How to Make Employee Self-Care a Part of Your Company Culture

Guest post by Brad Krause.

Employees being constantly exhausted, unhappy, and depressed at work shouldn’t be normal – and yet, shockingly enough, it’s the norm. Research shows that 52% of employees are burned out in 2021, with 67% saying the pandemic made it worse. 

Burnout eats away motivation, lowers productivity, and erodes the mind and body. It carries severe health-related consequences, as The Thirty can tell you. Needless to say, it’s not a sustainable state and benefits no one – not the employee, and not the company.

What can you do about it as a new business owner or leader?

As a leader, manager, or someone in a position of responsibility at your company, you have less and more power than you realize.

You have less power because the problem is endemic to a human culture that buys into the cult of overwork, with the – mistaken – belief that you have to sacrifice self-care on the altar of success. You have more power than you realize because all it takes is a good boss and courageous leader who can demonstrate – by example – that self-care and success aren’t mutually exclusive concepts to inspire lasting change in others.

(If you need some inspiration yourself, read up on incredibly successful leaders and companies that prioritize self-care).

Self-care isn’t hard to implement

Self-care isn’t rocket science. It’s natural and intuitive for humans. But sometimes people get stuck in bad habits and need a push. Here are some suggestions on how to make self-care a part of your company culture:

Provide flexible work schedules

Life doesn’t follow the work clock. People need to take care of their kids and sick parents, and or have to handle relationship crises. If they aren’t always chained to their desk, they’ll operate with more confidence and less stress.

Educate employees

Positive thinking and mindfulness are habits that need to be picked up and worked on, and are a core part of self-care. Consider offering courses or holding meetings to embed these values into your employees.

Give healthy meals

The food you eat influences your health and mind more than you think. Make arrangements to provide nutritious, easy-to-digest meals in the company cafeteria. And instead of always buying everyone pizza and junk foods, order more often from salad bars.

Offer positive reinforcement

To be fulfilled and happy, people need to know the work they do carries meaning and is appreciated. Try to praise employees for work well done and celebrate achievements collectively as a company. Take some time to look back before moving forward.

Introduce fun events

Everyone needs fun and entertainment in their life. It refreshes the mind and body and nourishes the soul. Some fun activities to try out are scavenger hunts, foodie tours, family feuds, puzzle rooms, and murder mysteries.

Allow pauses

Pauses are necessary if you want to build self-care into the workplace. All too often, employees run hither and thither, from one meeting to another, and from one task to another. Small pauses between activities are great for de-stressing.

Make meetings shorter

As HBR says, meetings tend to be too long, waste everyone’s time, and are often held for historical rather than practical reasons. Simply making meetings shorter, down 45 minutes from an hour, can reduce everyone’s burdens greatly.

Promote exercise

Human bodies aren’t designed to sit in chairs all day. Encourage employees to move around to limber up with desk exercises or yoga. Offer to pay for employee gym sessions. It will make employees happy and more productive.

Favor safety over fear

Lastly, too many organizations push the culture of fear, with fear being the impetus to push employees forward. Switching to a culture of safety can work for employee wellbeing – and even make them more productive.

Start by being kind to yourself, looking after yourself, and achieving a positive work-life balance. Ask yourself what kind of world you’d like to live in and help create, and what sort of values you can get behind. Ultimately, employee self-care begins with you.

For more inspiring and informative content, check out Dr. Frank Niles’ blog.

About Brad

Brad Krause created Self Caring after years spent putting his own self-care on the back burner. His goal now is to educate people on the importance of self-care by providing tips and tricks that are easy to implement.

Image via Unsplash