Employees who fail to maintain a healthy work-life balance have poor workplace morale and productivity, experience higher rates of depression and anxiety, and report feeling burnt out and fatigued more often. This makes it crucial for employers to assist their employees in maintaining a healthy work-life balance. This can be done through meeting their personal and professional needs with things like offering employee benefits, a focus on healthy wellbeing, encouraging time away from the office and workplace devices, and more.
1. Allow for more flexible schedules
The traditional 9-5 work week was invented by Henry Ford for vehicle production workers, not modern-day office workers with cloud technology tools at their disposal. Not all employees have the same wants, needs, or preferences, especially when it comes to schedules. Giving employees the freedom to work during less traditional hours that work better for them will increase their workplace satisfaction, and gives them the time needed to do what’s most important in their lives.
It also means that employees will be more prepared for work, whether it means coming into the office earlier in the morning, or staying later into the evening. If your workplace situation allows for it, letting employees work remotely is another way to address the issue of flexible work schedules.
2. Offer employee benefits
One of the main concerns that affect people in both their personal and professional lives is worrying about the ability to pay for health-related expenses. The most direct way of addressing these concerns is by offering employee benefits including health and dental coverage, allowing them to address personal health issues in an inexpensive manner with support from their employer.
Employee benefits offered by the Chambers Plan includes health, dental, and drug benefits that can go a long way in maintaining a healthier work-life balance. These employee benefits are even more beneficial when they cover other members of an employee’s family, reducing household stress and ensuring that your employees and their families are well cared for. It’s important to remember that employee benefits cost far less for employers to offer than for employees to pay for out of pocket, and goes a long way in increasing workplace morale and satisfaction.
3. Encourage time away from the workplace and work devices
Time away from the office both physically and mentally can go a long way in improving the work-life balance of an employee. This can mean things like encouraging time away from the office for personal and family time, allowing for mental health days, and generally encouraging employees to turn off notifications for work emails, texts, and phone calls during time away from the office. Your team can turn on working hours features in their digital calendar apps to ensure that they are not booked for meetings outside of office hours, and can forward calls to voicemail systems to ensure that they don’t miss anything important. Encouraging the use of vacation time is another great way of ensuring that employees take time away to focus on themselves and spend time with the people who matter most to them.
4. Put a greater spotlight on mental health
Employees are generally happier when they aren’t afraid to bring their mental health issues to the people they work with and for, making it important to put a greater focus on mental wellbeing in the workplace. In essence, it means creating an atmosphere of acceptance rather than one of the stigmas, encouraging employees to come to you with their struggles and to feel more comfortable when it comes to requesting time off or workplace accommodations in order to better address their mental health needs. Offering an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) in your employee benefits program is a great way to help employees who may need the services of a counsellor or mental health expert.
5. Conduct regular check-ins
The best way to know whether your employees are struggling with maintaining their work-life balance is to meet with them directly on regular intervals. This gives you an opportunity to check in on how they’re doing professionally and personally, allows employees to voice concerns about things like benefits that they would like to have, and lets you get a better idea of what the wants and needs of your workforce is in terms of employee benefits.
Maintaining a better work-life balance is an extremely important step in hosting a happier, healthier, and more productive workforce. The most effective way to do this is to identify the needs of your employees and meet them through employee benefits, time away from the office, and compassion. The Chambers Plan representatives at Kennedy Insurance can help you craft an employee benefits program that can help to better improve the work-life balance of your workforce while at the same time taking into consideration the needs of your business.
Contact Kennedy Insurance today to find out how we can help your business easily and affordably help employees focus on creating a stronger and healthier work-life balance.