A quick summary:
Self-care is such an essential ingredient to a happy life. It’s also something leaders should regularly promote if they want both a healthier workforce and a successful business.
In this article, we’re exploring the role of self-care, and how you can instil this quality into every member of your team. Starting with what it is and exploring a number of ideas you should try.
What is self-care in the workplace?
Self-care at work is all about how your team carries themselves. How they feel about their work and the value they create for the business. It’s about the recognition they give themselves and their attitude towards wellbeing and happiness in the face of high-pressure work environments.
Of course, self-care in our personal lives may look a little different. It might refer to our effort to socialise, to spend time with friends and family. It might be the foods we eat and the exercise we do — you get the idea.
But in the workplace, self-care has become so important. We’re currently living in an age of information overload. An age where notifications spill into our every hour and our attention and energy is dwindling. Burnout is on the rise and employees are settling for nothing more than a healthy, happy workplace.
The mission for employers then is simple. Build a company that empowers people and helps them to thrive. But to do that, leaders must start taking things like employee wellbeing and self-care seriously, for a people-first workplace.
How to build self-care into your team
Below are just a few of the ways your leadership can implement self-care in your workplace. Remember, this list is by no means exhaustive, but it will give you a good idea to kickstart a healthier, happier and more rewarding workplace.
Set work-life balance guidelines
Firstly, let’s talk about work-life balance. In the modern world of work, it’s all about integrating work into lives in a way that isn’t stressful. With the rise of hybrid and remote work, people are finding it harder and harder to disconnect.
Because of this, our first suggestion is to come up with a strategy for better work-life balance. This means outlining expectations around deadlines, breaks and intervals during the day and any added holiday allowance.
For example, some companies may introduce wellbeing Wednesday or duvet days. These are opportunities for employees to step back from their workload and focus on their mental health. It’s the perfect answer to a work-life boost.
It may be worth revisiting working schedules too. For instance, some companies have adopted flexible working hours, hybrid and remote working since the pandemic. Some have even introduced four-day working weeks.
These initiatives have helped give employees literally hours back to do the things they love with the people they care about. What are you waiting for? Start prioritising your work-life balance guidelines.
Invest in an employee wellbeing platform
Next up, an employee wellbeing platform. Platforms and programs that support employee wellbeing are a great addition to your effort to increase self-care at work. Think about it, through Heka you can offer more than 3,000 experiences to your team.
This doesn’t just encourage healthier, happier behaviours, but it gives them to means to do so. Each month, through an employer, thousands of employees buy everything from counselling to outdoor activities they otherwise wouldn’t have had.
As we’ve already discussed, we’re entering a world of work that is focused on employee wellbeing. Not to invest in platforms like Heka is to accept that your business is falling behind the times.
Even without Heka, there are plenty of programs and wellbeing initiatives you can implement to drive your team towards a healthier, happier future. All-in-all, workplace wellbeing is all about future-proofing your business. Are you in?
Reinvent your office space
Third and finally, reinvent your current workspace. Whilst the workplace changes at a rapid pace, most work environments have not. The place of work has to follow in the footsteps of this evolution if businesses want to survive.
It’s about drawing inspiration from the big companies like Microsoft and Apple. Companies that — whilst having millions of pounds to spare — are highlighting the right direction all businesses must take, regardless of budgets.
These are organisations that have invested heavily in healthcare and fitness facilities and professionals. They’ve invested in family planning perks like fertility support and other benefits that are both meaningful and impactful.
For your own business, whether you have a million-pound budget or not, it’s important to start viewing your office space as a way to improve health and wellbeing and ultimately self-care.
Start with motivational quotes and posters and recognition boards. Ideas like this will drive better self-care and help employees realise their value in the workplace. Alternatively, you could also consider mindfulness ideas like quiet spaces for employees. A combination of changes should add a bit of self-care to your office.
Final thoughts on self-care?
There you have it. Some ideas on how to promote self-care at work. It goes without saying that self-care is hugely important in both life and work. It’s what gives us the foundation to thrive, both personally and professionally.
Businesses really need to adopt the idea of becoming people-first. That is the only way forward if they want to outperform competitors and be successful. Promoting self-care puts your business on the right track.
Speak to a workplace wellbeing professional
There are many more ways to boost self-care in the workplace, but we’ve highlighted these as potential options to get started with. If you’d like to find out more about creating healthier, happier workplaces with Heka, why not speak to our wellbeing experts?
