Workplace Wellness: More Than Just a Buzzword

Workplace Wellness: More Than Just a Buzzword

by | Jun 8, 2023 | Counseling, Personal Development, Workplace Wellness

As a mental health therapist, I often hear from clients about the stress and anxiety they experience at work. Whether it’s long hours, high-pressure deadlines, difficult colleagues or a lack of work-life balance, there are many factors that can negatively impact an individual’s mental health. We can all agree that you + your team have been through a lot over the past couple of years.

This is why workplace wellness has become such an important topic in recent years.

Workplace wellness is a term that encompasses a range of initiatives and strategies designed to promote the mental and physical well-being of employees. It is an approach that recognizes that a healthy workplace is not only good for the individual employees, but also for the organization as a whole. When employees are healthy and happy, they are more productive, more engaged, more creative, and less likely to take time off due to illness or stress.

I believe that workplace wellness should place a strong emphasis on supporting and promoting good mental health. Here are some key strategies that employers can implement to support mental wellness in the workplace:

1.  Create a supportive and inclusive workplace culture

A workplace culture that is inclusive and supportive can go a long way in promoting good mental health. Employers should strive to create a workplace culture where employees feel valued, respected and supported. It is important to include systems for building a healthy workplace culture into the frameworks of hiring, onboarding, evaluations, and communication. This can be achieved by fostering an environment where individuals feel comfortable discussing mental health concerns, promoting healthy work-life balance, and providing resources and support for employees who are struggling with mental health issues.

2.  Encourage breaks and physical activity

Taking breaks throughout the day is important for both physical and mental health. It’s important for leaders to model incorporating behavior of taking short breaks to stretch, walk, or engage in other active breaks into the workday to encourage employees to take time for themselves to relax, unwind and recharge. Taking breaks during the workday can help reduce stress and improve one’s overall mood. When returning back to work from a break an increase of focus can be expected, thus improving productivity. Taking breaks during the work day is not only healthy work behavior but can prevent burnout, turnover, and unnecessary fatigue which can all lead to a toxic work environment and employees.

3.  Offer mental health resources and support

Offering mental health resources and support for your employees will not only enhance the health of your employees but also foster a healthy workplace culture and environment as a result. Mental health resources and support can include onsite therapy services, training, and workshops on mental health topics such as stress management, mindfulness, self-care, and incorporating mental wellness engagement challenges.

4.  Reduce stigma around mental health

Reducing the stigma around mental health is important in creating a workplace culture where employees feel comfortable discussing their mental health concerns. Employers can promote mental health awareness through educational programs, company-wide campaigns, and by ensuring that employees have access to confidential mental health resources.

5.  Foster communication and collaboration

Finally, fostering communication and collaboration in the workplace can help to promote good mental health. Encouraging open communication and collaboration between colleagues can help to reduce stress and improve morale. Collaboration amongst teams is always a good indicator of a healthy workplace. Employers can promote collaboration through relationships like mentoring, 1:1 leadership/supervisory meetings, collaborative projects, encouraging regular communication between team members, and fostering a sense of meaningful community.

Workplace wellness should be a priority for employers who want to support the mental health of their employees.

Finding new ways to explore strengths, create meaningful connections, and build supportive and trusting relationships to support the business you have grown is our passion. Our Workplace Wellness Services are designed and led by clinical therapists to enhance your team’s individual mental health and collectively improve the culture, happiness, and engagement of your team.

At Stronger, we offer Workplace Wellness Events to assist getting your team on board to feel more present and connect both in and outside of work isn’t something that’s taught in business school. BUT, as licensed clinicians, we understand the value of connected teams and the growing pressures for business leaders. Our Workplace Wellness events can help take the emotional wellness burden off your plate for us to create personalized workshops, lunch and learns, and retreats to pour into the health and wellness of your team. Teams that prioritize their own mental health and value a healthy workplace culture experience less irritability and anxiety within the workday, use fewer sick days, and allow for more collaboration & creativity to shine through.

Click here to learn more about the workplace wellness services we can offer you and your team.

Ready to get started with Stronger?

Click HERE to submit an inquiry to begin working with a therapist on our team for workplace wellness services.

We want our clients to
Understand Your Journey + Create Change + Feel Stronger

That’s our formula for helping you live an authentic life.

