Time: Nov 25, 2022 11:00 AM Dublin
While mental health problems are common, talking about them appears to be less common. Let’s change that. Join Dr. Ian Gargan as he is interviewed about mental health stigma, labelling and how we can change attitudes towards mental health with a focus on men’s mental health this November. This is a 20-minute webinar with an additional 10 minutes for Q&A at the end.
The Health Belief Model
The Health Belief Model is a great example of how content can be so powerful in driving healthy behaviour change. Whether it is increasing physical activity, saving money, healthy eating, or practicing mindfulness, educational content helps to facilitate the transferral of knowledge from healthcare professionals and experts to the consumer.
According to the model, health-related knowledge feeds into self-efficacy: which refers to expectations about one’s ability to do the behaviour. If they feel it is worthwhile for their health and that they are capable of executing it, they are more likely to perform the behaviour. Over time, this results in the improved health outcomes that the individual learned about in the first place.
So, for example, if a person is provided with content on the health benefits of engaging in 30 minutes of brisk walking everyday such that it reduces stress levels, lowers blood sugar, and improves heart health, they now have this health-related knowledge. They might consider whether this is feasible and decide that they are capable of walking 30 minutes to work every day instead of driving. Making this a habit over time then leads to the aforementioned improved health outcomes. But if we take a step back – one vital determinant for people to understand the content is adequate health literacy.
Health Literacy
According to Sorensen et al. (2012), health literacy:
“entails people’s knowledge, motivation, and competence to access, understand, appraise, and apply health information in order to make judgements and decisions in everyday life concerning healthcare, disease prevention, and health promotion to maintain or improve quality of life during the life course.”
So, health outcomes really do improve as health literacy advances – but it’s not always easy. There are constant challenges from limited technology and reading skills to misleading and biased information online. Both the employer and the content providers can play a crucial role in addressing these hurdles. A growing body of research indicates that limited health literacy can actually lead to adverse health outcomes. For example, research indicates that between one-third to one-half of all adults struggle with health literacy – and 87% of people need help with health-related information.
The same goes for financial literacy. A meta-analysis of 126 impact evaluation studies found that financial education significantly impacts financial behaviour.
Advances in technology mean that individuals can accesshealth-related information and content wherever, whenever they want. With modern health solutions and apps, employers can support their employees regardless of their geographic location. This removes physical barriers that traditionally impeded access to healthcare support and resources and allows for a more equal workplace that supports employees across the globe.
There is an increasing number of individuals downloading and using health-related apps to inform themselves on health and wellbeing related advice and content. According to Sensor Tower Store Intelligence Data, there were 290 million downloads of Health and Fitness apps in Europe in 2021. Further, in recent research by Benefex, we assessed over 1,600 employees regarding their use of digital health and wellbeing apps. We found that while employees use a variety of apps to support their health and wellbeing, the most commonly reported shortcoming of these apps was cost. In today’s economic crisis, spending 15 pound or euro a month on a wellbeing app is putting extra financial pressure on already stressed-out individuals. Employers can support their employees with this financial burden by providing them with the health and wellness apps they want to access, but may not necessarily be able to afford.
While it is vital that health-related content is evidence-based, it should be delivered in layman terms. The content provider should deliver health-related advice so that it is easy to digest and understand. Simple language works best here. In fact, The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends using a universal precautions approach; assume all consumers are at risk of not understanding education and instruction.
This recommendation is applicable across a range of domains. Just as there is no point in an employee reading the benefits of high intensity interval training for lowering systolic blood pressure without an understanding of what these terms mean in layman terms, there is also no point in someone being told to put away 5% of their annual income for their pension if they don’t understand why this is important.
The consumer of the content mustbe able to comprehend the advice before they can 1) decide whether they agree with it and feel they have the self-efficacy to follow it, and 2) apply it to their everyday life.
The employer is becoming increasingly important in delivering trustworthy information to their employees. From the employer’s perspective, it’s vital that they ensure they are using a wellbeing provider who only delivers evidence-based, regularly reviewed advice in content on health and finance. Rather than opinion pieces that are provided by social media influencers and celebrities, they must ensure it is research-oriented and trustworthy content.
