calm your nerves
• Be aware of your body language - you convey positive and negative signals during online meetings. Are you looking engaged or disinterested? Are you managing to keep eye contact? Don't forget to smile
• Try to read the room - this is not easy during online meetings but you need to try and assess when to speak up and when to bring others into the conversation
• Don't underestimate your tone of voice - remember the 5 P's: Projection (can people hear you?), Pace (don't speak too fast), Pitch (are your speaking too high or low because of your nerves?) Pause (use it for effect and to gain attention) and Power (accentuate key words that will help you meet your objectives)
• Prepare for difficult questions - think about the questions you are likely to get and how you will answer them. What would you ask you!
• Tell a story - storytelling is the best way to engage an audience and help them to visualise and understand the points you are trying to make.

For more information on soft skills coaching for face to face and online situations please visit www.hendrixtraining.com [email protected]

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