We know that Humans are complex and so is your story.

Your journey to wellness and strength doesn’t have to be scary to unpack and understand.

We think it can even be fun.

Create Meaningful Connections at Work

Create Meaningful Connections at Work

by | Aug 14, 2022 | Workplace Wellness

Team at Stronger Thereapeutic Counseling Services in Batavia
We can all agree that you and your team have been through a lot the past couple of years. It’s likely that your team is feeling disconnected, more anxious, and requiring more support from you than you might be able to extend. We’ve heard from a lot of employees that work seems less fun lately, more isolated, and even pretty lonely. If you’re a supervisor or part of a team and have noticed that things have shifted but don’t quite know how to help without adding one more thing to your own plate, or worry that bringing up the observation might lead to another dreaded ice breaker; then this blog is for you.

It’s likely that if you’re leading a team, you’re spending part of your day tending to concerns related to team morale, replying to what feels like never ending emails, or having to problem solve how to support employee personal concerns that are impacting time at work.

Leading a team and participating on a team can be complex, time consuming, and wreak havoc on the productivity of navigating your own professional to-do list; especially when you’re working with a team that you actually care about and want to support.

I’m sure the way you’ve had to support those around you has changed from years past and a quick stop at the once favorite 

watering hole doesn’t seem to be a viable option or a helpful solution to check in on the team morale anymore.

Noticing that things have changed, but also not knowing how to help, can be stressful and takes up mental headspace and energy that you too might be low on in the first place.

With so much changing the past couple of years, I’m sure both personally and within the company, your employees might have values, interests, and feelings that have shifted from before the pandemic started.

One on one time can offer you valuable insight into how they are holding up, what’s changed for them, and what is most important to them.

Below you’ll find a few ways to bring more connection, support, and cultivate meaningful relationships with your team; by creating new habits and routines.

Check in with your team in a systematic way

Checking in allows you to not only deepen your relationships with your team but provide a space where your employees and colleagues feel heard, valued, and appreciated.

Taking time to check in with your team can be done in a 1:1 setting or as a group. However; you feel most comfortable checking in with your team it’s helpful to have a goal for what you want to accomplish in the check in and a consistent and predictable way and time that you check in.

Do you want to know more about your team personally? Do you want to understand their workload? Do you want to hear what they predict to be a roadblock for the work they’ll have to accomplish soon?

Once you have a goal for why you want to check in and what you’d like to learn you find the process feels more meaningful and productive for your own time. Checking in with team members doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to do anything if they decide to share their concerns, gripes, or struggles with you. Providing a space for your team to communicate and share with someone that genuinely cares about them can be a healthy way to just allow them to feel heard, understood, or even that they’re not alone.

Checking in is also a great way to keep the pulse on what your team is thinking and feeling that might be interfering with productivity and overall goals. Finding ways to check in with your team can be a way to proactively avoid problems before they get out of hand or require more time to be resolved.

Making your check in’s become a consistent and predictable routine can be a great way to SHOW your team (and yourself) that you prioritize relationships over the workload.

Before you know it you’ll hear your employee’s noting things in conversation to you that they’re looking forward to sharing more with you during your next check in time.

Just reading a blog like this shows that you want to improve the culture of your team and your employees’ mental health. However, I’m sure you’re still apprehensive about actually starting to schedule check-in’s on your calendar and maybe feel nervous that taking time consistently to do so might not be realistic or attainable.

Below are a couple of simple ways to incorporate systematic, efficient, and meaningful ways to check in with your team AND ALSO support your own mental health that will keep you engaged and excited to maintain the process.

Get Moving

Check-ins don’t have to be time consuming or another meeting on your schedule to genuinely connect with your team.

Try putting a reminder for each day of the week on your own calendar to get out of the office and go for a walk.

According to a study done by Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute in 2016 they found that just 5 minutes of movement during your work day can improve your productivity, happiness, and energy levels.

You’ll be surprised that by just going for a walk, you’ll catch your team out and about, too, or sitting at their desk with the door open. Use your walk each day as a way to mindfully move your own body (your brain and your body will thank you!) and then strike up a quick check-in with whoever you run into on your walk or you’ve plucked from their desk to head outdoors with you. Have 2-3 questions in mind that you can use all week on each walk and see where it takes you.