On the POWR wellbeing tool, we have a wide range of content curators who are experts in their field, including physiotherapists, psychotherapists, personal trainers, nutritionists, financial wellbeing experts, and environmentalists.
While educational content is vital in providing the knowledge necessary to facilitate positive behaviour change, pairing this content with a diverse range of digital interventions is key in creating long-term healthy habits. On POWR, we have found that a combination of educational content and digital interventions has led to optimal wellbeing outcomes. Our most popular content items in the past 6 months have ranged from articles, soundscapes, webinars, podcasts, and healthy recipes.
Diverse content can help to solve diverse problems. As much as populations are diverse, people are also diverse, so they need appropriate, trustworthy content that they can apply to their everyday lives.
Psychologist and Digital Wellbeing Manager at Wrkit
The long-lasting effects of the global downturn in 2008, the Covid-19 pandemic and now the cost-of-living crisis are making people – particularly the under 40s, who have suffered particularly badly economically over the past few years – demand a new narrative from employers about their purpose and why they’re worth working for.
At the European Pharmaceutical Market Research Association (EphMRA) annual conference this week, I emphasised the important of the employee experience in meeting employees’ evolving requirements and helping organisations to attract, retain and nurture them.
A great experience, which has employee wellbeing at its heart, is critical for today’s employees. And employers are responding to this by redesigning their employee experience to focus more on fairness and equality; they see employee wellbeing as crucial to sustaining operations. Fair pay and treatment, wellbeing, sustainability, social impact, diversity and ownership are all playing out in this new employee experience.
Employees now want and expect to work for an employer who takes care of them and their wellbeing. It’s now the number one priority for jobseekers. It’s also one of the five strategic priorities that HR leaders identify as critical for today’s hybrid workplace (along with employee experience, agile work practices, digitisation of HR, and diversity, equality and inclusion).
But it’s not all one-way traffic. Research by McKinsey & Company shows that employees who get the purpose they want from their work enjoy better outcomes in and out of the workplace than their less satisfied colleagues. Generally, they report having more energy, resilience and satisfaction; at work, they report being more satisfied, committed and engaged and achieving more – all good news for the bottom line.
There are four things that you can begin doing straight away to show that your organisation provides meaningful, purposeful work within a caring and compassionate environment – and that they should bring their talents to you rather than the competition.
The first, of course, is to show them their purpose by talking about yours. Communicate your values and mission clearly, engagingly and regularly, so they can see how their purpose aligns with yours. The more closely the two align, the more satisfied and productive your people will be.
The second is to share your stories and engage your people in telling them. A great way to achieve step one is to tell engaging stories about your organisation and the good it does, whether internally for its employees or externally for the wider community. When employees see for themselves what your purpose looks like in action, it becomes easier for them to connect with you.
The third is to put collaboration for good at the heart of what you do. This sits at the core of compassionate capitalism – as DeVos made clear in his book, doing good (compassion) is the ultimate aim of capitalism, not profit – so it must sit at the heart of your organisation, too, if you want to attract and retain the best talent.
And the fourth is to prioritise employee wellbeing. This is enormously important, because employees struggling with the challenges of the last couple of years are looking to their employers for support. Put your benefits programme to work with options that are useful, tailored and user-friendly; whether it’s free financial education, access to mental health support, or opportunities to save money, find out what your people need and deliver it.
This is a huge opportunity to support your employees and give them a sense of purpose at a crucial time. Your investment in their wellbeing and in delivering an exceptional employee experience will produce a significant return for everyone.
Gethin is an award-winning psychologist who has been helping some of the world’s largest organisations to improve their employee experience and wellbeing for two decades. The last 10 years have been spent working as part of the senior leadership team here at Benefex where Gethin leads our thought leadership in the market.
As a frequent writer and speaker on employee experience and employee wellbeing, Gethin has been featured in Forbes, The Guardian, The Huffington Post and The Financial Times as well as all major HR, Reward and Pensions publications. Gethin has been listed as one of the world’s top 101 Global Employee Experience Influencers for the last two years running, is listed on the Employee Engagement Powerlist, is one of LinkedIn’s top global contributors and an Inspiring Leader 2021. Gethin is also a regular keynote speaker, Chair of the UK Government-backed Engage for Success Wellbeing Thought Action Group, a Key Stakeholder in UK Government Transport Employee Wellbeing KPI’s and a Fellow at the RSA.
