Employee wellbeing - what would really help?

[paralysedbyinertia]

I'm starting a new job soon, and one of my first priorities will be to address the issue of staff wellbeing, which I understand has suffered over the last year for a range of different reasons.

Obviously, once I get started, I will be consulting staff about what they think would make the biggest difference to their experience of work, but I'm keen to get a headstart on thinking about this if at all possible.

So, I'm really interested to know what workplace initiatives have made a significant difference to your wellbeing at work, and/or what you would like your employer to put in place in order to make your work life easier and more enjoyable.

I will have the power to make significant changes to working practices, but not much financial resource to play with, if that makes any difference to your answers!

Thank you in advance for your suggestions!

@Kdubs1981

Ask them

Thanks. As stated in my OP, I will obviously be consulting with the team on this, but I haven't started yet, and I thought it would be helpful to get some ideas.

@nevernotstruggling

Praise. I work in an industry with a massive blame culture and no praise

Thank you. I agree that a blame culture can be really toxic. Praise where it is due is very important.

"
Regular reviews / career progression for those that want it. Proper sideways development for those who don’t want to climb. Give people responsibility and as much control as is realistic. Treat them like adults when it comes to time off for appointments etc, but pull them up
Fast on dropped performance"

Agree with Sideways development (and other points) sick of being pushed to try and become the next leader

Also using the emotionally intelligent supervision model properly. Not as a tool to be nosy about your staff and not a section to skip past if your staff member is awkward about it. I've had loads of managers in a 15 year career and some have been amazing and some have been abusive and some have just been cold.

No meetings allowed to be scheduled between 12-2.

I like the idea of avoiding meetings at lunchtime in order to encourage people to take a proper break. I also like the suggestion from someone earlier about s regular "get shit done" day without any internal meetings.

Not RTFT but here's my two pennies worth.

Im a mental health first aider and wellbeing champion at work and it is quite frankly bullshit. Head office ticking boxes and suggesting mindfullness and exercise (good in their own right)rather than actually addressing the issues.

Short staffed, staff being taken from one dept to cover another, leaving that sector short.

Never being able to get TOIL and made to feel unreasonable for insisting.

Poorly trained, inexperienced people in the main roles - anyone with any experience jumping ship.

Ridiculous poor pay so staff stressing over finances.

All of the above resulting in a poor service and customer complaints levelled at staff, disheartening and upsetting especially when we agree that we ate falling short.

But its OK because we are meeting targets on payment scheme sales and insurances and they put a kuds football game in the staffroom

So my advice is - LISTEN to your staff and ACT on their concerns.

Little things like biscuits in the staff room and NICE teabags and coffee. Maybe some toast? We used to get those things and it was nice to feel our employers cared and looked after us. Now are employers are shareholders and we are so very obviously not a priority and only basic tea and coffee provided. I take my own. I don't want Blue mountain coffee from a bean to cup coffee machine but i also dont want cheap shit that tastes like gravy granules. It seems petty - it really isnt.

*our

Being able to WFH - I’m now front line customer facing now so wouldn’t apply to me. However, if I ever change roles I’d rather not spend many hours and £££ commuting just to sit at a desk with a laptop when I can do that at home. It gives the option to have hobbies and a more healthy lifestyle if you’re not on the go from 5am - 7pm.

Finish early on Fridays! I wrote in another thread that my DFs old workplace did this - finished at 3 every Friday; shop floor, admin, management (including my DF) and directors. It definitely used to be a thing, quite a lot of my friends DFs collected them from school on Fridays! It’s only recently (past 20-odd years) that staying till 5/5:30 has become standard.

So my advice is - LISTEN to your staff and ACT on their concerns

Noted. There have been a lot of comments along the same lines, that people don't want wanky wellbeing initiatives that sound good if their actual concerns aren't being heard and addressed. I get it. There are no quick fixes.

I also note the frequent comments about tea, coffee and biscuits. If these little things help to make people feel valued, then they're clearly worth the investment.

I cannot emphasise the importance of tea and coffee etc.

Great for routine breaks
Great for breaking a tense situation
Good for helping visitors to feel welcome
Gets rid of all lost time and energy messing around with tea clubs etc.
Relatively cheap for major impact

Don't underestimate the magic that can happen over a cuppa or at the water cooler!

