In this blog, we’re going to outline the importance of self-care and share our tips for encouraging employees to prioritise self-care.
The Importance Of Self-Care
To enjoy a healthy, happy lifestyle, we must take positive steps to restore our health and wellbeing. Rather than developing unhealthy coping mechanisms, we should proactively prioritise our mental, emotional and physical wellbeing.
By prioritising our self-care, we can reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression, improve our physical health, boost our immune system, enhance our self-esteem and improve our relationships with others.
Self-care in the workplace is one of the many factors your business can benefit from. Employees that prioritise their self-care are more engaged, productive and motivated within the workplace.
Top Tips For Encouraging Employees To Prioritise Self-Care
Here at Wellspace, we’re experts in employee wellness. We understand that self-care is the foundation for a successful team. Here are our top tips for encouraging employees to prioritise self-care.
Lead By Example
How can you expect your employees to prioritise their self-care if you’re not looking after your own health and wellbeing? Neglecting your own self-care sets a bad example for your employees. Demonstrating that you’re prioritising self-care will motivate and encourage your employees to do the same.
Delegate The Workload Effectively
If your employees are juggling too many projects, they’re bound to put their workload before their self-care. They may work late, cancel plans and even skip meals in order to get back on track in the office.
By delegating the workload effectively, you can give your employees the time they need to prioritise their self-care. You should also aim to have a culture centred around open communication. This way an employee feels comfortable approaching you if they are struggling with their workload.
Offer Wellbeing Training
Group training sessions and workshops can help your employees learn how to look after their health and wellbeing. The training sessions may focus on topics such as sleep, stress and how to manage it, nutrition, healthy habits and mindfulness.
Providing training will also demonstrate that you appreciate your team and care about their wellbeing.
Focus On Work-Life Balance
Studies have demonstrated that creating clear boundaries between work and home can lead to higher employee engagement and sharper thinking in the workplace. Overworking can cause unnecessary stress and exhaustion. It can also affect how productive your employees are in the workplace.
As an employer, you should help your team achieve a work-life balance. Ensure your employees are leaving their work in the office and encourage them to take regular breaks throughout the day.
You could also introduce flexible working hours. This will give your employees the opportunity to schedule their workload around other commitments.
Encourage Employees To Monitor Their Health And Wellbeing
With the rise of wearable devices and mobile phone apps, many people are turning to technology to improve their health and wellbeing.
With the use of a wellbeing app, your employees can monitor their health and wellbeing, and learn how to prioritise their self-care. The Wellspace App, for example, encourages users to track their sleep, activity and mood. Each employee will have an end goal and will be rewarded based on how committed they are to their self-care.
Bring In An Expert
As part of a wellness initiative, many businesses offer on-site exercise classes or gym memberships to inspire their team to exercise more. Perhaps you could offer a weekly Yoga class or bring in a meditation expert.
This will be especially beneficial to employees who have a busy schedule or young children and struggle to find the time to exercise.
Provide Healthy Foods
Encouraging your employees to prioritise self-care will be pointless if they are not correctly nourishing their body.
Unfortunately, office snacks tend to be unhealthy – cake, doughnuts, cookies etc. If you’re going to provide health and wellbeing training or offer a wellbeing app, it also makes sense to encourage employees to eat healthier. Perhaps provide free fruit in the staff kitchen and have healthy snacks on offer in meetings.
Encourage Exercise
Self-care is about prioritising both your mental and physical health. It’s surprising how many people go a whole week without doing any type of exercise. According to the NHS, we should do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity every week – which is only about 20 minutes per day.
There are plenty of ways you can encourage your employees to exercise. Perhaps introduce walking meetings, the exercise and fresh air will boost creative thinking! Or sign your team up for a charity run and start training for it well in advance.
Get Outdoors
Spending time outside has a wide range of health benefits. As well as improving our physical health, spending time outdoors can also significantly boost our mental health.
It’s likely your employees will spend most of their indoors, usually looking at a computer or phone screen. So, when possible, encourage your team to get outdoors.
If you have space, perhaps create an outdoor workspace for your employees. Or place tables and chair outside so your team can enjoy their lunch outdoors. During the summer months, host your team meetings outdoors. The fresh air will do everyone the world of good.
Reward Those Who Are Prioritising Their Self-Care
The Wellspace App has a leadership board so you can keep track of the employees who are trying hard to prioritise their self-care. By rewarding these employees, you will show that you care about the wellbeing of your team whilst motivating others to try harder.
Ask For Feedback
Your team will know what works for them and what doesn’t. Perhaps have an open discussion about whether the wellness programme you have put in place is working. Or you could have one-to-one meetings with your employees.
Feedback allows you to make changes to your wellness programme and tailor your efforts to the needs of your team.
Get In Touch
If you’d like more information on encouraging your employees to prioritise their self-care, get in touch with Wellspace.
Can we help you make your business run more smoothly, attract and retain key talent and improve its productivity? Discover more about the benefits of employee wellness by emailing info@yourwellspace.com, or fill in our online enquiry form.
