Why and How to Prioritize Employee Wellness in Remote Teams

“Remote working is great!” or “Remote working is the worst!” –  which side are you on? With the pandemic, many things changed and the way we work was one of them. Work from home became common and now some companies have even shut their offices and have permanently moved to remote working. For many reasons one might think that remote working is a blessing, it saves commuting expenses, offers more time with family etc. But what if you find out that remote working is making the employees feel even more isolated, emotionally drained and stressed than ever before? Would you agree?

According to a study by the National Centre for Health Statistics (USA), more than one in three Americans reported having anxiety disorder symptoms in 2020. The TIME Magazine, USA, reported that there was a 700% jump in the number of Americans who met the criteria that psychologists use to diagnose serious mental distress. Now in 2021, after a year since the pandemic began, this number must’ve increased even more, not just in America but worldwide. 

Adults spend most of their time working, that is full-time jobs and it definitely has a huge impact on their mental, physical, and emotional wellness. On top of that a pandemic, political turmoil, family health etc, makes it even more necessary for the leadership team or employers, to give them the required support. There is definitely a dark side to remote working that employers should address with urgency.

Why focus on employee wellness?

Since everyone is working remotely, the need to foster relationships based on mutual respect and commonalities instead of just paychecks is even more crucial. 

• The well-being of your employees is positively proportional to the success of your business. If they aren’t feeling their best, then their work will reflect it as well.
• Self-isolation leads to anxiety and stress. When there is a lack of interaction or conversations between employees, the whole company’s morale is affected.
• Employees are more likely to leave the company if they feel drained or exploited due to long work from home hours, as seen in many MNCs.

As the home becomes the workplace, employees work for longer hours, with their laptops in front of them most of the time. “I will complete just one little task, it will just take 30 mins,” can quickly turn into 2 hours of overtime work. In such a scenario, the employees could be affecting their physical and mental health without even realising it. Therefore, it has rather become a pressing need for employers to ensure their employees’ wellness and engagement.

Here are some tips that you should consider for making your workplace more exciting while ensuring productivity:

1. Talk about it!

Yes, it is as simple as that. As a manager or leader, you must have many meetings on your schedule. It might not be necessary to keep separate meetings for ensuring employee wellness. Just taking out time to genuinely ask them about how they are doing and what is going on with their lives in personal meetings can actually bring a big difference to their work life.

2. Ask thoughtful questions

All the questions that you ask your employees need not always focus on tasks, deadlines etc. Instead, you could ask them questions like –

• How are you juggling your time between work and time for yourself?
• How are your energy levels?
• How can we support you?
• How are you feeling about your fellow employees and the workload?
• Is there anything going on in your life that you’d like to talk about?

In offices, employees and managers get a chance to get together and chat about their work and life apart from work. This doesn’t happen a lot in the work from home culture. Therefore, fostering a culture of constant communication and caring for each other will make your employees feel secured and attached to their jobs. They’ll become more comfortable in sharing their woes and happiness as well.

3. Regular employee wellness sessions

Employee wellness sessions can include exciting challenges, meditation sessions, exercise sessions, breakout sessions on zoom, fun workshops and emotional support services. Wellness programs will bring employees closer, creating a more positive environment. Some startups that focus on employee wellness are:

Elevate: Elevate is a wellness app that focuses on brain health. It provides employees access to activities curated to improve overall cognition, focus, pronunciation, name recall, productivity, math, speaking skills, reading, memory, writing, processing speed and other brain-strengthening workouts. 

Sworkit: Sworkit provides a variety of customized workouts ranging in duration from five to 60 minutes, depending on how much time you have available. It also provides a personal trainer for an extra US$ 5/month.

Woliba: Woliba offers a platform that integrates wellness with complimentary applications related to recognition and engagement. It supports the concept of gamification to engage employees. They are provided with videos, quizzes and other educational items to help them on their health and wellness journey.

Headspace: It is a wellness app that offers hundreds of guided meditations on everything from anxiety to focus. Meditation helps reduce anxiety and improve concentration. Due to COVID-19, many employees have been suffering from anxiety, insomnia and stress. Headspace claims that its users reduce stress by 32% after a month and experience 14% less burnout.

4. Virtual Happy Hours

Virtual happy hours on Zoom or Google meet can be a great opportunity for colleagues to see each other’s faces and connect. To make these happy hours more fun and less of a bad date, employers can organize some games, activities or lunch for the employees. This will make it less awkward and more engaging. A little bit of painting, playing, chit-chatting can be a great way to build strong company morale and company culture.

Remote working is here to stay. Companies have to realise that the things that made offices work were the social connections between people more than the shared physical space. Being creative about how we can continue to support these relationships and build even stronger ones, will go a long way in building a strong and euphoric company culture.

For more extensive analysis and Market Intelligence reports feel free to approach us or visit our website: Venture Capital Market Intelligence Reports | VCBay.

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