Our favorite quick check-in questions is:

How are you really doing this week?

Emphasizing really lets someone know that you’re not just asking to hear, “Good, thanks. How are you?” and then move in your separate directions. Emphasizing really sends an invitation for them to open up and know that you’re available to really hear what’s going on.

Shawn Achor, the author of The Happiness Advantage believes that, “The people who survive stress the best are the ones who actually increase their social investments in the middle of stress, which is the opposite of what most of us do.”.

If you’re worried that someone might respond in a way that you wouldn’t feel equipped to handle, be prepared to extend validation and know the resources available to everyone in your workplace.

Saying something like, “I hear you- I can relate. Things have been challenging lately.” Can send a message that you can empathize with your team member but doesn’t require you to take on any of their stressors. If you are worried for their mental load or all that they have on their plate, it’s always a nice reminder to share the local and internal resources your company might offer to help lighten the load and provide support. Many companies offer EAP’s (Employee Assistance Programs- typically contact HR to learn more about the free or reduced costs to 100% confidential mental health therapy services). Some really great companies offer wellness programs with local perks to stay active or get involved which can always be helpful to be reminded of when experiencing stress, or asking if they have anyone to talk to about the stress they shared and stating how therapy can be a great space for getting some insight and tools to feel more yourself again.

Some of our other favorite questions for checking in on staff would be: How is work feeling for you lately? What’s something that’s been inspiring or challenging for you this week? I love these questions! Sometimes it’s great to hear validation that things are going well in the office but other times it can shed light on where things might be feeling mundane, confusing, rushed, or not clear from staff members. Follow up with a question like, What would help improve things or would you be willing to try that suggestion you mentioned and follow up with me again? These follow up questions give ownership and autonomy to your employees to find a solution to the feelings they described and don’t require you to do anything additional but just continue to be supportive. Be prepared to actually hold a conversation. Knowing that your team might have an ACTUAL response and reply requires you to show up for that. I wouldn’t be surprised if you got an email back from a colleague saying it was great talking with you!

Send an Email of Gratitude

We send 40 emails a day on average! Dang, that’s a lot of emails, right!?!?

Make it a habit to send one email a day to include something you’re personally or professionally grateful for about your colleague.

The practice of both giving and receiving gratitude can improve our overall happiness and relationships. Sharing gratitude at work leads to increased motivation and productivity in the office, but can also create improved communication for the future. It makes employees feel safer and more connected in their work relationships.

Our brains can be inherently lazy so connecting a new habit to something we already do each day is a simple way to make the new habit stick. Try sending an email of gratitude to an employee as the first or last email you send each day, or have a reminder go off during a time when you normally check and send emails to help make it happen!

Sending an email of gratitude can be included in an email that you’re already sending. It doesn’t have to be anything extra or change the topic you already need to communicate.

Incorporating the practice of gratitude is a simple way to not only increase your own happiness but the happiness of who you send it to. Just remember to be specific with what you share. Sending a general “thank you for all you do” vs. sending the specifics of what someone did and the impact it had on you allows you to relish in how nice it actually felt, and it also provides your employee the opportunity to really feel appreciated and valued.

(Click here to listen to a recent podcast I was invited on to share the benefits of practicing gratitude.)

At Stronger we believe that it’s all connected: work life, home life, our emotional selves, intellectual selves, social selves, and physical selves. Work relationships are incredibly important to us and it’s more than just getting along or completing an obligatory team bonding exercise. If you’d like to bring back more emotional wellness and authentic connection to your office culture, be sure to reach out!

Stronger Therapeutic Counseling Team

Our Employee Wellness Workshops can be the solution to get everyone back to an atmosphere that not only feels lighter but more enjoyable again! When you and your team feel emotionally supported, hitting the company goals gets a whole lot easier and thinking about work just feels less stressful!

Our Employee Wellness Workshops offer tailored content to meet the exact needs of your team. Providing insight to cultivate healthy habits, teaching simple ways to cope with stress, and better regulating one’s emotions to feel more balanced during the workday are a few of the topics we love to include. Each workshop also includes a personalized workbook to organize notes and concepts taught from the workshop.

Let’s connect! We can’t wait to support you and your team!

Send us a message today!