Category: Wellness

After the election that seemed it would never end, we finally have an answer. For some, the result was a beacon of hope while others saw it as a crushing blow. Whatever your stance, few will argue that we seem to be irreconcilably divided across lines of party affiliation, geography, income, race, religion, age, and more.  There is a strong sense of ‘us vs. them’ across the country, and as with most societal dynamics, the same can be said of our workplaces. Aside from the various ideological and demographic divides, many companies also have ‘us vs. them’ dynamics between departments, across levels, and more.

This year has been a catalyzing force for a number of transformations in the workplace, the most obvious being the nearly overnight shift to remote work. As we look towards a new year and the associated planning and budgeting amidst rampant uncertainty, an opportunity exists to build in efforts to break down the aforementioned divides. At this critical juncture, what would it look like to actually revolutionize our workplaces, and redesign them with an eye towards empathy and inclusion, rather than division and indifference? Can we heal our workplaces as we also strive to heal our nation?

The state of our workplaces pre-pandemic

Before the pandemic, 97% of employees and executives believed that lack of team alignment had an impact on task and project outcomes. Taking that one step further, 86% of employees cited lack of collaboration or ineffective communication as the cause of workplace failures. On the flip side, companies and organizations that communicate effectively are 4.5x more likely to retain their best employees.

While lack of communication and outright division are not necessarily the same, they do feed into each other to a large extent. If open and honest communication is encouraged and fostered across the board, there are fewer opportunities for division to build up and get in the way of progress. In fact, a ProofHub study found that more than 99% of employees prefer a workplace where people identify and discuss issues truthfully and effectively. Unfortunately, fewer than half of them feel that their organization fulfills that need. If we are to move past this state and towards building better communication and connection for employees, we have to first break down the barriers to doing so by implementing effective tools and having tough conversations. We have to heal these divides just as politicians urge us to heal our nation.

Ways to work towards unity in the workplace

There are a number of areas to focus on when looking to reduce division in your workplace. We’ve summarized them below so you can start your organization on the road to success in 2021:

• Increase transparency. Being as transparent as possible at all levels of the company is a crucial first step towards stifling the seeds of division from the start. When left in the dark, it’s easy for employees to assume the worst about colleagues and leaders. If everyone is open about their plans, goals, and intentions, it is much easier for employees to let down their guards and not buy into divisive narratives as so many have in our political system leading to this call to heal our nation.
• Encourage open and respectful dialogue. Similarly, enabling employees to share their thoughts and experiences without fear of ridicule or reprisal is a key step towards promoting strong communication and collaboration in your workplace. Encourage team members to share their stories to help colleagues learn about each other as whole people, and to better understand where folks may be coming from when they react a certain way to an idea or comment.
• Prioritize diversity and inclusion. Ensuring that there is strong representation on your team from a diverse set of backgrounds and beliefs can help everyone to feel included rather than having one ‘in-group’ and a handful of others stuck on the outskirts. While we know budgeting for DEI in 2021 can be a challenge, it’s imperative to continue championing this critical work and striving towards intersectionality rather than tokenization.
• Ensure everyone gets recognized. A strong recognition program is also a key component of building more unified, less divisive workplaces. Having some team members frequently receiving praise and accolades for their work while others toil in silence and anonymity simply breeds resentment and reinforces ‘us vs. them’ dynamics. Ensure that your recognition program is both accessible and egalitarian, so that everyone can participate and feel acknowledged.
• Be consistent. Last but certainly not least, make every effort to design your policies in a way that one group isn’t privileged over another. Ensuring this consistency will prevent people from feeling that others are treated better than them, leading them to experience exclusion that can cause communication to break down. Any policy that applies to one, should apply to all.