Our staff surveys are now quarterly - but they are short, about 5 questions. The response percentage rate is in the 80s, way higher than average. The last one asked if the results had been discussed by your team, and if you had seen changes as a result - it's not just box-ticking. If a manager has fewer than 5 reports, they aren't given their results (because of anonymity,) but they will feed into their manager's overall results. We're a large organisation, so that can work; I guess it would be more challenging for smaller organisation.

@nocoolnamesleft

Enough staff to do the job properly. Absolutely minimise wanky mandatory training. Enough staff to do the job properly. No bullying. Enough staff to do the job properly. Not moving the goal posts every 5 minutes. Enough staff to do the job properly. Ban sending emails to the whole organisation with "apologies if this does not concern you" - the person sending it needs to work out who needs to receive it, and not waste everyone else's time. Enough staff to do the job properly. IT that actually works. Enough staff to do the job properly.

You must work for my organisation

@RockPainting

I cannot emphasise the importance of tea and coffee etc.

Great for routine breaks
Great for breaking a tense situation
Good for helping visitors to feel welcome
Gets rid of all lost time and energy messing around with tea clubs etc.
Relatively cheap for major impact

Don't underestimate the magic that can happen over a cuppa or at the water cooler!

That sparks off another rant for me.

The Staff Wellbeing Training, from 4,20pm until 8pm. Cake decorating, card making, a scavenger hunt and a couple of other activities.

I worked 17 hours that day, as it was my job to print everything, create certificates from scratch, set up the rooms, moving furniture, putting the scavenger prize points up around the site, getting the ingredients ready, sorting out power points, tables, chairs, signs, decorations and decanting sparkly shit into pots and divvying up glue and cutting card up for the cardmaking activity. I then had to clean every fucking thing up after they'd all finished, the floors, tables, chairs, wash up and put all the furniture back, as well as walk around an unlit and uneven site in the dark to pick up the scavenger hunt shit, so I didn't get out of there until gone 11.20pm, had to walk home through a really dodgy area with underpasses where there had been a nasty rape only three days before, too tired and in pain to eat, only to start my normal job again early the next morning, where I had to catch up with the previous day's tasks that I'd had to abandon in order to do the happy, happy, jolly shit for everybody else.

I got told off for not looking happy and being positive about the effort the senior manager had put into the Staff Wellbeing Day.

So no letting managers have big ideas where you know that some poor fucker on near enough NMW is going to have to do all the work whilst they get the Well Done in the Staff Meeting for 'all their hard work' and they get the fucking gift for it.

Always think about what something that sounds good means for those at the bottom of the pecking order, as chances are the managers picking up the praise for it don't give a shiny shit.

I couldn't agree more about enough staff to do the job. I cannot begin to tell you how stressfull it is if someone goes sick or dares to have a holiday.

We are often told that resources dont allow, but its a cop out and without doubt the biggest stressor in the work place. Management dont get it because it doesnt affect them. They arent the ones compromising patient care because they don't have time or resources to do the job properly.

I think it can be hard to eradicate bullying entirely. Has anyone ever worked in an organisation where this has been achieved? Sometimes, it's a matter of perception, too - what one person regards as bullying might not be regarded as such by someone else

I currently work in a place where almost no bullying goes on, not sure how but I'm close to many many people in the place and anything that looks like bullying/harrassment means measures are taken, in some cases people are moved, in a few cases sacked. I know one was managed out as sacking was not an option and they were too high up the tree to be moved.
As usual the gossip goes around and people know that they dont have to put up with it/dont become an arsehole or your job is on the line.
We are also all very well paid so it's a lot to lose.
HR are the best I've ever come across. Amazing place to work, and all the managers I know will and do go to bat for their staff. I've heard one say if x member of staff goes, I go. Truly eye opening , I've never had this sort of workplace, previously it's been to parrot the correct lines but not actually fix the problem.

As to anything else, flexi working hours and place, no presenteeism,its 2021 and the last year proved not everyone has to be in an office.
No stupid team events, instead of giving out chocolate gifts when you get a result, just pay more (looking at first direct bank here)
Possibilities of moving up or along or even just staying where you are, we dont all want to be the CEO. Further education opportunities.

@Kindlingwood

Don’t just send an email out each week with YouTube and web links, as well as helpful tidbits like ‘get outside’, ‘do some exercise’.

