Tips to Encourage Self-Care Among Your Employees

Self-care is something that you do to improve and maintain your physical, emotional, and mental health. When you say, “take care of yourself,” you are implementing self-care. The biggest challenge with self-care is finding the best ways to care for yourself.

You may wonder what this has to do with your employees. Believe it or not, a lot.

It’s challenging for your team to remain engaged and productive if they aren’t healthy. Unproductive and disengaged workers will eventually impact your bottom line.  

Even if you don’t have a formal well-being or wellness plan in place, it makes sense for you to support and encourage self-care. Along with providing self-care items, such as paid gym memberships and diffused essential oils by D Gary Young in the office, some other self-care methods are found below.

Offer Flexible Work Schedules

Your team wants to know they have some control over their position and career. This should include their schedule. If an emergency occurs, they want to know that the business will empathize and give them the flexibility that is needed to manage their lives.

Create “Stop Doing” Goals

Many people discuss goals in the context of the things that you plan to do. Rather than always doing more, try encouraging your team to set one goal of something they want to stop doing. This can be beneficial when it comes to changing behavior and attitude.

Encourage Your Team to Use Their Health and Wellness Benefits

Most health insurance plans will include preventative services, such as screening tests, vaccinations, shots, and physicals. Be sure employees know what preventative health services they can access.

Plan Healthy Meals at the Workplace

While everyone loves doughnuts and pizza at employee meetings, you need to try and serve healthy options from time to time. Offering the occasional salad is going to send a much better nutritional message. If you want to encourage your employees to eat healthier options, you need to offer these healthier options.

Recognize Your Team for Their Accomplishments

Usually, people want to know that what they do, they do well. It is affirming and comforting. As a manager or executive, you can increase your employee’s confidence by giving them recognition in a meaningful manner.  

Offer Time Management and Stress Courses

Schedule a session where your employees get a free lunch and have the opportunity to learn how to manage stress and time. You can even encourage your team to create a morning routine that helps them start their day off right.

Practice Mindfulness

Did you know that spending just 10 minutes per day on mindfulness will help to change the way you react to almost everything? If you give your employees just 10 minutes of time during the day to do this, it can yield huge results for them personally and for your business.

Promote Good Sleep

It’s estimated that 50 to 70 million adults in the U.S. are dealing with some type of sleep disorder. This lack of sleep is directly related to unethical conduct, obesity, or driving accidents.

Put a Priority on Ergonomics

It doesn’t matter if you have an open-concept office or not; you should ensure your employees have the “ideal” working conditions. This includes chairs that support good posture, a quiet environment to think, and good lighting.

Schedule Walking Meetings

Everyone has likely heard that the longer you sit, the shorter your life will be. Rather than having conversations in conference rooms, try walking while talking to someone. This helps the meeting go faster and helps everyone get in a bit of exercise at the same time.

If you want to have a happy, healthy, and well-rounded workforce, be sure to keep the tips and information found here in mind. Doing so will pay off and help ensure that your employees like their job and that your company’s bottom line is moving in a positive direction. Self-care is a crucial part of work-life balance, and when you encourage it, you will be doing something good for your team and your business.

Related: 5 Ways to Cope With Unexpected Workplace Changes