In 2018, Gethin published his first book – the HR bestseller ‘A World of Good: Lessons From Around the World in Improving the Employee Experience’, which has gone on to inspire HR and Reward teams at some of the world’s best known brands. In 2022, Gethin co-authored his second book ‘Das Menschliche Büro – The Human(e) Office’ a collaboration between leading academics and workplace professionals from across Europe.
This article was first published on hellobenefex.com
On Monday 21st March, Gethin Nadin, Chief Innovation Officer for Benefex, is joined by Megan Sowney, Wrkit Managing Director for a discussion around the unfolding cost of living crisis and ways employers can help their people save more of their hard-earned net pay through behavioural change. They’ll cover:
• What we know about the cost-of-living crisis and why it’s going to get worse
• The need for employees to make smarter buying decisions
• The resurgence of discounts as part of the financial wellbeing strategy
World Heart Day, which encourages us all to take a step back and assess our cardiovascular health, falls on September 29th this year.
In terms of how we can improve our heart health – and wellbeing more generally – becoming more active is one of the most important lifestyle changes we should be looking to adopt, with studies suggesting a direct link between sitting time, obesity and impaired cardiovascular (heart) health. However, many employees frequently flag that they struggle to find time to schedule exercise around their hectic work, home and life schedules – particularly since having made the return to office-based working.
When we think of exercising, the mind tends to immediately spring to the gym or going for a run. However, arguably the most important determinant of caloric expenditure, and subsequently fat loss and cardiovascular health, is not how many times a week you work out, but rather how much you move throughout the day – known as your NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), rather than your EAT (Exercise Activity Thermogenesis).
Simply enough, NEAT refers to all of the activity we do outside of our “planned” exercise, such as gym sessions or cardio. NEAT can be any form of movement outside of formal exercise – whether gym-based or otherwise – such as the amount of steps you cover in a day such as on a lunchtime walk, fidgeting, and even actions such as typing.
What are the benefits of NEAT exercise?
Because NEAT is such a critical deciding factor behind our calories burned, those with higher NEAT levels will naturally be able to consume more calories while trying to lose fat, making NEAT a crucial tool for weight loss, dietary adherence and heart health.
Furthermore, NEAT is free, doesn’t require any special exercise kit or a monthly gym membership, and is also far more manageable than scheduled exercise due to being lower-intensity. Indeed, increasing your NEAT can be as simple as going out for a stroll during lunch, opting for the stairs rather than the lift, or even getting up from the desk to make a cup of tea.
How much NEAT exercise should employees be aiming to do?
There is no hard and fast rule around how high our NEAT should be in a given day, as it will vary greatly dependent on career and lifestyle choices. For example, employees in highly active jobs such as construction or nursing are likely to already have high NEAT levels whereas those who work in a more sedentary office job may well be lower – particularly those working from home.
It’s not unheard of for those in more active jobs to burn hundreds, or even thousands, more calories a day than their desk-bound counterparts. Therefore, employers looking to support the health of their workforce could encourage team members to always try to get out for a walk during lunch or after work. For shorter commutes, staff could consider walking if possible, or parking the car and walking part of the way.
How staff can increase their NEAT
Employers should note that employees increasing their NEAT will often require a continued conscious effort – particularly if they are time-poor, or on a low-calorie diet which has regularly been linked with a decrease in activity levels. This unconscious reduction, combined with the fact that many may be breaking inactivity habits formed over a lifetime of desk-based work, means that employees must make a deliberate effort to incorporate activity into their daily routine wherever possible.
For example, if there is a choice between taking the lift and the stairs, staff could be encouraged to take the stairs by specially-placed custom signage. While actions such as this may seem small, they will have a substantial cumulative impact over time if done consistently. Employers have a critical role to play in encouraging this consistency, and to this end could consider setting company-wide initiatives, such as a timed step challenge, to inject some friendly competition while facilitating team bonding.
