It’s the holy grail of the business world: making your business healthier, more prosperous and more successful while simultaneously retaining staff, improving productivity and having the reputation of being a good place to work – all without costing a fortune or being overly complicated to implement.
It can seem like a huge mountain to climb, and many businesses struggle to do this while also managing day-to-day operations. It’s also the case that, until recently, the focus on trying to achieve the aforementioned holy grail has been on increasing revenue and profit to ensure that the finances at least tick the ‘success’ box.
However, if you start from the reverse perspective, that is by focusing on the people first, it is possible to transform your organisation into a thriving entity.
The people within a business are its foundation, so it makes sense that you should begin by making sure that foundation is strong and robust. That is not about aptitude, but attitude. How do your employees feel about coming to work? Are they positive and dedicated or stressed and anxious? Are they stretching themselves to breaking point to accommodate the expected working culture alongside busy and sometimes complicated home lives?
And how do they feel about themselves? Are they upbeat and dynamic, or do they lack motivation and self-esteem? It might seem like that’s not important for the workplace, but it makes all the difference. Employees who feel good about themselves, who believe they are valued and capable, and feel supported to reach their potential are far more likely to work efficiently, have the resilience to turn up every day, and to contribute to a positive working environment.
This can help to reduce presenteeism, sickness absence and workplace conflict, and can increase productivity, efficiency and performance levels across all aspects of the company. It can also help create a positive and nurturing environment where people enjoy coming to work.
There are various ways that you can introduce new practices that will have a positive impact on your workforce, and ultimately, the prosperity of your organisation:
Encourage open and regular communication: by creating an environment where people feel they can talk about any issues or challenges they may have, you are telling them that you care about what they think and want to listen, which goes a long way in building trust and a collaborative atmosphere;
Be more flexible: introducing or increasing the availability of flexible working hours can make a huge difference to how employees feel about going to work. Helping them manage the balance between work and home is going to reduce stress, illness and absenteeism, and increase productivity and positivity;
Focus on self: encouraging your team to be more mindful and self-aware could impact both on them as individuals and the group as a whole. You could provide access to mindfulness sessions or a counselling service that allows staff to learn the tools to build resilience and self-esteem;
Be positive: celebrate the achievements of individuals, departments and the wider company to boost morale and show how much you appreciate the effort that went into making that success happen;
Understand the lay of the land: you can’t possibly know where to start if you don’t know the current situation. By implementing the YU app and business dashboard, you could gain a true insight into employee wellbeing, and identify the best place to begin to make improvements.
The key is to make sure that this change is incorporated throughout the organisation, from the top levels all the way down, and becomes part of the culture of the workplace and not just a stand alone initiative. This gives more chance of it being fully adopted by all parties, and not just an invested few.
In the same way that a person can’t consider themselves to be fit and healthy just because they take the stairs even though they still eat junk food every day, a business can’t maintain a singular focus on economics and expect to outperform competitors. By incorporating the practice of empowering its workforce to be more resilient and have greater self-belief, businesses are far more likely to successfully weather storms, be dynamic and responsive to marketplace change, and attract talented and dedicated people.
Photo by Javier Allegue Barros on Unsplash
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