Do you remember when the corporate well-being conversation was about providing fitness centers, healthy snacks, and maybe even a rooftop garden? The conversation is evolving, and COVID-19 has certainly accelerated that.
While the early days of the pandemic may have created a greater emphasis on physical health, we now find ourselves focusing much more on supporting employees’ mental health. Uncertainty, anxiety, stress, and additional responsibilities are testing employees’ resilience, and employers can provide support. Well-being isn’t just good for employees, it’s good for companies.
The companies that will see the best results will be the ones who design well-being into each of the three inputs to employee experience: culture, digital space, and physical space.
It Starts with Culture
It doesn’t matter how many well-being programs you offer if your culture isn’t supportive. Well-being initiatives work best in places that have a strong foundation of respect, trust, collaboration, caring, and empathy — environments where colleagues root for each other.
It has to be safe for people to take time to take care of themselves and to ask for help — especially when it comes to mental health.
- Offer, and have leaders promote, programs for mental health and mindfulness, such as counseling, meditation groups, and stress management training.
- Set expectations with managers that they will be supportive of team members who participate in the well-being programs.
- Invite leaders to speak openly and transparently about their own struggles and how they make time to take care of themselves.
- When rolling out any type of new initiative, program, or policy, consider the implications for well-being.
When we get this right, an employee can be as comfortable saying that they’re going to meditate or going to therapy as they are saying that they’re going to the dentist.
Digital Wellness Matters Even More with Employees Working from Home
With so many employees working from home, the majority of their interactions with their company and their work are digital. The digital space has never been more important to the employee experience.
When designing your employees’ digital space, first think about how the overall digital experience affects wellness, and then think about how to integrate purpose-built well-being tools.
In other words, the impact of our interactions with the technology we use to do our jobs each day is probably just as, if not more, important to our well-being than the tools we add into the digital space, such as health trackers, reminder apps, and guided mindfulness online. If you’ve ever yelled at your PC, you know what I mean.
If employees are distracted and overwhelmed by demands coming at them from a dozen applications each day, they’re unlikely to maintain the focus and creativity they need to feel good about work and be successful. If they have integrated, intuitive technology, they will feel less stress about missing something critical—or even about remembering one more password.
That’s why our own employees use Citrix Workspace for a secure and consistent experience that removes the noise and distractions from work. And now we’re using new microapp capabilities within Workspace to seamlessly integrate well-being resources into employees’ days.
We Can’t Ignore Physical Space
When employees are on site, we are able to support their well-being through physical space in very tangible ways — standup desks, natural light, lactation rooms, creative spaces, and more.
For now, while the home is the office for many employees, can we ignore physical space? No. We can continue to equip employees to be their own real estate team and create the best possible experience within their constraints.
- Share ergonomic best practices and offer video consultations for employees who want to improve their home setup.
- Give employees a stipend or bonus that they can use to improve their physical space so that it’s more comfortable or productive.
- Encourage employees to share tips about how they’re making their space work well for them.
When you’re ready to improve your team’s well-being, take a holistic approach and examine how you can improve it through each facet of the employee experience.
