Wellness Tips For Employees: Leadership And Well-Being

Leadership is challenging. Every day presents new obstacles, like ensuring employees’ happiness and health. It’s not an easy task.

Wellness is essential for physical, social, and mental well-being. Most people spend a third of their lives at work and often overlook wellness due to job demands. Creating more opportunities for employee health and well-being should be crucial for an employer.

This is about occupational health, safety, health promotion, and protection (7). To help, let’s review some wellness tips for employees.

What is Wellness?

Wellness encompasses many things. It’s a sense of well-being that includes (6):

• Physical health
• Finances
• Social 
• Emotional
• Development and activity
• Mental health
• Life satisfaction
• Work

It’s important to feel happy and content rather than anxious or depressed. A healthy workplace requires collaboration between leaders and employees. You can build a culture of health and well-being together.

You’ll want to target these needs (7):

• Physical Work Environment: This includes the home office, office, or field.
• Psychosocial Work Environment:  Includes communication, inclusivity, and conflict management.
• Personal Health Resources: Blogs, mailers, and counseling.
• Promoting Healthy Communities: Through volunteer work, blood and food drives, and lunchtime walks.

What are the Five Concepts of Well-Being?

Many well-being concepts cover different areas of life and what it means to be well today (8).

1. How Do You View Your Life?

Do you feel mentally well? Think about how happy you are with your life. Are you experiencing more positive feelings than negative ones (3)?

Also, are you taking pleasure in the small things in life? It is natural for humans to seek out things that bring happiness. These are some examples of life moments considered as the simple pleasures of life:

• Watching a sunset.
• Enjoying the smell of a candle.
• Taking your first sip of coffee in the morning.
• Eating your favorite meal or dessert.
• Dancing to your favorite song.

It’s important to enjoy life’s moments. If you’re having trouble, it could be a sign of poor health or depression. To support your team’s wellness you can provide employee well-being tips.

2. Are You Living with Autonomy?

Autonomy refers to the ability to choose and live on your terms (2). It is a key factor in shaping your well-being and happiness. There are three main parts of autonomy:

• It leads to a higher life satisfaction.
• You experience more positive emotions.
• It helps protect you from negative emotions.

Making your own decisions can empower you and help you trust others more. It also leads to a more optimistic outlook on life. Freedom is vital for creating social values and change, too. It allows you to be an active and engaged member of society.

Research suggests that employees want autonomy at work (1). The average hybrid worker wants to decide where and when they do their work. They want a seat at the table when the employer is making decisions that directly impact their job.

A recent study showed over half of employees choose flexibility over salary. Most would also prefer to work for a company that offers the option to work remotely instead of in an office. Strict schedules and in-office work can limit employees’ freedom and hurt their well-being.

3. Do You Have Positive Relationships?

Humans naturally form relationships with those around them. Yet, not all relationships are positive. Sometimes, a negative relationship leads to you losing trust and love towards others (4).

Positive relationships can impact your emotional well-being and physical health. But, negative relationships can cause:

• emotional stress
• negative thoughts
• uneven relationships
• feeling unappreciated or disrespected.

Poor communication and indifference can lead to bad relationships, especially with co-workers. By improving working relationships, a team can become more productive and successful.

4. Are you the master of your environment?

Environmental mastery means using and changing your surroundings to meet your needs (5). Someone with a high level of environmental mastery may say things like:

• “I am skilled at managing my time to do everything I need done.”
• “I can plan for the future and work hard to make my plans a reality.”
• “I set clear goals for myself.”
• “I can handle my responsibilities without feeling overwhelmed.”

A low level of environmental mastery can make coping with daily life and change hard. For example, if you are unhappy with where you live, it may be better to seek help on how to improve, rather than handle it alone.

You can apply this same concept in the workplace as well. Suppose you aspire to become a people leader but feel it’s impossible to achieve. In that case, you may not even apply for a position, leading to dissatisfaction at work over time.

5. Do You Make Yourself a Priority?

Taking care of yourself leads to having a positive outlook. You’re also more likely to focus on your personal development. But it’s also about believing in your life’s purpose. Setting big and small goals can boost your motivation and give you a sense of achievement.

Thinking you can grow skills and wit through hard work and practice is vital for progress (8). That said, believing that your abilities are fixed can prevent you from growing.

