Looking After Employee Wellbeing: 5 Tips for Small Business Owners

Life can be challenging and stressful on its own, and working in a negative environment can often push people over the edge. According to The American Institute of Stress, around 80% of employees in one survey reported feelings of anxiety and depression caused by their working environment. Naturally, this points to a significant issue around workplace well-being, which people are becoming much more aware of. With this in mind, we offer up five tips for small business owners looking to improve employee wellbeing. 

Encourage Healthy Dieting

The type of food your team eats can have a significant impact on their mental health, and it can cause low motivation and productivity. Therefore, you should try to encourage your team to make healthier food choices. There are many ways you can do this, including providing healthy meals at work, discussing the benefits of healthy eating, and providing benefits for making healthy choices like prepaid cards. 

Celebrate Successes

When you and your team are making your way through an onslaught of tasks, it’s easy to get into the routine of ticking a job off and moving on to the next. However, you need to take a step back and make an effort to celebrate the successes of your team, which will show your employees that they’re valued. As well as this, your thanks will become fuel for motivation and self-esteem, which will increase productivity. 

Get Your Team Active

Exercise is known for its physical benefits, but it also works wonders on the mind. Regular exercise gets the blood pumping, increases energy levels, boosts concentration, improves sleep, and lowers anxiety and depression. You can bring this energy into your workplace by holding workout sessions – a simple YouTube video will do. Even if your team works remotely, you can gather on Zoom for a workout. 

Build a Culture of Positivity

If you want your team to breed positivity, then you have to build an environment for that to happen. A great way to do this is by promoting socialization, which is proven to improve mental health conditions. This doesn’t mean that everyone needs to be best friends, but having a solid sense of team spirit will go a long way. To inspire this, you can make room for collaboration, host team meetings, and arrange social gatherings outside of work. 

Introduce an Open-Door Policy

Even if you spend time with your employees, there’s no guarantee that you’ll pick up on anyone suffering from workplace depression or anxiety. After all, the majority of employees feel uncomfortable talking to their manager when they’re having difficulties. With this in mind, you should adopt an open-door policy, which will tell your team that talking to you is a safe place. 

Working in an unhealthy environment can lead to poor mental health and friction in the workplace. As a small business owner, you have a duty of care to your team, which involves using the strategies above to safeguard their well-being. If you can do this, you’ll find retention rates increasing and productivity growing.