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!

Team not tram

Regarding bullying workplaces are like schools. They all have an anti bullying policy and spend time and money publicising this and training people.

Despite this the vast majority don't actually deal with bullying effectively.

In many workplaces senior managers are allowed by the organisation to bully their staff as they are seen as strong managers who get the job done.

I have never known an NHS senior manager be sacked for bullying but the number of NHS employees who have left their jobs due to being bullied is really high.

Loving all the comments here - I completely agree with the majority of them (also NHS).

One of the big things for me is flexible working that’s actually flexible. In my office 5 out of the 6 of us rely on public transport or the hospital-run park and ride bus because there’s not enough parking for us. Sadly the transport isn’t reliable and as such none of us are able to stick to fixed start times. We all used to arrive between 8 and 9am and would work our hours for the day and leave between 4 and 5pm. We then got a new manager who tried to insist on us working specific times but would frequently ask us to come in early/stay late to minute meetings. It took a lot of meetings for her to understand that flexibility needs to go both ways!

Similarly I was told off because I’d been taking too long for a lunch break as she’d seen me eating/playing on my phone for longer than my allocated 30 minutes. What she didn’t see was all the people who’d come to me with queries over lunchtime so it took me the best part of an hour to actually have 30 minutes to myself. When I started leaving my desk for my lunch break or asking people to come back later she then came to me and had words with me because I wasn’t being flexible and helping senior staff. So what was I supposed to do?

Thankfully as I’ve got older I’m more confident and more vocal (possibly too vocal) and if I get asked to do something urgently I will counter by asking what work they would like me to de-prioritise.

I’m an adult who has been in the job for 8 years, a bit of recognition of my skills/intelligence would be nice. I don’t need micromanaging, I’d like a bit of respect and a thank you occasionally. I don’t want a parade, just some acknowledgment of what I do. I will happily be flexible and go beyond what is expected of me if they trust me and believe in my capabilities.

Wow, so many comments and so much to think about! Can't reply to all individually, but I am definitely taking all of your ideas on board and will do everything in my power to implement them.

I will definitely try hard not to recruit any psychopaths!

A lot of the comments have focused on two things - no wanky wellbeing nonsense, and make sure there are enough staff to do the job.

From your OP, it sounds like you won't have much, if any, control over the latter, but if you don't, please just be an advocate. Tell management why morale is low, tell them why a resilience webinar is unlikely to be greeted with cries of joy, tell them why staff turnover is high, and do your damndest to stop them sending a flapjack through the post to everyone and thinking they'll all be pleased.

All those add-on things can be nice, but when the basics aren't there, we all see through each little initiative, and I personally would rather they didn't bother at all.

Meetings should have an agenda. Manage the meeting. Dont let some dickhead dominate and use up all the time.
Regular newsletter outlining changes to working practices since last time.
One place on the intranet or drive where working practices are detailed.

Here are a few things that I introduced at one workplace:

Replacement of uncomfortable chairs

Photocopiers, staplers and hole punches that actually worked properly

Liaising with staff about who did/didn't want to sit right underneath the air conditioner

Moving printers so they were more accessible

Better quality tea bags and coffee rather than brand x

Decent biscuits

Asking staff for (sensible!!) suggestions about what they would change if given free rein for 5 minutes

You'd be surprised just how much these little things make a difference to morale.

Asking staff for (sensible!!) suggestions about what they would change if given free rein for 5 minutes

Feeling listened to is important.

Oh, yeah. No resilience training. What resilience training does is say "It's your fault that you can't cope with impossible demands and unsustainable pressure, because if you were just more resilient it would all be fine"!

My favourite well-being message of the year- yesterday:
I’m sat in front of my screensaver which is telling me to look after my mental health and all the initiatives to help me do so...ringing up to ask for a sanitary bin for the single communal staff toilet. Multiple calls later.... Apparently we have to buy our own.

Staff have asked for a sanitary bin with a lid that doesn’t spring open displaying their used towels etc. Current bin is a pedal bin someone brought in.

Next they will be asking us to bring in our own toilet rolls because the NHS ones are for patients only.

I felt so appreciated

@RedFrogsRule employers have to provide sanitary bins- try sending them a link to the hse website to see if that nudges them in the right direction! www.hse.gov.uk/simple-health-safety/workplace-facilities/health-safety.htm

@nocoolnamesleft

Oh, yeah. No resilience training. What resilience training does is say "It's your fault that you can't cope with impossible demands and unsustainable pressure, because if you were just more resilient it would all be fine"!

100% agree with this. Resilience really means 'shut the fuck up'.

[quote BobBobBobbing]@RedFrogsRule employers have to provide sanitary bins- try sending them a link to the hse website to see if that nudges them in the right direction! www.hse.gov.uk/simple-health-safety/workplace-facilities/health-safety.htm[/quote]
Thank you!!