In this blog, we’re going to outline how you can support employees with families and how you can help them put their wellbeing first.
Achieving work-life balance is challenging for most employees. But more so if they have a family. Trying to juggle family responsibilities, a jam-packed work schedule and a social life can take its toll on employees.
To look after the health and wellbeing of your employees, it’s essential that you are supportive and understanding of the circumstances and responsibilities surrounding their family.
Create A Family-Friendly Workplace Centred On Employee Wellbeing
Struggling to juggle family commitments whilst working full-time can cause a lot of stress for your employees. This will lead to a lack of motivation and a decrease in productivity and creativity in the workplace.
In order to relieve employee stress and prevent burnout, you should create a family-friendly workplace centred on employee wellbeing. There are many ways in which you can make your workplace more family-friendly and improve employee wellbeing.
You can start by creating a caring workplace culture where employees feel comfortable sharing their concerns. Encouraging employees to come to you or another member of management if they have concerns over family commitments. Explain that you are there to help your employees put their wellbeing first. Ensure your employees that you will assist them in finding a comfortable balance between work life and family life.
You could also introduce an employee wellbeing programme. This will teach employees how to achieve work-life balance and encourage employees to focus on their health and wellbeing.
Another way to create a family-friendly workplace is to ensure there is a private space for mothers to pump breast milk if required. This will particularly useful for women who are returning from maternity leave but are still breastfeeding their baby.
Similarly, ensure there are baby-changing facilities available on-site. That way, if an employee has their child in the workplace for any reason, they can comfortably change their baby’s nappy.
Offer On-Site Childcare
If your business is large enough, you may also be able to offer on-site child-care. On-site childcare allows employees to drop their child off at nursery, check on them during their breaks and pick their child up at the end of the day.
Working parents will appreciate not having any extra time or miles added to their daily commute. They will also be more productive in the workplace as they’re not worrying about their child.
On-site child-care will increase job satisfaction, decrease staff turnover and reduce the number of child-care related absences.
Offer Family Perks To Support Employees With Families
Many businesses offer their employees perks such as free gym memberships and health insurance. To support employees with families, perhaps offer family-oriented perks, such as cinema tickets or family restaurant vouchers.
This demonstrates that you appreciate your employees and care about what is important to them. It also shows that you understand the importance of work-life balance.
It’s also a great idea to invite families along to team-building activities and employee fun days. Creating family events, whether for charity or just to treat your staff members, will build a sense of community within your workplace. It will strengthen friendships between your employees and increase job satisfaction and employee wellbeing.
Allow And Encourage Flexible Working During School Holidays
School holidays can be difficult for working parents. They cannot take 6 weeks off work, nor can they always find affordable child-care solutions. To support employees with families, it is a good idea to offer flexible working during the school holidays.
This way, employees can spend time with their families and look after their children whilst completing their work commitments in their own time.
Being able to choose their own hours will be incredibly helpful to working parents, or employees with other family commitments. If it works well, you can introduce flexible working year-round, rather than just during the holidays.
If offering flexible working isn’t a possibility in your industry or place of work, look for other ways to support employees with families. For example, encourage employees to communicate with each other and swap shifts if required. Or introduce a smart scheduling tool such as FindMyShift. This will allow employees to swap shifts quickly and easily.
Flexible working opportunities improve creativity and productivity in the workplace. Flexible working can improve employee morale and can create a positive, happy work environment.
Be Understanding
The more you know about your employees’ circumstances, the more you can help. Without crossing professional boundaries, try to learn more about your employees with families. Perhaps they have young children or troubled teenagers, or perhaps they have an elderly relative that they care for.
Let your employees know that you understand the struggles that come with family commitments. If an employee suddenly has to leave work because their child has had an accident at nursery, be understanding and supportive. Or if an employee cannot come into work as they are looking after a sick relative, encourage them to focus on their family and not worry about work.
The Benefits Of Supporting Employees With Families
Studies show that 64% of employees suffer from stress that’s related to juggling work and family commitments. Supporting employees with families will reduce these stress levels and prevent your employees from burning out or developing further mental or physical health issues.
Employees that are happy and stress-free will have a positive attitude to their work commitments and to the company itself. You will notice an increase in productivity and motivation and an increase in customer care. You will also notice a shift in the workplace environment. It will be calmer and happier with strong workplace friendships and high morale.
Contact Wellspace: The Corporate Wellbeing Experts
If you’d like more advice on how to support employees with families, or you’d like to know more about how you can improve your employee wellbeing, get in touch!
Here at Wellspace, we provide a workplace wellbeing programme which puts employee wellbeing first. With help from our experts as well as the app, portal and training, we can help your business and your employees.
We would be happy to talk you through some options and help you achieve employee wellbeing in the workplace. Get in touch with us by filling in our contact form, email us on info@yourwellspace.com or call 0800 178 0748.