Overall, just as NEAT has a critical role to play in improving heart health, so too do employers have a role in increasing NEAT amongst their workforce. For those who would like to move more, or empower others in doing so, WRKIT’s Move module on the POWR platform has over 80 hours of workouts that can be performed anytime, anywhere, as well as dozens of educational articles on the topic designed to improve staff’s knowledge, and health, significantly. To find our more about WRKIT and POWR, please visit: https://wrkit.com/products/
The discourse around workplace burnout has been increased in recent years as awareness of the damaging mental health effects of long-term, chronic, inefficiently managed stress at work has increased. Especially throughout the pandemic, when people have been working longer hours and dealing with the pressures of remote working and lockdown, incidences of people completely burning out and needing to take time off work have been prevalent. This has especially problematic among healthcare workers, with mental health related absences reported to have cost the NHS £805 million from January 2020 to June 2021.
Burnout can be avoided, but only when people are given the tools to recognise and manage the signs of stress that can amount to burnout when left alone for too long. As with other forms of stress outside of work, human psychology reacts to workplace stress in three key evolutionary displays: fight, freeze and flight.
Recognising signs of stress
Those who have a fight response to stress may experience increased irritability and anger. This can be accompanied by urges to lash out or smash something, a frequently raised voice and a tendency to be accusatory towards others. This response can also manifest physically as a tight jaw or shoulders, neck pain, high blood pressure, clenched fists and a red face.
The freeze response is expressed as an inability to concentrate, brain fog, the mind freezing or locking up and becoming very forgetful. Those experiencing a freeze response may find themselves avoiding certain situations, distancing or isolating themselves from others and becoming demotivated both at work and in life.
The flight response can cause people experiencing stress to become restless, fidgety and unable to sleep. They may also feel trapped and excessively or constantly worried. The physical manifestation of the flight response is anxiety-like symptoms, such as a tight chest, affected breathing, stomach pains and excess sweating.
Managing stress
If you notice signs of stress that are detrimental to work or your daily life, it is crucial to manage them as quickly as possible. Allowing stresses to persist on a long-term basis will lead to burnout when the brain cannot function properly anymore.
Slow the body down
Stress makes your brain and body operate at high speed and one of the first steps that need to be taken is using tools to slow it down. Guided meditation and focused breathing are effective ways to achieve this through stimulation of the diaphragm and vagus nerve.
The vagus nerve runs through the diaphragm muscle and as the muscle moves around the nerve in deep breathing exercises, a parasympathetic response, the nervous system’s relaxed state, is triggered. In addition, the heartbeat naturally slows during deep breathing as the body works to ensure that lungs are properly filled with oxygen and that excessive pressure in the arteries is avoided.
Slowing the body down will limit the physical responses to stress triggered by the evolutionary fight or flight mechanisms. Wrkit’s breathe and listen sections on the POWR platform are excellent places to start in slowing the body down and manage stress. Guided meditation sessions are also available to help refocus both body and mind.
Sleep hygiene
Focusing on your sleep hygiene plan to ensure you are sleeping well for enough time will help to regulate stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol, in the body.
Establish a consistent bedtime routine so your body and brain know to start winding down for the night, try and go to bed and wake up at the same time each day, avoid exercising, caffeine, nicotine and alcohol in the evenings and limit blue light exposure, such as from phones, for an hour before going to sleep.
Good sleep hygiene helps to keep cortisol and adrenaline fluctuations in a normal rhythm, improving mood, lowering stress and generally supporting mental wellbeing.
Exercise and movement
Exercising boosts the production of the brain’s feel-good neurotransmitters – endorphins. Any aerobic exercise will pump endorphins through the body, reducing stress. In addition, activity leads to positive physical effects, such as improving cardiovascular, digestive and immune health and can protect the body from the negative physical fight or flight responses.
In addition to exercise, daily pick me ups such as spending 10 minutes in a park or the garden can be beneficial in minimising stress. Fresh air and greenery are instant mood boosters that do not require putting time aside for a long, strenuous workout.
Personal reflections
Journalling and reflecting are effective ways to manage stress as they encourage people to scrutinise the causes and meaning of stress. It is a good technique to come to terms with and gain a deeper understanding of stress by putting it into writing and then working to improve the root causes of negative feelings.
