The digital age is jam-packed with claims that adding more gadgets or software to your office will supercharge the productivity of your workers, yet few businesses seem to generate sizable returns on their investment following this strategy. As many small business owners and hard-working corporate professionals alike have come to discover, technology and training by themselves lack the capacity to give your workers the skills they need to succeed. In the long-run, you need to focus on employee health and wellness to achieve results.
Here's why you should focus on the health and wellness of your workers, and how to go about making sure they have a good office environment.
Healthier workers are more productive
Caring for your workers and giving them what they need to feel comfortable is about more than being kind - for a business owner, it can be a self-boosting act, as healthier workers are more productive and less likely to avoid showing up in the morning. Countless studies have been conducted as to whether employee nutrition, health, and wellness can be quantified and compared, and it's been proven time and time again that healthier workers have higher productivity. Rather than sitting around waiting for more evidence to come in, you need to start embracing the power if helping your own workforce.
How do you go about focusing on employee health and wellness? For starters, think beyond technology; equipping your workers with the tools they need to succeed is important, but you can't just upgrade their smartphones or equip them with work laptops and expect everything to fall into place. Humans are complicated creatures with a diverse hierarchy of needs, so don't think you can shell out a few extra bucks on some break room cookies and call it a day. A comprehensive effort to foster a welcoming company culture is needed, and this requires more than a financial investment.
As research from the Harvard Business Review has made obvious, you should stop focusing on cultures of productivity and instead replace them with a culture of growth, as this is the kind of environment that is continuously pushing your workers to new heights rather than holding them to the same stringent standard. This will take sacrifice on behalf of your managers and senior leadership figures, who must become competent at grooming low-level employees into adept professionals in their own right.
Learn to take some time off
It may seem counterproductive, but you'll need to learn to take some time off if you want to focus on employee health and wellness. This is because everyday workers are just like managers, meaning they need some time to recharge after a long day's work or a workplace fight that can get acrimonious and lead to injuries. While you may think that issuing additional vacation days and making breaks in the office more frequent will harm productivity, however, there are good reasons to believe that such things are actually positive for your company's health.
U.S. workers are taking off more time than ever before, for instance, and the results are stellar for businesses everywhere. Workers who are given ample vacation time generally report that they're happier to be at work when they're eventually forced back to the office, largely because they had time to vent their frustrations and are looking forward to being put use towards productive ends once more. Believe your workers when they tell you they need some time off, as it's more than a grimy tactic to earn an extra day of rest - it's a real productivity booster when managed properly.
Finally, inclusive company cultures that focus heavily on employee health and wellness are likely to make new hires fit right in, which is important given that your company will soon be entering a new stage of growth. Businesses which focus on robust employee health policies and welcoming cultures will quickly outpace their competitors, so you need to be prepared to replicate your early success by onboarding new employees with gusto. Don't ever let your company culture grow stagnant and unwelcoming to new hires, as this is the best way to ensure that your business suffers from a gradual yet certain decline in fortune.
Keep focused on employee health and wellness, and you'll soon discover your business is doing better than ever before. A company is nothing more than the sum of its workers, and you'll soon find that supercharging your workforce has a tendency to bring about great results for everyone.
