When you run a business, it can be a massive practical advantage that you have a sense of how well your employees are doing in both their work lives and their private lives. This does not mean you need to know every detail of what they do in their spare time, or indeed that you ask them how they are doing every day. However, having an idea of how your staff are feeling, and whether they need additional support for any reason, can massively affect how your team perform, and improve the quality of everyone’s time both at and away from work. Read on for our top tips on how to help your staff unobtrusively.
Have an open-door policy
An open-door policy, when correctly implemented, can have a positive effect on your ability to communicate with staff. If you make it clear that staff are free to come to you and ask for frank and honest feedback, as well as clarity over particular matters that might be less clear at the lower level, then they will slowly get used to the idea.
As long as the open-door policy, at whatever level you want to apply it, is applied consistently, your staff will get used to being able to do this with work-related matters that arise. Over time, employees experiencing other issues, such as bereavement or illness will feel confident coming forward to talk to you about these issues frankly as well. This will avoid confusion or employees bottling things up unhealthily.
Implement a clear set of employee welfare policies
Employee welfare is a vital word of the moment, with the most recent Gallup State of the Global Workplace poll (2017) showing dramatic results. 20% of employees struggle with mental health challenges, over half with financial stress, and over 80% are disengaged at work. All of these numbers should be noted by an employer. If your team are unable to get the support they need in the workplace, then your business will not achieve the results that it is capable of. This can lead to a growing cycle of stress for employees and the company caused by low productivity.
However, employees’ productivity and satisfaction can be raised if they are given the tools needed to work to their fullest capacity. A support suite such as Employee Wellbeing Solutions from LifeWorks will offer the services and tools needed to support your employees to achieve their best work while being supported through life events to the highest level possible. These can be personalised to each individual employee, and be proactive instead of reacting to issues after they have reached a boiling point.
Patience and consistency
Running a business is stressful and some days it can feel like there is not enough patience left for the journey home, even before other people’s worries arise, but find the patience to consider your employees issues, and what you can do to help them. Most importantly be consistent in what you implement, to create a fair system which can work for every employee