Reflecting can give people the tools to mindfully treat triggers of stress, rather than simply managing the symptoms of the stress. This will reduce overall stress as problems are solved and removed.
To find out more about how businesses can help employees avoid burnout by effectively identifying and managing stress, request a POWR demo at https://wrkit.com/contact/request-a-demo.
The number of adults in England who feel lonely has been on the rise since 2017, but the last year has unsurprisingly accelerated the increase. Between 2019 and 2020, loneliness in England jumped by 44% from 2.6 million people to 3.7 million as the population was forced to stay at home and socialising in professional and personal capacities became digital.
The increase in loneliness coincides with a general decline in wellbeing, which has been in motion since before the pandemic and exacerbated by lockdowns and restrictions. These red flags around general wellbeing in the population have led to calls to measure national progress in wellbeing via the gross domestic wellbeing (GDWe) index, rather than traditional metrics such as GDP.
For many people, working from home has brought about lifestyle changes that promote a better work-life balance meaning flexible, hybrid working looks like it now has a permanent place in society, but with this, there is the potential for employees to become isolated.
Following the lifting of restrictions and the return to the workplace, employers should consider the role that their office or central space has in combatting loneliness among employees and supporting their overall wellbeing.
As we move forwards, the workplace needs to become something more than simply a place to work as many people have discovered that they can effectively work from outside it. The workplace now needs to be a place for colleagues to be together, to collaborate and to socialise. Viewing it in this way and encouraging employees to think of the workplace as more than that will help to promote social interaction and minimise loneliness.
Rather than asking employees to come into work on specific days, employers could encourage them to come in for specific events. This could be work-related, for example, a team brainstorm, learning session or company catch up, or entirely social, perhaps a special lunch or post-work drinks.
By doing this, the workplace offers something extra that they don’t get at home. Offices will then move away from being a place for stress and towards being a place to interact with others, encouraging workers to spend less time alone.
Using the workplace as a social work hub will improve overall company culture, as employees have the opportunity to bond outside the boundaries of work. As well as keeping loneliness among colleagues to a minimum, promoting a social, friendly culture will improve engagement and job satisfaction.
Loneliness is a difficult feeling for people to process and can have an incredibly negative effect on overall mental health and wellbeing. Although restrictions have lifted and many people are socialising regularly again, the new hybrid working world may make it easy for people to isolate themselves from their colleagues, heightening feelings of loneliness. Putting measures in place to keep workforces cohesive and social is a great step to take in supporting employee wellbeing and combatting loneliness.
After more than a year of lockdown restrictions, it is no surprise that many people are raring to get back to normal life again, but that is not the case for everyone. As people start to use workplaces more often, perhaps as before or perhaps now adopting a hybrid model, employers need to keep in mind that their employees will be going through another huge life adjustment, and this may be taxing on mental health.
By acknowledging the extra pressures, including health-related anxiety, that will be on employees as they transition back to life in the workplace, employers must be supportive and stay one step ahead to prevent more serious mental health issues from arising down the line.
When it comes to mental health and wellbeing, prevention is always favourable over cure. As problems progress, they get more complicated to resolve, more challenging for the person experiencing them and can lead to an impact on the business if a person needs to take time off as a result.
With this in mind, here are some steps employers can take to ensure they are taking care of their employees’ mental wellbeing in the return to the office.
Provide suitable self-care resources
A simple way to ensure staff are taking care of their own mental wellbeing is providing or signposting to resources such as self-help activities, meditation, or resilience training. These give employees mechanisms to help themselves at the first hint of mental turmoil and resources such as resilience training may prevent those feelings from arising at all in the first place.
Wrkit’s Wellbeing product, POWR, is designed to empower workers to proactively manage their mental and physical health. It provides plans across life, mind, work, food, activity and sleep to offer holistic, preventative support for employees.
When used in conjunction with the Surveys product, which bypasses conscious bias to measure how people actually feel, the POWR platform becomes an incredibly useful tool as the surveys can pick up on issues that the person is not yet fully aware of.
These surveys can flag when it looks like someone might need professional support to get their wellbeing back on track, and access to these professionals is the next thing employers need to consider in the return to the workplace.
