Wellbeing at work. How to solve four modern performance problems with wellbeing ideas that work. Practical tips for employees and employers

Transcription

1 Wellbeing at work How to solve four modern performance problems with wellbeing ideas that work Practical tips for employees and employers

2 2 What is workplace wellbeing? A study by Harvard Medical School suggested that the healthiest 25% of the workforce is some 18% more productive than the least healthy quarter. Wellbeing is a simple, people-centred way of looking at how organisations and individuals can improve productivity, quality of life and satisfaction at work. Because it s based on an understanding of what makes us human, wellbeing is a powerful way of making a real difference in the workplace.

3 3 What is workplace wellbeing? In the workplace, wellbeing means doing different things depending on what you want to improve. Gym memberships, free fruit, lunch vouchers and yoga sessions improve physical wellbeing. Employee volunteering programmes and payroll giving schemes improve spiritual wellbeing. Access to counselling and employee assistance programmes improve mental health. But what does wellbeing mean when you re trying to improve performance? When work is difficult or unclear, or we struggle to cope with work, our performance drops. To improve performance through wellbeing, we must make work easier and clearer and make it easier for us to cope with work. That s what we ll focus on in this guide. Ready? Read on to discover how you can overcome four key performance challenges with wellbeing. These are all important to a well-rounded, healthy workplace.

4 4 1. People must do more with less The world is more competitive so it takes more to win. Resources have been cut, so each person must do more. With less time. But humans can only focus on a few things at once. When we multitask, our work gets worse and we get stressed. And the more we have to do, the more desperate we feel, and the less we end up doing Three things that employers can do: Redesign jobs to be clearer Re-work jobs to make tasks, timeframes and expectations clear, so that people understand exactly what they need to do to achieve their goals. Provide time management training There are many frameworks for time management, like Pomodoro and Getting Things Done. None will suit everyone. Focus on the positive benefits of time management and help staff pick a framework that suits them. Clearly identify priorities There are only so many hours in the day and one of the biggest stresses is knowing we can t get it all done. Tell employees what to prioritise: this reduces uncertainty and helps them focus on what matters. Three things that employees can do:? Work out what tasks are hardest or most unclear Every day for a week, write down what you found most difficult and why. Then be proactive: approach your line manager with solutions to make your job clearer and easier. Keep a productivity diary There is often limited correlation between how productive we feel and how much value we add. For a week, write down what tasks you did and how long they took, then work out how much value they added. Can you do them quicker? Do you need to do them? Make use of task chunking Switching between tasks is harder if the tasks are very different or use different types of thinking. When you chunk, you put similar tasks together and work on them without interruption, then perform a different chunk after a short break. Your brain gets less tired and uses less energy. Read on

5 5 2. Personal lives are more stressful The number of households with both parents working is increasing. Mothers and fathers report having too much to do and not enough time. Houses are more expensive. Elderly parents live longer. Families are further apart. These pressures make us stressed and we bring this stress to work. Three things that employers can do: Offer a mature flexible working policy Mature flexible working policies should stretch for individual needs, allowing autonomy and self-direction within boundaries. They must be role modelled and constantly reinforced. Three things that employees can do: Work out what type of sleeper you are Larks go to bed early and get up early. Owls go to bed later, struggle in the morning, but thrive in the afternoon and evening. Hummingbirds are a mixture of the two. Can your work schedule be altered to suit your sleep profile? $ Judge people on results, not face time Research shows employees are still judged on how much they re seen. Address this by managing by results and outcomes. This empowers people to achieve results in ways that work for them. Provide positive financial education Worrying about money affects everything. But if we are on top of it, everything feels better. Financial education covers pensions, salary sacrifice, savings, ISAs, and sensible consumerism. Bring stability and positivity to people by helping them to manage their finances effectively. Take up mindfulness There are apps that make daily mindfulness easy, such as Headspace. Mindfulness allows you to feel external to stresses, so they suck less energy. Setbacks are easier to deal with and your mood stabilises. Use tools to automate Mindfulness reduces the effect of stress, but your to-do list is still massive. Can your bills be paid automatically by direct debit? Can you use a joint calendar so you and your partner can check schedules to make arrangements from anywhere? Would Trello help you break big worries into manageable chunks? Read on