There are a number of ways to ensure that your workplace trends back towards unity rather than division as we usher a new administration into the White House. For better or worse, many of these focus areas drive back to core aspects of company culture, which can be difficult to shift especially with employees spread across offices and remote work situations. As we work to heal our nation though, we can also heal our workplaces. If you could use an easier way to break down silos, build connections, and streamline employee communication, come visit us over at workrowd.com or reach out directly at hello@workrowd.com. We’re looking forward to learning more about the specific challenges you may be facing, and seeing how we can plug in to help you reach your goals.

It has now been more than four months since the first states started their lockdowns, and even the most stoic of personalities are beginning to suffer the effects. For the overwhelming majority of us, the pandemic has changed virtually everything about our daily and weekly routines, preventing us from partaking in many of the activities we love, and snarling household responsibilities with children and work now demanding the same hours. While it may seem that most of your employees are managing, even if they may not be at their best, the fear, anxiety, frustration, and exhaustion of recent months cannot be denied. Do yourself and your business a favor by making sure that employee mental health needs are acknowledged and met.

Before we dive into strategies for supporting employee mental health however, let’s examine why it’s so important. Aside from the human factor of wanting your employees to be safe and well, burnout and mental health issues within the workforce come at an extremely high price. The American Psychological Association found that workplace stress costs the U.S. economy more than $500 billion each year, and 550 million workdays are lost annually due to stress. Burned-out employees are 63% more likely to take a sick day. The World Health Organization named stress ‘the health epidemic of the 21^st century’, and Stanford researchers found that workplace stress is to blame for 8% of national healthcare outlays and more than 120,000 deaths each year.

The costs of not supporting employee mental health are clear, but what can you do about it? Luckily, there are a number of options ranging from free to a bit more costly. The first, easiest, and most important thing you can do is to speak openly and honestly to your employees about mental health. Let them know that it’s okay to not be okay, and that your company welcomes whole people who sometimes aren’t their 100% put together professional selves. Normalize talking about mental health and genuine responses to wellbeing questions such as ‘How are you doing?’ Ensure that your workplace empowers employees to share their struggles, so that you can provide them with the support they need to help them feel and perform at their best.

Beyond opening the door for dialogue, it’s also important to ensure that employees know what mental healthcare services are available to them. If you don’t currently offer mental healthcare benefits and you have the budget to do so, consider adding this to your benefits package, both for employees and for their families. Either way, supply clear guidelines as to what employees’ options are when it comes to finding a psychologist or psychiatrist, in layman’s terms and in an easily accessible location. Explain what is offered, and how much each service costs out of pocket so that employees don’t have to worry about being surprised with a financially burdensome bill after seeking help. It’s also crucial that you provide culturally competent mental health professionals to meet the varied needs of your employees and ensure you’re helping rather than setting them up for more harm. If your healthcare plan doesn’t include mental health services, consider exploring the numerous telehealth companies that provide therapy via video call on an a la carte basis as a way to support employees who may be struggling.

Another way to assist employees with mental health is to offer opportunities to practice self-care via activities such as exercise, yoga, and meditation. Your company can provide free or subsidized subscriptions to meditation apps to help encourage participation. Alternatively, you can offer yoga or workout sessions via Zoom, or simply curate and send around a playlist of exercise or yoga-focused YouTube videos so employees have something at the ready when they need a stress break. By building these services and practices formally into your programs, you can show your employees that the company values their mental health and that if they need to take time during their day to go for a walk or stretch in order to help their focus, it is both allowed and encouraged.

Last but certainly not least, connect your employees to one another for much-needed support and discussion. Whether it’s pairing people up for virtual coffee dates, creating small groups and providing them with conversation guides to build camaraderie, or creating a mental health employee resource group, human connection is critical during these difficult times. If you’re looking for support in developing these cohorts, check out Workrowd’s platform. We make it easy to organize and manage employee groups, and maximize transparency and access so everyone can get involved where they feel most comfortable. We help your people find their people, which is essential to maintaining the mental health of your workforce as the pandemic continues. Let us know how we can help at hello@workrowd.com.