Mental health first aiders and professional care
Not all issues will be able to be resolved through self-help, so all businesses should have measures in place for when problems progress.
This could be in the form of colleagues who volunteer to train as mental health first aiders or giving employees access to professional counselling and therapy. If a problem has developed to the point of needing support from a professional, it is still important to get help as soon as possible.
Access to professional support should be proactively communicated so that employees do not have to ask a member of the HR team or a line manager as this could put people off seeking help. Being open about how employees can access help should they need it will begin to establish a company culture in which people are not ashamed or worried to admit that they are struggling, which is really important in overall employee wellbeing.
Creating an open and honest culture
By creating a culture in which mental health issues of all scales are normalised, employees will feel more comfortable turning to their colleagues for support. They will also feel like their company cares about them and wants them to get better, rather than feeling like it is something that they must hide for fear of judgment.
An atmosphere that accepts that a huge number of people face struggles with their mental wellbeing will empower people to get the help they need earlier on, once again supporting the idea that prevention is the best cure.
Take work-life balance inspiration from the pandemic
The pandemic has proved that, on the whole, people can be trusted to be productive when not in an office and when not necessarily working standard nine to five hours. Better work-life balance will improve overall employee wellness and engagement, boosting productivity and job satisfaction.
Employers should take inspiration from this and, when possible, allow employees to take control over their work-life balance by working flexible hours or from home if they want to.
These kinds of policies and measures tell employees that their employers are invested in their wellbeing and are there to support them when needed. Making people feel valued in their jobs and having outstanding support for when mental wellbeing does take a dip are both critical factors in improving employee wellness and should be central as people readjust to life back in the workplace.
While a significant number of businesses are now beginning their phased return back to the office (or equivalent workspace), many more will have made the temporarily-enforced shift to remote working a permanent arrangement.
While this comes with a laundry list of benefits for the workforce such as improved sleep – please do check out our Global Working From Home Survey for the full story on this step-change – there may also be a resurgence in a very unhealthy working trend: presenteeism.
For those unfamiliar with presenteeism, you will likely be aware that, when ill, not every employee opts to take the time off they should. Whether out of an extreme work ethic, management pressures or worries over their advancement prospects if they take time off, they continue to show up for work despite feeling unwell, and are likely far less productive as a result. This, in a nutshell, is presenteeism.
Unfortunately, the issue of presenteeism appears to have been exacerbated by employees working remotely, meaning it is crucial for managers and team leaders to be vigilant. Recent research from the CIPD revealed that 77% of employers have observed presenteeism from employees working from home over the past year – with 43% of these admitting that they were taking no action to prevent it.
When employees are working from home, it is all-too-easy to hide illness or signs that something isn’t right mentally, and employers that do not recognise this and take appropriate action will, at best, run the risk of losing their top talent to a competitor and, at worst, see their staff put at serious risk of burnout and other mental health issues.
So, what can employers do?
In order to minimise the risk of presenteeism, businesses must build an open, inclusive working culture wherein staff feel safe and supported. In this environment, if a member of staff feels unwell, or if they have an issue that may affect their work, they will feel comfortable taking the issue to their managers so that a solution can be found.
Particularly when working from home, staff still need to stay in regular contact with their managers, and to be encouraged to take the time off they need when they feel ill. Managers and more senior members of staff also need to lead by example and take the time off they need, when they need it.
Particularly for businesses that have made working from home their “new normal”, companies must take a preventative, rather than reactive approach to employee wellness, ensuring it is always front of mind throughout every facet of the business. By doing this, employers will enjoy a happier, more engaged workforce, while reducing the risk of presenteeism.
It’s a cliché, but that makes it no less true – people are the lifeblood of any business. Encourage their development, offer them the benefits that matter most to them and support them in sickness and in health, and your business will reap the rewards. To find out more about how Wrkit can support your company with its talent engagement and wellbeing strategy, visit www.wrkit.com.
The gradual reopening of hospitality over the past few weeks has been a significant signal of better times – meeting friends, enjoying food and drink that you cannot have at home and generally soaking in the feeling of the return of normality.
However, behind the scenes, a staffing crisis within the sector is a real challenge.
