When leading a team at work, it’s always been important to make sure your team members feel valued and supported. In these challenging times, it’s even more important than ever to communicate, listen and offer support to colleagues. No doubt you’ll have had to adapt your ways of working over the last year, and to some employees the changes may have been stressful, isolating and overwhelming. As an employer, you have to be aware and understanding of your employees’ physical and mental health. Here are some tips for supporting your employees working from home.
Invest in technology
Providing your team with the correct technology can make a huge impact on communication when working from home. Tools such as messaging and video calls can reduce feelings of isolation and help teams to communicate and feel connected.
Recruiting excellent candidates and retaining employees is crucial to the success of your business. When your HR team is working remotely, it can be challenging to successfully recruit new candidates. To create a seamless process, from application to induction, it might be worth looking into HR solutions to onboard new employees. A professional recruitment system can filter applications, manage CVs and publish vacancies with ease – all reducing administration for your HR team so they can focus on supporting your current employees.
Keep a routine
Suggest your employees create a structure to their day to maintain boundaries and create a work-life balance. Break up long meetings, utilize audio to text services, phone calls and periods of screen time with fresh air and exercise. Encourage employees to discuss ideas with each other on how they have made positive steps to adapt and the successes they have achieved in a work from home environment. Knowledge sharing can be incredibly beneficial to boost team morale.
Create a positive working environment
In these challenging times, not all your employees may be working in ideal conditions or dedicated office space. It’s important to offer support and advice as to how you can create an area to separate work from home life. When the lines are blurred between work and home it can be harder to focus or switch off at the end of a day. Encourage employees to take regular breaks and exercise, to keep mobile, and make sure they are well supported if sitting down for long periods of time.
Support wellbeing and mental health
Investing time and money into your employees’ wellbeing can boost engagement and productivity. With isolating working environments, it’s important to focus on mental health even more so than before. Managers should regularly check in with team members to keep track of their wellbeing and offer support where needed. Businesses could consider offering a virtual mentoring scheme or support groups to discuss challenges, or even benefits to support health and wellbeing, for example, online yoga or fitness classes.
Encourage social discussions
Employees are no longer able to have spontaneous social interaction, so it’s important to encourage them to schedule in time to catch up with one another. Chatting can be a great stress reliever and humans are social beings who need interaction to feel fulfilled. Working from home can be isolating and lonely, so employees should promote social activities such as a quiz or a social online drink to try and emulate normal office fun activities.
