Ensuring that all of your employees, both on-site & remotely, feel good about their job and work environments is one of the biggest challenges of 2021. As a company, it is essential to design your own well-being culture and make sure to apply it.
Find out in this blog post why it is necessary to take care of your on-site and remote teams and our tips for doing so!
Check out our page dedicated to well-being and how a software can enhance your efforts. Find additional insightful articles to expand your knowledge.
Managing hybrid teams: a recent challenge
With the rapid growth of remote working due to the health crisis and the return of on-site employees in recent months, managing hybrid teams is a challenge that many companies are facing. It’s not always easy to make sure employees feel comfortable when they are not all in the same place. Moreover, teleworking can affect employee well-being. Remote employees may feel isolated, lose motivation, and this sometimes even leads to burnout. As for employees who come back on site after a long period of home office, they need to be reassured and to gradually reconnect with the habits they had before.
Adopt a culture of well-being!
Wellness at work is at the core of your company’s culture. Your company must promote a culture of well-being to make your employees feel comfortable. Promoting well-being at work means making it a priority, a condition for the success of your company, just like the commercial objectives. Your employees will feel at ease, understood, and above all proud to participate in the success of their employer.
Our tips for ensuring the well-being of your on-site & remote employees:
⚪️ Train your managers
Once you have agreed on how you want to promote well-being in your company, the next step is to inform and train your managers. Take a few hours to explain to them the company’s wellness vision. Give them the keys to managing effectively while preserving the mental health of their teams. You can provide this training internally, but you can also go further and fund an external training course to learn the basics.
⚪️ Allow flexibility
Flexibility is a key word when managing hybrid teams. Allowing flexibility to your employees will empower them as they feel trusted, and they can adapt their personal schedule to their working time. Let’s take the example of someone who loves to dance salsa, but can only go to the 12-hour class. If you allow flexibility, the employee will be able to go and will feel much more motivated at work as they managed to exercise and do something they love. Flexibility can be about the hours, the way to organize your work, but also about working remotely or on site. As many employees come back to the office, you can give them the opportunity to choose when they come back and how much time a week. A gradual return to the office will allow them to find their bearings again.
⚪️ Implement an Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
Covid-19 has impacted the lives of many people around the world. A lot of them are facing personal issues leading to high levels of stress. They do not always feel comfortable with the idea of sharing this with their hierarchy. Therefore, you can adopt an Employee Assistance Program. It is a voluntary, work-based program that offers free and confidential assessments, short-term counseling, referrals, and follow-up services to employees who have personal and/or work-related problems. EAP programs will help improve engagement, employees’ mental health and reduce absenteeism.
⚪️ Provide your teams with a safe & comfortable work environment
With the current health environment, you need to assure the safety of the employees who are returning to the office. This can be done by ensuring that barrier procedures are followed, or by regularly disinfecting work areas. Your employees will be relieved and less stressed about getting sick.
Providing a safe environment also means providing a comfortable environment. Employees in the office have all the necessary furniture to work efficiently, it should be the same for your remote employees. You should check that each remote employee has what they need such as a powerful computer, a keyboard, a mouse, a desk chair…
⚪️ Offer wellness activities
A good way to retain your talent and ensuring their mental and physical well-being is to offer them wellness activities. You can provide your teams with discounts or free activities such as gym memberships or dance classes. This way, you can also encourage your employees to go together, have a good time and bond outside of work.
Promoting well-being in your company is beneficial for your productivity as employees feel understood and motivated, but also for your employer brand. A company that cares about the well-being of its employees and that communicates on this topic will be all the more appreciated. Today, this is a major issue that goes beyond the company and can be perceived by your customers as a comparative advantage.
