How to encourage your RTW employees to be well beings.
Employees who have returned to offices are reporting that they are struggling to cope. They are feeling fatigued from activities that used to be an everyday thing, and are mentally burned out by mid-morning. While workplace fatigue is not new, the levels of reported overwhelm and exhaustion we are seeing after 2020 certainly are.
"For many people workplace fatigue is a very normal physiological response to ditching the work-from-the-couch-in-your-pyjamas routine they were used to in lockdown," says @Workspaces managing director Jenny Folley.
"Returning to the office means that you're waking up earlier, committing to the commute, and engaging in more social interactions in the first 15 minutes of your day than you did in the entirety of 2020. It is natural to feel the full force of this dramatic workday shake-up."
However, productivity is suffering as much as employees seem to be and new workplace strategies are needed. In order to combat the pre-lunch-slump, companies need to actively encourage employee wellbeing. And more than just encourage, we need to create an ecosystem where wellbeing actions are easy to undertake, simple to do and can be done with none of the work-guilt feelings.
In looking to support your return-to team, there are some things employees can do for their own wellbeing and some things you can put in place. Encouraging employees to up their activity levels (walking meetings anyone?), up their hydration and forgo big meals for smaller, healthified energy snacks can help on a personal level.
Changing up the office environment – things like adjusting lighting, ambient noise and temperature – can also have an impact on how alert we feel.
"Swapping between a standing desk and seated desk, changing out your office chair for an exercise ball, or moving desks entirely to opt for a window seat as opposed to a cubicle, are great strategies you can implement to kick-start your energy levels." Folley says.
How to facilitate a positive return to work
Acknowledge the changing dynamic.
Simply acknowledging the change and the impacts of returning to a fixed workplace or hybrid model, will be a relief for most employees. Letting them know it’s a transition, a dynamic situation that may feel different each day, will help them adjust.
Give them the space to settle in without placing big expectations on them. For some, they will relish the opportunity to be back in the office, others may have some hesitations. Creating a space where everyone feels safe to adjust as needed will help everyone settle in to the new-again work locations.
Expect productivity bumps.
Be clear with your team that you are expecting a momentary drop in productivity. There will be one as working from the company HO means commuting, unpacking at your desk, work chat, valid interruptions, extra meetings, social time, going out for lunch (remember that, when we actually took lunch breaks to get lunch, not just grabbing left-overs from the fridge?). While these are not negative parts of working from a community location, they do impact what we can deliver at times.
Employees – especially high performers – will feel the weight of not delivering at their usual level while they adjust. They put pressure on themselves - even if you don’t - to be firing on all cylinders. They need to know there is an adjustment period and while it may feel bumpy, they are valued and supported in getting back to delivering at their best.
Create a healthy environment to return to.
Making small changes to the work environment can have a big impact. Creating an inviting and healthy environment is not only good for employee wellbeing but will help them settle back in to the grind.
Along with the additional of one of the most used word last year – sanitiser – add some greenery to desks. Plants not only help create some serious feng shui (Greatist HQ has one on every desk), they have been proven to positively impact our ability to think. Have healthy snacks on hand for employees when they need a break. It could be as simple as fruit or you might get fancy with some high-energy, raw cacao balls – whatever it is, having easy to access brainfood will help employee nourish themselves and help with the mid-afternoon brain fog.
Open windows if you can, keep lighting as natural as possible, create quiet spaces for employees to work if the office is open. All these factors will help your team to not only feel comfortable, but will encourage them to deliver their best work.
Allow employees flex-time.
Lots of companies do this already so if you don’t, now is the time to start.
Returning to work can mean unfamiliar morning chaos – something your team may not have had to tackle for a long time. Some people will be dealing with getting their families out the door, multiple school drop-offs, long commutes, heavy traffic. By the time they arrive at work, it can feel like they have tackled the world already. And it makes working from the home office all that more appealing!
Give your team options around work timings if you can. In some industries and roles, this is not possible but in many, it can be done without negatively impacting service or deliverables. Allow employees to choose to start later and finish later so they miss the morning rush. Allow them to finish earlier and log on at night if that works for them.
The boundaries of work have been permanently flexed, so for people to deliver at their best, give them the option on when they deliver. Just because being online at 8pm does not work for one person, does not mean another won’t be hitting home runs at that time.
