How to Build a Balanced Workplace For Employee Well-Being

Just imagine that the employees log in remotely or enter the office on a Monday morning feeling rejuvenated, and raring to go as the week starts with Euphoria. Is your workplace balanced like this in real life? If not, here’s how to turn that ship around.

Reality Check: For many workplaces, work-life balance is far from real. Stress levels are through the roof, and work-life balance is lost due to tight deadlines and targets – finally, it ends with an exhausting work week.

But, what if we tell you that a workplace balance is not a dream but so close to reality? If you get the right strategies aligned, you can create a balanced, healthier and happier environment where employees love to work for your organizational goals. And the result is? – Increased productivity, reduced turnover and a positive culture. Let’s learn more about making this a possibility.

1. Work-Life Balance is a Boomerang

Prioritising work-life balance is a fundamental practice in this stressful digital world. Burnout is inevitable when employees can’t balance personal and professional responsibilities. Here’s how you can help your employees:

Virtual Offices: Remote work options with flexible working hours or compressed workweeks can help your employees manage their schedules effortlessly.
Break Culture: One of the best things you can do is to give employees a simple break to recharge during hectic work hours. You can use software to remind them about small breaks.
Leadership: When your leadership sends emails or follows up for updates in the middle of the night, it will put pressure on other employees to follow. So, set boundaries and keep the working hours balanced.

Tips: Bring in a “Wellness Bingo” activity, where you can include short walks after lunch, no screen time during lunch or a 5-minute stretching practice. Simple changes can result in huge effects.

2. Positive and Inclusive Work Environment

Big corporations understand the impacts of a toxic work environment that affects employee health. Google has a first-class work culture that provides well-being programs, a work focus lounge, and a decentralized work environment to maintain all aspects of employee wellness. To further enhance these efforts, big corporations can use AI Phone Calls to gather feedback from employees, ensuring that their voices are heard and their concerns are addressed promptly.

Bring in the culture of inclusivity, respect and support in your office by:

Fostering Transparency: Let employees express their concerns freely. Conduct continuous check-ins and anonymous surveys to gather data on employees’ well-being and morale.
Recognising Achievements: An appreciation can do wonders. Initiate employee recognition programs to honour the highly performed employees to improve the team’s morale.
Team Building: Coffee Chat with your co-workers and some office games help in socializing where you can get more connected towards collaboration efforts and reduce workplace stress.

3. Mental Health is Mandatory

Do you ever ignore a fire alarm in your office? No, right! Then why ignore the mental health of your workforce? Excusing your employees’ stress level and its effects on their mental health is a clear red flag. Here are the ways to counterpart employees’ mental health support:

Counselling Services: Establish Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) for confidential assistance. Educate employers on available resources.
Encourage Mental Health Days: Advocate for workers to take time off after pressurized work days. It can make them feel relaxed due to an overwhelmed workload.
Build a Restful Environment: Introduce the quiet rooms for meditation, or relaxation rooms in the office.

Tips: Conduct “Mental Health Check-In” days every month, where employees can attend mindfulness classes, relax under a guided meditation, and transparently interact with each other.

4. Physical Wellness Facilitates Performance

A nourished body supports a nourished brain. Did you know that MNCs such as Microsoft prioritise employee fitness by induction of gym membership, standing desks and even wellness reimbursements? Make your employees’ physical wellness the top priority to support.

Fitness Classes: Online or virtual yoga, Zumba and other gaming activities make a huge difference.
Healthy Snacks: Swap out junk food vending machine crap for healthy food options.
Promote Movement: Casual walking meetings, stand-up desks, stretches during a break, getting away from the work desk – all work for physical fitness.

5. Money Management Matters

Financial stress can ruin your employees’ work performance and even their lives. Train your employees in finance management as follows:

Financial Workshops: Conduct structured money management classes on budgeting, investments and retirement planning
Offer Competitive Salaries: Fair pay along with benefits and retirement plans goes a long way toward employee satisfaction.
Help Out with Student Loan Clearance: It is best to offer working parents relief through financial assistance programs like student loans for their kids.

Tips: Set up a club like the “Money Matters Community” where employees can share useful and personal money-saving strategies, and build their personal finance tech stack.

6. Career Growth For Engagement

Not anyone wants to be stuck in a job for a longer time. Do you know that Salesforce provides an “Employee Concierge” where career growth is personalised and achievable? Encourage the growth of your team by:

Investing in Upskilling: Make your employees participate in online courses, certificated workshops and mentorship programs.
Advancing Career Roadmap: The career growth path in the company should be visible to every employee. Build a safer and easier roadmap for employees to advance their roles.
Fostering Cross-Functional Learning: Permit your workforce to interact with other departments and explore other roles in the organization to gain the necessary skills.

7. Conduct Feedback Sessions

Take your time to collect feedback from employees. Ignoring the feedback session can lead to a disinterested and disvalued workplace. Ensure your employees’ voices have a real impact.

Blind Suggestions Box: Employees might not feel comfortable shouting their minds aloud. Hence, setting up an anonymous feedback system can help them express themselves.
One-on-One Reviews: Managers can have regular one-on-one conversations with employees to hear their concerns and suggestions.
Work on Improvements: A simple yet effective “You Asked, We Did” bulletin board can reflect your progress on employees and the company’s work environments.

Tips: Do Town Hall Meetings every quarter – where top leadership addresses challenges faced by employees and the possible suggestions and solutions.

8. Enable a Purposeful Work Culture

Employees are highly committed when they see what their hard work is for. To create a purpose-driven workplace and make your team understand their work purpose:

Link Each Role to a Bigger Calling: Emphasize that the work of every single employee helps achieve company-wide goals.
Promote Volunteering: Provide paid volunteer days or organize company-wide charity activities.
Nurture Innovation: Let your employees bring Something NEW to the table and implement their initiatives.

Tips: Introduce an “Innovation Challenge” program where internal staff can pitch their ideas on how workflows, services or products could be improved. Payout the best ideas with rewards or recognition.

Small Workplace Changes – Larger Impact on Productivity

Back to the question – what is the first thing to do to create a balanced workplace? Too often, we think of creating a balanced workplace in terms of big processes. But it involves small yet important daily actions that communicate to employees.

Flexible work arrangements, mental, physical and financial wellness education, and more career growth opportunities contribute to every step in the way of a healthier workplace. Use this blog and the tactics – to achieve employee satisfaction, and shape a better and more engaging team with higher work productivity.

Guest writer