PURPLE YOUR PEOPLE: WELLBEING

SHARED FROM THE BOOK:

Purple Your People

Jane Sunley

19. WELLBEING:

HEALTHY = PRODUCTIVITY = PROFITABLE

 

Being happy at work and healthy has a definite bottom-line benefits such as good levels of employee engagement and retention, high motivation and productivity, employee satisfaction, creativity and innovation, reduced absenteeism, and less time loss on dealing with conflict.  Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is one of the key of being a great place to work for.  A physically and mentally healthy culture is likely to include some of the followings:

·         General focus on wellbeing

·         Equality

·         Support and empathy

·         Respect

·         Trust

·         Shared values

·         Consultation

·         Fair treatment

·         Positive environment

·         Good leadership

·         Attendance culture

There are a few little things that can be done immediately which will give out strong messages that the organization care about the people and their wellbeing such as:

·         Provide a pleasant working environment

·         Making plenty of water available

·         Chill-out zone

·         Room for chatting and taking breaks

·         Encourage exercise

·         Time management sessions

·         Nutrition workshop

·         Workplace assessment

·         Buddy or employee counselor

·         Random act of kindness

Work-life balance (WLB) is about being ‘family friendly’; and about balancing the needs of the organization and the individual in order to accommodate the responsibilities and aspiration of employee.  Generation Y tends to place WLB high on their priorities.  Some important points in implementing better WLB is:

·         Work out WLB policies

·         Engage leadership team and managers

·         Build supportive environment

In simple terms, stress is an extreme form of excitement.  A little excitement is needed to feel motivated and energized; too much excitement will lead to stress.  Sometime people push themselves too hard, or allow others to pressure them.  The best thing is to teach people that they are in control of their own balance.

You cannot always chose the events around you

Or other people’s behavior

But you can always choose your own responses

 

The three (3) things to do:

1.         Care about your people and introduce something that will embrace wellbeing

2.         Work out how work-life balance can be achieved and make it happen

3.         Support people through difficult times, be firm but fair and act fast when necessary