HR professionals and People & Culture teams are at the coal face of challenging times. Many describe being consistently asked about workplace issues like pay rises, wellbeing initiatives – and people ultimately worried about redundancies.
Wearing two hats – both in the People & Culture space and as an employee themselves – makes it tough to resist an impact on personal wellbeing, as well as the professional workday. Showing up with an anxious mindset and warring emotions can culminate in reduced productivity and losing purpose.
enable.me Workplace Expert Karla Byrnes hosted the first instalment of moneyfit Talks – Prioritise Your People: Performance begins with wellbeing in conversation with Self-Leadership and Resilience Expert Sue Kohn-Taylor.
Sue emphasises the tough conditions of the current job market, and how people operate from “a place of reacting,” when it feels like this.
If your business is unable to provide a pay rises due to current market conditions, here are five other ways you can support employees with workplace wellbeing.
1. Control Your Controllables
At moneyfit.me we often talk about focusing on what we have control over when it comes to finances. It’s the same for our mindset.
Caregiver fatigue is impacting the People & Culture workforce. They have responsibilities and duty of care to employees – their own colleagues and workplace relationships.
Sue shares that, in this environment, self-leadership and having a strong positive mindset is important. But wellbeing isn’t solved in one day, it requires consistent attention with the build-up of positive habits, such as having a check-in.
She says, “wellbeing is a constant check-in with yourself over the day, not just on a weekend doing something to make you feel good.”
Her suggestion?
“Have rituals during the day… like checking in on a scale of 1 to 10 to be able to say ‘where am I at mentally and where am I at emotionally?’”
For example, “If I’m at 2… if I’m wired and stressed, I’m not going to have the best conversations.”
From these check-ins, focus on something you can control that will improve your self-rating – taking a break, having a tea or coffee, connecting with a coworker, making sure you take your lunch break. Like anything, consistently showing up for yourself in this way will become ritual and improve your overall wellbeing.
2. Focus on Mental Fitness and Resilience
It is paramount to focus on building mental strength and resilience in the workplace.
Employees are showing up stressed, whether that’s due to workplace stress or external factors – finances, parenting, relationships. Often these stresses become conversations with People & Culture teams.
Karla shares that it’s important to be clear about what you, as an employer, can help with – and what you can’t.
Here are some suggestions for how People & Culture leaders can support employees with their mental resilience:
- Provide professional development for teams.
- Allow space for personal development and soft skills that are valuable in the workplace.
- Harness the power of collaboration.
- Empower people with tools and strategies to build mental and emotional resilience.
- Have more conversations as a team.
3. Build Boundaries
Sue has more than 30 years of experience working with entrepreneurs, leaders and working professionals across many industries. Throughout this time, she noticed that employee boundaries start shrinking if we’re not feeling like our best self.
Sue says, “we lose clarity and intention,” and lose the ability to see what’s important and what’s not important. Often what’s missing is purpose.
“Bringing it back to purpose is key for people,” she says.
It’s vital to investigate the reasons why we are doing our work – and make sure to prioritise the things that have impact.
She challenges us to ask the question: “Is what I’m about to do actually moving the dial?”
It can feel safe to reach for easier things – and avoid the ‘hard’. We can get caught up in ‘doing stuff’ and then realising that it wasn’t worth the time.
4. Culture
Sue shares the importance of having a culture where people are encouraged to stretch themselves and feel comfortable doing so.
“Growth mindset is everything… in that mindset you know you embrace challenges… you learn how you can learn from challenges and how to take that forward.”
Karla adds that employers are often good at hosting one-off wellbeing events, but that there is true power in workplace leaders driving conversations about bringing a collective mindset to solve problems.
“In order to help the leaders within your business to build better strength for your staff it’s important to think about how to make your staff be more self-aware,” she posits.
“We want to be supportive as employers and put some boundaries around what we can fix as employers and what we can’t.”
High-performing teams need to build resilience and feel connected to be brave with ideas and challenge each other.
Even organising small-scale check-in events for the team to build relationships – a morning tea or a lunchtime walk – can develop the type of culture that retains staff, even when pay rises aren’t on the table.
5. Transparency
The world is reeling from once-in-a-lifetime events that keep cropping up, feeding a mood of uncertainty throughout the business world. This uncertainty creeps into employee conversations at lunchtime, in the meeting room, and even through the sliding doors that connect your workplace to its customers.
Making people feel safe – without making disingenuous promises that you may not be able to follow through on – is important.
The best way to do this is transparency. As humans we are wired to fear what we don’t know. It’s human nature to make up stories to fill in the knowledge gaps, which can create a breeding ground for fear.
It’s important to reduce this in any workplace. Not by making promises you can’t live up to, but by making sure to consistently communicate and inform your staff of any major changes to workplace operations.
This is critical when it comes to fears surrounding talk of ‘The Big R’: Redundancy.
Transparency can make the redundancy process easier for people to handle. It can also mean reduced reputational risk for the company as well, especially in contrast to situations where transparency has not been provided.
Sue leaves us with a positive note.
“Remember to bring in a bit of fun – and keep that energy higher.”
One way you can rewire the conversations about pay rises and the cost of living is to help your staff realise a long-term vision.
Recognise their wins, build a strong culture, and help your employees build skills that will benefit them – for the long term.
If you’re interested in learning more about self-leadership, sign up to Sue Kohn-Taylor’s E-PepTalk Lead Yourself First and discover how to thrive with clarity, energy, and purpose.
moneyfit.me is here to support you and your team. You can find out more about our workplace wellbeing offering here.
