ChicExecs Co-Founder and Co-President, Kailynn Bowling, shares how leaders can incorporate employee wellness into their management styles on Forbes blog. Here is an excerpt from the piece.
Here’s how you can make employee wellness a part of everything you do as a leader.
What’s it like to work in your office? The traditional office setup is loud, distracting and uncomfortable, so consider changing the physical space to encourage wellness.
Your employees should feel free to be themselves at work. Everyone still needs to behave in a professional way, of course, but they shouldn’t feel like they have to invent a new personality for work. That might mean you may need to invest in public allyship so LGBTQ+ employees know they can be themselves at work, for example.
A feedback culture is a culture where criticism isn’t a four-letter word. While leadership feedback is important in any business, a feedback culture encourages a two-way loop. That’s right: You can encourage employee wellness when you create a workplace where your team is comfortable sharing ideas.
Autonomy is an important element of employee wellness. But if you’re micromanaging your team, you’re disempowering them and bringing down the room. Managers need to delegate effectively, which means trusting employees to do their jobs.
Some business models don’t allow for a lot of flexibility, but as a general rule, it’s best to be as flexible with your employees as possible. That means offering remote work to employees who want it or allowing employees to work non-traditional hours. If you can get away with it, consider switching to a four-day workweek.
Recognition boosts employee morale and performance, but it’s up to managers to recognize employees effectively. Show that you care about your employees’ well-being by recognizing them for their contributions.
Your employees are human, and that means they need a break from work to recharge. You can’t claim to care about employee wellness if you ask employees to work 12-hour days, nights and weekends, so set firm work hours.
Few people are born natural leaders. Like anything, leadership is a skill you have to cultivate. If you really do take employee wellness seriously, that means it’s time to train all of your managers on employee wellness. With ongoing coaching, your managers can learn how to create a healthy culture that puts employees first.
Read Kailynn’s entire blog here.