That is nothing more than a tick box exercise and does NOTHING to help staff wellbeing. And all the staff see it for what it is.

Yes! And if you are circulating wellbeing-related advice on having children at home while also trying to work, please have people who have first hand experience of this involved in its preparation.

I've worked in 3 places that had a cake/ 'bake-off' culture that got completely out of hand. Very difficult to refuse and I'd rather be appreciated for work, at work, not having the 'Italian Nonna award'.

Clear decision-making processes and transparency on how decisions have been made.

Interesting re bullying @Congressdingo. Thank you.

Totally get the thing about the cake culture...we are not all bakers!

And noted re transparency with regard to decision-making.

I work in HR and am a freelance consultant on flexible working and staff wellbeing.

I am constantly telling employers staff don't want yoga vouchers, fitbits or "fun" team days.

They want:

1. flexible working that is actually flexible
2. a workload that actually reflects the hours they are paid to work
3. Bosses who don't micromanage
4. more money.

Most of them don't want to hear it.

A lot of ‘wellbeing’ focused stuff for staff that spectacularly misses the point that often the main reason employees wellbeing isn’t great is because of the pressures of work. Linked to this is the focus on increasing employees’ resilience. I’d much rather effort was put in to create a workplace that didn’t require me to be so bloody resilient!

On another note, I really appreciate a workplace culture that values all staff and not just the really keen ‘next generation of leader’ types. I’ve worked somewhere where it was so obvious that there were a couple of people who were being groomed to be the next leaders, at the expense of valuing other members of staff. So demoralising and annoying when you’re doing your job well, you just happen to have no interest/aptitude in becoming a leader.

Noted @Thefourbells, and I do genuinely want to hear what will make the most difference to people in their daily lives.

@PromisingMiddleagedWoman, I've worked in places like that too. I totally get the fact that not everyone wants to climb up the ladder, and that organisations need to value those who are just happy doing what they're doing. I had some amazing people like this in my old workplace, and I really valued the experience and stability that they brought to the team.

@Thefourbells

I work in HR and am a freelance consultant on flexible working and staff wellbeing.

I am constantly telling employers staff don't want yoga vouchers, fitbits or "fun" team days.

They want:

1. flexible working that is actually flexible
2. a workload that actually reflects the hours they are paid to work
3. Bosses who don't micromanage
4. more money.

Most of them don't want to hear it.

I wouldn't mind free yoga if I actually got time off to attend if it were during the day/it didn't involve buying my own mat, clothing and transport to somewhere miles away. The Fitbit would be useful if I didn't have one already - but to get what I need out of it, I'd have to then pay for the premium subscription, replace the strap to one that doesn't irritate and buy a screen protector. It also couldn't be the cheapest ones, as they don't have the useful features I needed.

Definitely no 'staff Fitbit group' or competitions, though; the place that wanted to introduce a compulsory mile walk for staff outside their paid time wasn't popular at all. I didn't want to limp along in my own time whilst everybody else trotted at twice the speed or, worse, ran it, either. As it was, I walked in unlike everybody else and I spent all day on my feet.

I didn't need to be told I just wasn't active enough (on 121,000 sodding steps a day, most of which involved hefting heavy gear around) - maybe those who flew desks for a living did, as they didn't walk further than front door - driveway and staff car park - office. But I certainly didn't.

But I definitely agree with more money, flexible working/overtime/TOIL/NO bitchiness if you refuse to work overtime and realistic workloads.

I'd also add in a rule about no emails from 6pm Friday until 8am Monday (or whatever normal office hours are) and set timers to send anything, no 'well, you didn't have to read it', one to only put people in the To bar that need to do something, CCs are just for info only and the only reason somebody should ever be called on their mobile outside their paid hours is to say the building burned down overnight - definitely no calling them on their lunchbreak to see if they could come back or answer 'just a quick question'.

Yes that dreaded word 'resiliance' .

I also have a special aversion to "resilience training". Charities have increasingly started to use it too.

I'm third sector by background and tbh I'm increasingly feeling like charities treat their employees worse than the private sector. Poor salaries, often statutory sick and maternity pay only, often part time due to lack of funding but still given a workload that would easily fit full time hours, a general expectation that they are doing the job "for the love of the cause" and should therefore put their entire heart and soul into it.