Why Employers Must Prioritize The Health And Well-Being Of Employees, Especially After COVID
- Brainz Magazine
- Nov 15, 2022
- 4 min read
Written by: Atanas Piskachev, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
2023 is a year of hope and a promising future that will lighten up the world from the dread and bitter reality of the past years living in the pandemic. COVID-19 has tested humanity in ways no one could have ever predicted. The pandemic has changed the existence of humankind in unprecedented ways that have transformed how people work, study, and interact all of which have a major impact on our mental and physical health.
This unprecedented period has drastically altered people's perspectives on life, priorities, and lifestyles. It has caused a paradigm shift from the normal to the new normal era, greatly affecting different business industries with their employees. With these sudden changes, employees also experience unprecedented issues with their well-being, especially their mental health.
The subject of well-being has grown in popularity as workers worldwide explore a new work-life balance while working from home. Since COVID-19, mental health has also gained more significance. Workers’ emotional and mental well-being was already an issue of great concern to companies, given the risks and uncertainties inherent in a changing employment landscape. The stresses associated with COVID-19 – such as job insecurity, health risks, caregiving responsibilities, and adjustments to remote working – can have repercussions on performance and achievement. Well-being, more than ever, is now an integral part of the relationship between employer and employee.
Here are five ways to ensure that your employees’ mental health is prioritized during these times of post-pandemic era:
1. Listen to the voices of your employees
The company's backbone is its loyal, hard-working, and diligent employees. They are the ones who keep the company going and thriving. Therefore, it is crucial to know what they want, what they need, and what their requests are. With the continuous shift of the working setup for the past years, employees continue to support and do their best to provide the company with the best output, service, or product. Therefore, it is their right to be heard. Employees’ well-being should be a top priority of a company because it significantly impacts the company’s growth and success. A happy and healthy employee results in a thriving, successful business.
2. Provide regular coaching or mentoring sessions to know the status of your employees’ mental health and adjust your company's system accordingly.
Companies should provide coaching and mentoring sessions regularly to check on their employees' mental health. With the gradual post-pandemic shifts that are happening again, a mentor or a coach is a lifesaver for suffering and adjusting employees. This program also improves employees' well-being, which results in a positive working environment that improves productivity and collaboration. These mentoring sessions will also allow employees to voice their suggestions or thoughts about where the company can improve. This will help the company to implement policies to help improve employees' mental well-being, most especially during these testing times.
3. Have a regular mental health check-ups and hire a coach to monitor them individually
Additionally, one of the benefits of health coaching is that employees will have someone to help them manage and cope with their stress levels. The risk of burnout decreases as the workforce improves its ability to manage stress with the help of a professional. Having a professional health coach or mentor in your organization makes your employees feel important and special, which in turn encourages them to give their best in everything they do.
4. Create and promote ways to encourage a positive and healthy working environment
Whether someone is facing an issue at work or home, they may benefit from having someone to talk to. Consider putting together a well-being team of volunteers that employees can reach out to for confidential conversations and guidance. They may not feel comfortable talking to someone on their team, so make sure to involve people from various departments. Providing a training course on wellbeing will also better equip staff to support others and improve the quality of their advice.
5. Organize fun and collaborative activities to ensure that employees are connected to let them feel that they are not alone.
During this time when the world took a huge turn that brought about stressful and devastating changes in the working environment, organizing fun and collaborative activities will be able to ease their worries and lower their stress levels. In this fast-progressive era, having activities to "escape" and enjoy life from time to time is a gift that employees deserve. From a tiring and dreadful reality, employees need to experience fun activities that will refuel and reignite their motivation, passion, and love of work.
Are your employees healthy? Are your workers happy? What is your company’s production level? Is your company’s working environment encouraging and safe for employees to express their thoughts and ideas? Do your employees feel important and that their needs are prioritized or are they the other way around?
The core value of genuinely caring for your people and wanting them to lead happier and healthier lives not only makes sense to the individual and personal as such, but also for business performance and success. Healthy and happy employees are important to an organization’s success and growth. Prioritizing their mental health is a key to improving and consistently growing as an institution with a strong backbone and solid foundation.
Focusing and prioritizing your employees' health is a powerful tool in conquering the business industry and being the number one company. Worker well-being is a key factor in determining an organization's long-term effectiveness. It does not only keep employees happy and employee retention high, but it consistently improves productivity levels, which is beneficial to the company’s overall standing.
Should you need a health and wellness coach for your organization, do not hesitate to reach me at any time. Check out my profile and my social media accounts for more info. I am dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and employees integrate a healthy lifestyle into their hectic schedules in this demanding and fast pacing world.
Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info!
Atanas Piskachev, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Atanas is a holistic health coach specializing in mindset performance, helping entrepreneurs and executives incorporate a healthy lifestyle into their hectic schedules.
He has over 10 years of experience in the field, working with various people and organizations globally to explore many different cultures and human behaviors.
By virtue of his brand AtanasFit, Atanas is committed to helping people raise the bar for their health and fitness through direct coaching, writing articles, and creating YouTube videos.
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