There is no doubt that the pandemic has had a profound impact on both the physical and mental health of workforces across the UK – and beyond.
Almost overnight, our commute disappeared, with kitchen worktops and dining tables replacing the offices and boardrooms. Working from home, while bringing many perks (including those precious extra minutes in bed!), had a number of drawbacks. Those with children had to juggle home-schooling, the internet seemed to fail during only the most important of meetings and we were cut off from face-to-face interactions with our colleagues almost instantly.
For some members of staff, a lack of dedicated office space caused further issues. Without the luxury of a home office, it became difficult to ‘shut the door’ on work, with some cooking, sleeping, relaxing and working within a confined space. Research showed that this had a notable impact on the length of time spent at our desks, with many increasing their working week by almost 25%.
Many employees, with easy access to their laptop, felt a renewed urgency to be ‘always on’, taking shorter lunch breaks and working through sickness. This was also coupled with a lack of stimuli outside of work. For many, a weekly netball match or dinner with friends offered the perfect balance to the strains of working life. With nationwide lockdowns putting a stop to many of these stress-busting activities, life became increasingly monotonous – not to mention work-centric.
And of course, the uncertainty, isolation and loss brought about by the pandemic added an additional layer of stress on an already overburdened workforce.
These factors, in addition to a host of others, culminated to generate a second pandemic – one in which thousands of employees suffered a decline in their mental health. Indeed, research by the charity ‘Mind’ indicated that the wellbeing of 41% of employees had gotten worse during the pandemic (based on a survey of 40,000 staff across 114 organisations).
So, as we look ahead to a New Year, thoughts turn to how we can protect, support and revitalise our teams following this ‘marathon’ pandemic – below, I’ve listed some top tips.
Taking time away from the office.
Here at Harding Evans, we are in a fortunate position in which we can largely close our offices between Christmas and New Year, which we hope provides our employees with the opportunity to fully ‘switch off’.
Some larger organisations, such as HootSuite and Bumble offered their staff an additional week of leave earlier this year to support their mental health. Of course, this won’t be viable for many businesses, but it’s worth considering what you can offer in terms of respite. Even small gestures, such as wellness hours or dedicated drop in sessions tackling mental health, send a clear signal to your team that you value their health and wellbeing.
There’s no ‘I’ in team.
In a pre-pandemic world, we ran a series of events throughout the year, including quizzes and nights out, known as ‘HE Happy Days’. Since the onset of the pandemic, we’ve sought out a number of opportunities to continue our social calendar – albeit reimagined for the world of social distancing, mask wearing and local lockdowns.
While we weren’t able to gather together in person, we still tried to boost morale with mini HE Happy Days – often using food! Welsh cakes were delivered to people’s desks on St David’s Day and we provided teams with luxury chocolates following a record-breaking month for the firm.
For those organising these events, it was just as important to ensure that members of staff who were isolating or unable to come into the office were able to join in on the celebrations. We’re lucky to be a local firm, so a stop off or two on the commute home, or a delivery via a courier offered a quick fix for those not in the office. If you’re a larger firm looking to send gifts to an extended workforce, why not try a dedicated letterbox gifting company? This will remove the headaches associated with logistics while bringing a much needed smile to your workforce!
**
The other major concern for many, was of course, contracting the virus.
The HR team adapted quickly. We agreed that communication was key, offering out-of-hours contact details to stay in touch with those undertaking or awaiting results from PCR tests. We also planned, where appropriate, to keep in regular communication with the isolating member of staff, to ensure they felt supported not only during their time away from the office, but also on their eventual return.
My top tip moving into 2022 would be in ensuring that channels of communication remain open and accessible. It’s important for staff to know that you and your team are approachable and willing to offer assistance, not only in relation to the coronavirus but across the whole gamut of work and personal problems that can impact how well we perform in our roles.
Invest in your leaders.
Team leaders, managers and CEOs play a pivotal role when it comes to the success and wellbeing of your teams.
Studies have shown that the person you report to at work is ‘more important for your health’ than your doctor. It’s easy to see why – managers are responsible for promotions, oversee your workload and ‘serve as a model for company culture’. Strong leadership has also been shown to have a notable impact on levels of productivity, with management accounting for 70% of the variance in employee engagement.
Which is why we are launching a dedicated management training programme, involving both internal and external training sessions, designed to develop and retain leaders across all levels of the firm. At its core, the training is a renewed commitment to fostering a positive working culture here at Harding Evans, with features including mental health management and career development.
Regardless of business size or budget, investing in your workforce is more important than ever. Which is why one of my top tips would be to make training and development an absolute priority as we head into the New Year.
In Wales alone, reports have shown that 60% of businesses are experiencing a skills shortage – so if you’ve got big business plans for 2022, you’ll need to invest in your teams to ensure that they are ready for the challenge.
Make mental health a priority.
With growing concerns that we are diving headfirst into a prolonged period of widespread employee burnout in 2022, it is more important than ever to take time to discuss mental health with your teams.
Research suggests that even simple initiatives, such as being mindful of work/life balance and regular communications with management ‘go a long way’ towards improving the wellbeing of employees. For example, with many of our workforce returning to the office on an increasingly frequent basis, we are planning to hold regular sessions (with cake!) dedicated to wellbeing. These sessions will run in a ‘drop-in’ format for all employees – and of course, our door will always remain open outside of these hours.
I’d advise talking to colleagues across a range of departments and with differing levels of seniority to find out how best you can support them – needs will differ dependent on workload, expectations and external commitments.
And to those that scoff at the thought of devoting time, funds and energy to mental health (although thankfully, these individuals seem to be in decline in organisations everywhere), the proof is in the productivity. Research by Deloitte found that for every £1 spent by employers on mental health interventions, they got £5 back in reduced absence, ‘presenteeism’ and staff turnover.
Quite simply, making time for mental health makes good business sense.
