Employee self-care is an important—but often overlooked—factor of the workplace. When people take time to care for themselves, they’re more likely to show up positively in all aspects of their lives, including the workplace. In this week’s blog, we share the benefits of self-care at work and how organizations can encourage self-care in the workplace to strengthen their culture of well-being.
Benefits of self-care at work.
With everything that’s happened the past couple of years, it’s no surprise that people feel burned out, overwhelmed, and just overall physically and mentally exhausted. In fact, right now, employee stress is at an all-time high.1 As a result, people can’t show up as their best selves in their lives, let alone at work.
The good news? Many organizations are realizing just how essential their role is in ensuring their employees feel cared for in all aspects of their lives. By putting in a little effort, they’ll see incredible benefits: happier employees, more productivity, improved retention, and so much more. Here are a few examples:
- Increased Productivity: Practicing self-care in the workplace allows employees to better manage stress, maintain focus, and achieve higher levels of efficiency, ultimately leading to increased productivity.
- Improved Well-being: Regular self-care practices contribute to improved overall well-being among employees, fostering a healthier work environment.
- Reduced Stress: Engaging in self-care activities can help employees manage and reduce stress levels, leading to a more relaxed and focused mindset throughout the workday.
By prioritizing self-care at work, individuals can experience these positive outcomes, creating a more conducive and healthier work environment for all employees.
How to promote employee self-care at work.
Here are some ideas to help your organization encourage employees to dedicate time for workplace self-care.
Make sure your company culture aligns with well-being.
If you tell employees that you want them to spend time on workplace self-care and truly care about their well-being, but your company culture doesn’t match that, your message will fall flat—or worse, you’ll lose your employees’ trust.
A culture of self-care and well-being should always tie back to your organization’s core values and beliefs. It must act as the backdrop of everything you do—from how people lead to how you treat employees and customers. Once this culture is established, people will feel more comfortable making time throughout the workday to improve their well-being—including self-care. One of our clients even conducted an employee self-care survey to determine what was most important to their workforce so they could build appropriate activities and resources to support them.
Empower employees to set boundaries.
Every employee is different, which means their working style may be different as well. Some may need to block time on their calendars to remember to get up and take a real lunch break, while others may block time to do deep focus work without distractions. Others may dedicate family time right at 6:00 and won’t check in on work again until the morning.
The point is, setting boundaries can help people take control of their schedules so they can better balance everything they need to accomplish each day. Encourage people to set boundaries that work for them. Then, make sure your culture ensures that others respect those boundaries!
Offer flexible work arrangements.
People have a lot on their plates these days. A flexible schedule can allow people to make space throughout the workday for walking the dog, picking up kids, going to doctor appointments—whatever they need to get done in their personal lives without stressing about work or fearing any negative consequences. And remember, what works for one person might not work for someone else. So, have managers check in with each person on their team to determine what kind of schedule and flexibility would work best for them.
Promote your benefits.
Your company-provided benefits should have many resources to help employees with self-care—and if they don’t, you should add them soon! The importance of taking care of your team is all too critical right now. Make sure your employees know about self-care tools that are available to them, such as:
- Mental health benefits
- Health coaching
- Mindfulness and meditation apps
- EAP benefits, like free counseling sessions
Send reminders to take lunch away from their desks.
In an office environment, working during lunch is too familiar. But we know that taking time away from your desk to enjoy your lunch and truly reset and recharge can do wonders in terms of mood, focus and productivity. So, if you suspect that your team multitasks during lunch, send reminders and gentle nudges that it’s perfectly okay to take a break during this time so they can come back restored.
Encourage walking meetings.
Again, stepping away from our desks can do wonders. So it’s not surprising that getting a few steps in during the day can also help boost mood and productivity. Have managers check in with their teams over walking meetings—either in person or on a phone call—to help get some fresh air and movement during the day. Coworkers can also take walking meetings with each other to brainstorm and problem-solve, too! A win-win for workplace self-care.
Send out self-care kits.
Self-care kits are a great way to let your employees know that you genuinely care about their well-being and want them to make time for self-care. Send out surprise self-care kits filled with items that will help them relax and recharge. For example, candles, diffusers and relaxing essential oils, stress balls, healthy snacks, teas, gift cards, chocolates, journals—get creative!
Rewards and recognition.
Your employees work hard, and they deserve to be recognized. So why not gift them with a self-care experience? For example, additional time off from work, a gift card for a spa day, a free meal, or even rewardable points they can use on something that means self-care to them can be helpful and appreciated.
Create a culture of well-being that supports employee self-care.
Self-care will always be necessary. And organizations that allow employees to make time for self-care at work will be appreciated. In turn, you’ll see a happier and more productive workforce. At the end of the day? It’s a win-win. If you need help identifying ways to create a culture of well-being that supports self-care for employees, contact us at connect@webmd.net.
Exclusive Webinar: Survey Says: Employee Self-Care for the Win
In this webinar, Textron Aviation shares how they used pulse surveys to uncover that self-care was overwhelmingly the top priority for their employees. We also showcase how they developed a versatile set of self-care activities and resources that resonated with employees—and provide takeaways for your own well-being programs.
