Happy Friday, everyone! In the midst of the busy season during the holidays, we wanted to acknowledge and regroup on ways to ensure that you instill a work-life balance among your employees. If you are an employee at a company, this article is also for you as it’s equally important to advocate for your own balance in order to avoid burnout! Keep reading below to find out our top strategies for elongating employee well-being throughout the entire year, despite seasonality in work-flow.

Securing a Healthy Well-being Among Employees

Acknowledge Burn-out

Let’s be real here, we have all experienced feelings of fatigue and burn-out when it comes to our roles! Employees across all industries have succumbed to so much repetition that it can, at times, feel like every day is the same. To mitigate this, we recommend leading with time to recharge. As a leader, it is important to acknowledge that you are the one who sets the atmosphere and expectations for your team. Leaving space (whether this is an hour each day, a time block each week, or even a quarterly ‘wellness PTO day’) for self-care, growth, personal development, reflection, etc. is a great way to remind employees to put themselves first at a regular cadence. Doing so will also demonstrate the value you see in their motivation and ability to maintain a sense of direction and avoid repetition. Especially during busy seasons and the holiday times, if you know a certain team’s schedule is overflowing with events and client experiences, acknowledge the need to reset and recharge. Can you shift a day next week to work from home instead of in the office? Can you afford your team an hour late start to catch up on sleep? No matter how ‘big or small’ the relief is, when an employee knows that their leaders have their back and are invested in their well-being, their longevity at a company is immediately increased.

Remind Employees that they have PTO for a Reason!

PTO is a privilege that should be put on the same priority list as our compensation. Remember, it’s a benefits package for a reason… and make sure to always remind your team to USE their benefits and take a day off for themselves! By utilizing well-earned and well-deserved PTO, employees are guaranteed an opportunity to rejuvenate and ability to avoid the feeling of falling into a stale routine. Also, make sure that you are cascading down the importance of PTO from the top! Think about it like this: if the C-suite, managers, or leaders at a company never take PTO or acknowledge its existence, employees will likely feel unable to engage in the benefit for the sake of matching the expectations of their leaders. It is equally important to showcase your ability to unplug, as well as instill a workflow that can continue in your absence, to allow for PTO and breaks from work.

Create a Space Safe for Honesty

Your employees, and especially your direct reports, should feel comfortable discussing their bandwidth and capacity with you. After all, you’re there to lead, and they are there to learn and follow! So, ensure that you create regular check-ins and set aside time for employees and teammates to discuss their well-being, mental health, motivation levels, and more. Especially as the New Year quickly approaches, it’s never been a better time than now to schedule a recurring coaching meeting for these types of conversations. In the same vein as above, it is crucial to remember that although you may be an approachable and caring manager, employees can often feel intimidated or nervous to share their capacity, burn out, or feelings of being overwhelmed for fear of not meeting performance expectations. Setting the expectation of open communication and growth through honesty is sure to prove more sustainable for long-term employee well-being.

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