6 6 3. Technology has side effects Technology helps us work faster. But technology gives everyone access to us all the time, and we always have access to the information we need to work. We could work all the time, and just knowing this makes us stressed. Technology makes it harder to switch off, yet to work properly, we must rest our minds. Three things that employers can do: Set expectations around use How quickly must staff get back to client s? Give people autonomy within boundaries so they can develop a way to deal with that works for them. Tell staff how to manage their smartphones They may not know that turning off push notifications means new s won t pop up on their smartphones unexpectedly. Or that turning on the Do Not Disturb mode will block everything but emergency calls. Empower staff to turn off when on annual leave Set expectations across the workplace that no-one is expected to work when on holiday and clarify who is picking up their responsibilities during absences. Three things that employees can do: Work out your natural preferences Research suggests it s not how many s you get that s stressful: it s if you have to deal with them in a way that doesn t feel natural. Can you deal with s in a better way, such as checking them once a day? Would your work suffer? Ban smartphones at night and keep them out of sight Physical distance creates mental distance. Make things easy. Get an alarm clock so you don t need to use your phone. Develop new hobbies and habits so you don t reach for your phone when commuting or travelling. Never multitask Technology allows us to go faster and harder. This makes multitasking more draining because it forces our brains to switch extremely quickly. Use your phone or computer to do one task at a time. Read on

7 7 4. More energy is needed to succeed at work Organisations could, in the past, be successful for many reasons, such as having better products or a better supply chain. But technology now allows all organisations to excel in these areas. Today, success comes from how people work together. The quicker and better we collaborate, communicate and innovate the better we are than other organisations. But interpersonal contact is energy-intensive, especially if we don t understand how teams work. Three things that employers can do: Empower staff to take breaks After 90 minutes of working our energy levels drop. Positively reinforce those who take breaks: those that take breaks often feel frowned upon, like they re wasting time. Three things that employees can do: Take regular, quality breaks from work What works for you? Maybe it s fresh air, maybe it s music, maybe it s sitting having a fresh coffee. And be disciplined. It s very easy to forget to take a break or think that you don t have time. Provide unconscious bias training This can help people understand the assumptions they make about others intentions. Back this up with opportunities for group bonding. Peer mentoring is a good way for team members to break down barriers. Offer process and tools to empower collaboration There are some great tools that help teams work together, such as Slack and Trello. Energy-intensive tasks like collaboration are much easier when you combine them with processes or software people understand. Read about the fundamental attribution error This is our tendency to explain the behaviour of others by their personality and desires, rather than by the situation. Understanding this helps us empathise and connect with others. Find out how teams work There are many models that help, like Belbin and Myers-Briggs. These describe how people act, but don t take them as gospel. They are simply useful ways to think about team dynamics, which will help you become better at communicating and empathising. Read on

8 8 Start your journey Five practical steps to implement the ideas in this guide Choose a performance challenge from this document that you think you or your team is struggling with. Choose one of the ways we suggest you can take action that you think will have the biggest effect. Work out your end goal. What exactly do you want to achieve and how will you know if you have achieved it? Write down the steps leading to your end goal. What documents do you need to create? Who do you need to talk to? What do you need to communicate? Follow every step until you reach your end goal. Did you achieve it? Check against the success criteria you established in step three.? Still unsure where to start? Take one minute and think of one thing you can do to make work clearer and easier for you or your employees.

9 9 Assess your performance against three key areas in health and wellbeing As an additional module building upon the core Investors in People Standard, the Health and Wellbeing Award is a perfect complement for organisations looking to improve and excel in this specific area of people management. At the end of your assessment for the Award, we ll provide you with a clear picture of performance against each of the three areas crucial to sustainable health and wellbeing. Physical Wellbeing Social Wellbeing For more information on the content, assessment process and benefits of the Health & Wellbeing Award, explore our quick overview... Download the overview Psychological Wellbeing

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