Amp up the social time.
Sounds odd, when we are talking about work and productivity, but hear us out. The pandemic has meant a considered lack of socialisation for many, even with restrictions lifted we aren’t all as comfortable being social as we used to be. Add to that the Zoom-inspired ‘let’s get straight into it’ approach, and we have lost that power of team chat. Yes we have Teams chat, but is it the same?
Facilitate casual conversations at meetings, allow people a few mins at the beginning to just connect on a really human level, and you will re-build trust and connection in your team.
Meetings may have both physical and virtual attendees, so think about how this works. Share that talking stick around the room, start with open questions, get people talking about a personal win, something they are looking forward to, how they are going. Encourage them to interact again. It’s been a while for some but that sense of being part of the team, connection to others and emotional safety will keep help keep your people in a good head space.
Manage meetings.
Speaking of meetings, managing your meetings and setting expectations around how meetings are run is another important part of employee wellbeing. Many of us spend large parts of the day in meetings and if this is on screen or off, the impact on our energy levels is significant.
Microsoft was so interested in the impact of meetings on productivity they hooked some of their employees up to monitor their brainwaves. One day one of the experiment the employees, complete with their EEG cap, sat through four back-to-back 30 minute meetings. On day two, the same employees with the same brain monitoring devices, sat through four 30 minute meetings with a 10 minute break in between.
The research was quite enlightening:
The brain-breaks allowed employees brains to ‘reset’ and minimised the accumulation of stress
Focus and engagement decreased when sitting through the back-to-back meetings, suggesting their was not only a positive impact on productivity with the breaks, but on employee wellbeing
The meetings caused stress, as many do. Interestingly, the study found the transition was also stressful and attributed this to the monitored employees knowing that while one task was finished, there was another that needed their immediate attention.
How can we use this insight? Ask employees to actively manage meetings to ensure they have breaks and buffers. There is nothing more draining than sitting through topic after topic without coming up for air. You might take a company wide approach where all meetings finish 10 mins before the scheduled end or you might just share the insight with employees so they can manage their own calendars. Whatever the approach, avoid meeting fatigue to keep your employees mentally on point.
Leverage the neon DND sign.
Empower people to set up times in their day when the Do Not Disturb sign is flashing in neon and they can just get things done. Being back together, it’s tempting to just walk over and ask that quick question, ask for five mins of someone’s time, drop by for a quick chat. But we still need to get things done.
Encourage employees to let others know when they are free for work talk and when they are focussed on delivering. It might even work for you to set this up for the whole company. If employees come in knowing that they have 9am – 12pm to deliver the top things on the to do list, and then they can do meetings and collaborative things, they will feel more in control of their day.
Encourage employees to move.
Yep, seems simple but getting up every hour for a quick walk around will help employees feel fresh and focused. Resetting our brains by moving around helps us to re-focus on the task at hand or move efficiently between tasks. Our ability to concentrate benefits from a quick break from the at time multiple screens we work on. The body reset, gentle movement and allowing our muscles to relax also helps to minimise fatigue. And if a quick walk around includes a vitamin D hit, even better.
Remember, most people have been moving around through work hours more than usual while working from home, so they are now used to being a bit more active. It’s a good thing. Encourage them to keep this up, or pick this up, and you will see the wellbeing benefits.
Give employees time off adjusting.
Getting back to the workplace is a big change for some people. Give them time off adjusting, perks for being back that let them know you recognise the challenge of getting back to the office.
Create work perks that give employees time to relax in the sun (double win with a hit of vitamin D), enjoy a longer lunch break, time to just ‘be’ in a mindful space or be at the school gate to surprise the kids (it’s a hard transition for little people too).
Perks might also include ways your people can improve their physical wellbeing. Give them time off for a yoga class or give them a class pass. Reward them with time to hit the gym or go for an outdoor run. They don’t have to be big chunks of time – you still need to deliver on the business priorities – but little perks that benefit the employee will benefit the company too.
There are lots of ways you can support your employees to be well beings as they come back to the office. Find the ones that work for you and know that while it may be challenging for some, with support from the company, your employees will thrive and continue to deliver at their best.
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