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One of the key business principles every company needs to display is listening to its employees but this is one behavior that is indicative of something far deeper. Your employees’ health, especially in the modern climates, is about making sure that you have certain practical components in place, while also making sure that you are displaying the right behaviors throughout the culture of the company. What are the best ways that you can support your employees’ health in this environment?

Focus on a Consistent Approach (Internally and Externally)

In other words, be the same to everyone, whether it is clients, customers, or employees. Sometimes, we can neglect how our employees are feeling because we are hell-bent on getting the numbers and deadlines met. If we implement so many different practices to make sure that we retain customers, going just a little bit further to ensure our employees are feeling as cared for as our customers will make a massive difference. If you are focused on getting the best for your customers and have made a significant effort to streamline your approaches, whether this is incorporating HIPAA appointment reminders or solid aftercare, it doesn’t take much to extend it further. Consistency is important and we need to be flexible and modify certain policies and practices to reduce stress on our teams. For example, you may want to incorporate more unpaid leave if necessary. But consistency is the benchmark that everything will hang on. 

Investing in Training

More than ever, you need to prioritize workplace training for employees, managers, and leaders. A healthy culture is about knowledge and ensuring that everybody has the tools to navigate within the work environment. Even prior to the pandemic, there were companies that focused on creating a healthy culture, and this had left them in a better position to navigate what had unfolded. Employees will struggle with mental health, and it’s so important to build the necessary skills so everybody can have the right conversations in a work environment. While many businesses don’t necessarily have the finances to invest in training, there are a number of mental health employee resource groups that can help to increase awareness and offer support. 

Communicate More Than You Think

There are employees who feel managers are not good at communicating, and this can have a very negative impact on mental health issues. It is important for line managers to keep their team informed about any changes in a business and clarify anything that is left open. It’s important to remove stress through little things, and this can be done by establishing a solid baseline, for example, setting expectations about workloads and acknowledging what is (and what is not) a priority. 

Model Healthy Behaviors

Many companies say they support the health of their employees, but how do they do this? It’s so important to practice what you preach. This goes back to a consistent approach inside and out, but it has to be modeled so employees can feel that they are able to set boundaries. This can also apply to the managers because they are so determined to make their employees prioritize themselves that the managers don’t look after their mental health in the process. Sharing is caring!

Measure the Process

Surveys are important, as they can allow a business to understand how people are doing. And when we allow for direct employee input, this can make for healthy feedback, but also shape a number of new programs. When sewn into the company’s fabric, through wellbeing support, skill-building for leaders, and more flexibility, these will ensure accountability and make employees feel they are being tended to. 

We are in a state of limbo right now. Many companies may want to return to how things were, but the reality is that we will not. And as we look back, we may find that there were empty promises relating to mental health and wellbeing. Many companies found that they were taking part in a box-ticking exercise. This is the opportunity to create a workplace culture that actually nurtures and supports employees so they don’t just benefit the business, but actually feel they are supported in a professional setting. Everybody has their part to play, but it is the business and the company that will be at fault if things don’t turn out the way they should. Wellbeing can easily be overlooked as a contemporary buzzword, however, it is pivotal to every part of a progressing business that they take a long look at themselves.