Hospitality does have a reputation of staff working long, antisocial hours and dealing with difficult customers as well as it being a somewhat physically demanding and often low-paying job. A year of uncertainty, furlough, increased risk of infection and last-minute closures has only exacerbated these issues as jobseekers may be avoiding the sector in search of more stable and safer employment. Furthermore, Brexit has caused many European nationals previously working in the industry to return to their home countries.
As the country reopens to both citizens and international visitors, an adequately staffed hospitality sector is essential not just for the industry, but for the wider supply chain. To attract and retain staff, it is now vital that employers are making a conscious effort to support employee wellbeing and offer additional staff benefits to attract and retain workers.
Some businesses have increased wages and offer other financial incentives and while this is a good move for an industry that is known for low wages, support for hospitality employees should go beyond this. By being creative with their employee benefits offering, employers will improve staff satisfaction, morale and retention which may be crucial to the survival of their business.
Resilience
It is no secret that hospitality staff frequently come under fire from disgruntled customers and that these exchanges can be unkind and may leave team members upset, low and feeling less resilient. Similarly, amid busy service tensions between staff can run high and lead to stressed encounters between colleagues.
Offering stress and resilience training will give staff the tools they need to handle difficult situations, reduce the effects they have on them and allow them to protect their mental wellbeing while developing their confidence.
Employees can take an active part in developing their own resilient mindsets by discussing issues with supervisors and by reframing challenging situations to look like a learning opportunity and to discuss ways to grow and develop as an individual and as a team.
Employers can also support staff resilience by recognising that they have handled a difficult situation well and reassuring them that it is not necessarily a reflection of them or their capabilities. In combination with mental health resources, stress and resilience training will go a long way in protecting employees’ wellbeing.
Talks and workshops offered by Wrkit will give teams the tools they need to grow, develop resilience and manage the challenges that they face throughout the day through practical workshops and coaching sessions.
In addition, the self-help tools on the POWR platform will help employees build resilience and improve wellbeing. The platform allows employees to take control over their health and wellness through Self Awareness, Goal-Setting and ongoing Self-Monitoring.
Recognition
Recognition is not just a tool to build resilience, but it also makes employees feel valued in their role which improves overall job satisfaction.
Wrkit’s recognition module is a fantastic tool for promoting this and creating a culture of mutual support and celebration between the team to help everyone to feel appreciated and respected. This should span from management down and between both back and front of house staff.
Switching off
Spending hours on your feet, working busy shifts and keeping on top of what customers need and want throughout the day sounds exhausting, but in reality, it stimulates your brain and makes it hard to transition out of “work mode”.
Employers should encourage staff to unwind at the end of their shift, whether that is sitting down and having a drink before going home, providing a quiet space to sit at the end of the day and process the shift before leaving, or giving access to mindfulness or meditation tools.
These switching off practices are especially important for employees working late night shifts as failure to do so could leave them awake until the early hours of the morning and not getting enough rest.
Sleeping and resting
The hospitality industry is known for long, late hours and often a lack of breaks. While it is understandable, especially in the face of a staffing crisis, that staff cannot always take a break during a busy service, managers must ensure they are doing everything in their power to give their staff a reasonable amount of downtime.
Getting a good amount of sleep is critical to performing well at work and maintaining mental wellbeing. Late-night hospitality venues in particular must consider this. Avoid putting staff on shifts that require an early start after a late finish and explore options to help staff rest quicker after a shift, such as mindfulness or meditation resources.
Megan Sowney, Wrkit’s UK Managing Director, said: “Hospitality staff face challenging situations every day, but these challenges have been amplified in recent weeks. The public have missed eating and drinking out, so have descended on establishments in huge numbers. This combined with staffing issues means that hospitality workers are working incredibly hard, and this is likely to take its toll on mental health.
“Employers must ensure they are taking care of their staff, or they could end up losing them to other businesses or industries, which could have dire implications. The hospitality industry needs staff to operate, and it needs staff who are not burnt out to run well.
“Businesses that look after the wellbeing of current staff, re-evaluate the current industry standards and offer an attractive employee benefits package will enjoy higher levels of retention and an improved employer reputation, aiding recruitment.”