Create a positive work culture...
Which respects and encourages a healthy work/life balance, focusing on employee productivity rather than presenteeism. Offering job share, part time working and flexi-time can also be highly beneficial for wellbeing, particularly for those with a long commute, onerous family commitments, young children or elderly relatives. It is important that any work culture has a clear vision and purpose to ensure employees are aware of their individual contribution and have a voice.
Offer holistic training and development opportunities...
That focus on individual strengths and learning styles, add value to both the workplace and the individual. Training exposes people to new and interesting learning and development, which tends to counteract negative stressful pressures.
Offering a range of training also demonstrates that employees are valued and their future is worth investing in. Particularly induction training offers excellent opportunity to establish expectations and awareness among your people about how to prevent and handle stress and to focus on wellbeing.
Enable open and honest communication...
Between all levels of the organisation, between departments, managers and their team, and between colleagues to foster a culture of trust and cooperation. Honest communication and regular feedback results in less conflict and more efficient working. Good communication encourages a positive work culture, which helps to promote transparency and wellbeing.
Create a supportive management structure...
That better enables the management of employee wellbeing and stress prevention/reduction. Where there are gaps in the management structure, properly dealing with stress and wellbeing tends to be more difficult, and places greater onus on individuals to ensure their own wellbeing needs are met. Leaders and managers should see wellbeing as a fundamental performance driver, and so should be measured and rewarded in managing it properly.
Offer an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) as this can form a relevant and necessary part of helping to support employee’s wellbeing in all aspects of their work/life. Since becoming popular in the 1980s EAP's have developed to include not only counselling, but financial and legal services, and now extend to support for family members.