It’s helpful to have a growth mindset when facing challenges. Say a person wants to start their own business. They need to gain some basic finance skills first. A fixed mindset tells them they can’t run a business. On the other hand, a growth mindset says they can learn and practice those skills and become successful.

5 Wellness Tips for Employees

For seasoned executives and new leaders, we have a list of well-being tips for employees.

Make Work More Fun

Work doesn’t have to always feel like work. Having fun and fostering a workplace that promotes mental wellness is essential. This can also lead to more cohesive teams.

Here are some tips to make your workplace more fun:

• Decorate your office space.
• Exercise as a group through stretching exercises or walks.
• Celebrate holidays, birthdays, and work anniversaries.
• Plan retreats or trips.
• Host team building and icebreaker chats.
• Provide healthy snacks and create collaborative spaces at your office.

Workers who have fun at work are less likely to search for jobs elsewhere. They also tend to be more motivated and creative in their work.

Allow More Autonomy at Work

Employees often crave to feel like they are part of the decision-making process. This need provides a sense of control and triumph (8). Leaders can encourage autonomy among their staff by implementing various employee wellness tips. Here are four tips:

• Offer flexible work schedules
• Provide upskilling courses and leadership training
• Create small workgroups
• Help employees foster and use their strengths

When employees have control over their work, they make positive changes. The changes can benefit the company, too. Plus, you see a better connection to the organization.

Foster Positive Working Relationships

Our social connections at work greatly impact our motivation. They also remind us that we are not alone in the workplace.

To promote positive work relationships, here are some workplace wellness tips for employees:

• Encourage clear, open, and honest communication.
• Promote recognition of each other.
• Celebrate individual wins as a team.
• Offer emotional training and resources.
• Remind employees of the value of self-care and taking much-needed time off from work.
• Lead with kindness and empathy.

Healthy work relationships benefit everyone and can lead to success.

Give Employees Some Control

A good leader coaches employees to maintain high performance and productivity. The goal is to do so with minimal oversight while granting them a say at work.

To give your employees a stronger voice, consider implementing activities like:

• Provide opportunities for your team to share their concerns and offer solutions.
• Hold brief daily meetings or chats to encourage communication and collaboration.
• Offer training to employees for automation and project management certifications.
• Seek advice from employees about specific challenges or performance issues.

Giving your employees a voice and making them feel heard is a good idea. You can also create a positive work environment that fosters engagement and success.

Advocate for Self-Improvement

Employees want to do well and feel liked. Letting them set their own goals can help them improve. As a leader, you can coach your team to take responsibility for their career path. The increased accountability leads to success.

To motivate your team:

1. Make sure they know what you expect from them.
2. Hold them accountable when they fall short.
3. Encourage them to take calculated risks to promote innovation and creativity. 

These steps will help keep them engaged and excited to tackle new challenges.

What is the Goal of Professional Well-Being?

Workplaces have a big impact on our lives, both positively and negatively. Workers want a place that cares about employee well-being and makes them feel valued.

The Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being is a great resource. It’s identified 12 goals that help leaders focus on professional well-being (8):

• Protection from harm: safety and security
• Opportunity for growth: learning and accomplishment
• Connection and community: social support and belonging
• Mattering at work: dignity and meaning
• Work-Life Balance: autonomy and flexibility

The well-being of employees affects the well-being of the organization. Leaders can create positive change by promoting wellness at work. This is our article that offers more tips on Workplace Wellness Challenges.

FAQs

• How Can Leaders Support Well-Being?

Focusing on job satisfaction is essential. Providing autonomy, promoting positive relationships, and encouraging self-improvement and team building can help.

• How Do You Make People Appreciate You?

To begin with, examine yourself and identify your strengths. Work on improving on your weaknesses and focus on self-improvement. When you take care of yourself, you are more likely to show care for others, which can create a culture of well-being. This will result in your employees showing appreciation and will enhance the company’s well-being.

• What is a Wellness Action Plan?

A wellness action plan is a policy that outlines how to establish a healthy environment. It looks at staff’s needs and resources. The plan also seeks employee feedback guided by the organization’s leadership and supervisors.

• What are Well-Being Initiatives?

A well-being initiative helps employees handle personal issues that affect their work.