The Coronavirus pandemic has brought some significant changes and upheavals onto you and your team – with no time to prepare for them. We’ve gone from ‘business as usual’ to closing down, working from home and learning to cope with the reality of isolation during an emergency lockdown.
Such change can have a massive impact on your employees’ mental health in a number of ways. For example, those that live on their own may lack the socialising that they get at the office and therefore feel lonely. Others may feel burned out, with too many distractions at home and no designated work area.
To combat this, there are some important steps you can take to care for your employees.
Key ways to take care of your team’s wellbeing:
Unfortunately, there is no single and easy way to help your employees better adapt to the changes of remote working. It will likely require them to consider fitness, exercise, different well-being practices and generally a new work/life balance. However, as a leader, you are there to provide them with the necessary resources and advice. These could include:
keeping the contact
Preserving team spirit is extremely important, even when your employees are spread all over the country. It is crucial that your employees can communicate with each other in real time and luckily it is very easy to do so these days. You should encourage team meetings through platforms such as Google Hangouts, Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Whatsapp and so on – the opportunities are endless.
Sticking to the routine
Having the same routine everyday is essential for mental health and working from home should not change it. Setting a clear routine provides workers with some structure and makes it easier to distinguish time for work and leisure. So, give your team rough hours of when they should be working and having meetings.
Having frequent breaks
It can be easy to stay peeled to the screen all day and forget to have breaks from work. In the office, coffee and lunch breaks or short catch-ups with the colleagues serve the purpose, but working remotely means you need to remind yourself to do so. Make sure your employees are taking those breaks, for example going for a short walk, as it will help them re-charge and stay focused.
Regular exercises
Working from home also means sitting in one place all day. However, your team needs to have some form of exercise to keep healthy, fit and energised. Encourage them to take out time in the day to do a run around the block or a 15 minute workout session on YouTube. Anything that gets their blood flowing will do the job.
Stay focused on the mental health and mindfulness
Keeping calm and reducing the stress is essential for your team’s mental health. You can try yoga or meditation to destress and suggest using guidance apps such as Calm or Headspace to learn the right techniques.
Keep having team activities
Not going to the pub does not mean you cannot have fun with your team. You should organise remote team activities for your employees to all get together and enjoy themselves after a long week of work. For instance, you could have an online dinner party by getting your employees to order takeaways to their homes and covering the expenses. You can also introduce such apps as Houseparty to play games and quizzes together.
Limiting exposure to news and social media
Although it is important to stay informed on what is going on, seeing constant news on the pandemic can also cause the rise of stress levels in your team. You should suggest that your employees only check the news once a day, perhaps after work. They should also use a trusted source, such as the Government website, so they don’t get bombarded with useless updates throughout the day.
Outsourcing tasks
To reduce your and your team’s stress levels consider outsourcing some of the company’s tasks. For example, such tasks as accounting and payroll can easily be outsourced, leaving your employees to focus on the more important parts of the business.
Ready to outsource?
If you decide to outsource your accounts, we are more than happy to take care of them for you and reduce your already high stress levels. Here at ASfB we specialise in providing the best accounting and payroll solutions tailored specifically to your business needs.
If you want to discuss further, call us for a friendly chat on 01202 755600 or drop an email to hello@asfb.co.uk.