I don’t know about you, but I find the news at the moment quite upsetting to read, and I find myself avoiding it. I then feel ignorant and like I should be taking more of an interest, but ignorance really is bliss sometimes, isn’t it? Not only is the political state of the country rather embarrassing, but there is also so much concern about the cost of living, fuel costs, energy bills, mortgage rates etc. There are hundreds of posts about this at the moment, so I wanted to keep my two pennies worth brief and focus on what matters to me. And that is what we can do to help the people in our individual circle. Kindness, being an ear, all the usual ‘being a decent human being’ sort of thing, but let’s get a bit more professional…. employers cannot simply keep increasing salaries or bonuses to help their staff pay for the cost of living. This crisis affects all stages of business, and those funds aren’t always readily available. So, I wanted to share some other ideas with you about what you can do to help keep your chin up at work, and the chins up of those who work with you. Some of my thoughts are:
- Give staff more flexibility – can they work different hours to avoid traveling in rush hour? Can they work from home for part of the week if they don’t already to minimise travel costs?
- Wellbeing Wednesday – just an idea as it sounds rather snazzy, but can you have a wellbeing activity once per week – an online yoga class, meditation, mindfulness – just some examples.
- Have walking meetings – fresh air helps so much with creativity and mindset work – can you take your meetings outside? (I appreciate it’s a little colder now…but you could get wrapped up and finish up in a local Costa!)
- Go the extra mile just speaking to your teams – say thank you, say well done, ask them how their kids are, how their weekend was, how the garden renovation is coming along. Invest just that bit more – make them feel valued and like you care. A little nurture goes a long way!
- Lift morale in the office (or online if you’re hybrid/home based) – have a monthly quiz, buy a second-hand ping pong table, order in some pizzas every other Friday. These things don’t have to cost the earth, and they don’t have to affect productivity. They can do quite the opposite if implemented in the right way.
- Give staff an extra day off? Give them a day to do charity/volunteer work?
- Shout about individual success, in the office, on social media. Have an employee of the month if you don’t already.
- Give staff a voucher, like Love2Shop, or Red-Letter Days, so they can choose something they want to do.
These are just some ideas, there is so much you can do! To simply chat this through or for support with a wellbeing/reward strategy, please do get in touch.
