5 ways to promote employee wellbeing in the remote workplace

In light of Mental Health Awareness Week, we’ve covered five tips for looking after employee wellbeing during COVID-19. 

Employee wellbeing is a fundamental part of our Moneypenny culture, and now that we are all working remotely and facing some unprecedented challenges, we’ve been exploring new ways to prioritise the health & wellbeing of our people.

In this blog, we’ll share five ways you can promote a positive culture and employee wellbeing in your workplace, no matter where you’re currently working from.

1. Maintain a positive work-life balance

Achieving a good work-life balance has always been key to promoting positive mental wellbeing. But as we grow increasingly connected through technology and social media, this becomes much more of a challenge.

When working from home, it can be even more difficult to step away from our screens and switch off, as we receive less human interaction. That’s why it’s important to ensure we take proper lunch breaks and get fresh air during the day.

Using digital calendars such as Google Calendar or Teamup, will allow you to set desktop reminders to give yourself a nudge to take that tea break or lunch hour so that you stay in check with a normal and healthy working routine – this includes finishing up for the day within usual office hours and unwinding away from your inbox!

2. Check-in with your teammates daily

Working from home can be an isolating experience, especially for those colleagues who live alone. Schedule in a time to chat with your employees on a daily basis. Find a tool that works for your team; be it an instant messaging platform like Microsoft Teams or a video conferencing facility such as Zoom.

Even just a quick chat first thing in the morning will help motivate your employees for the day ahead and offer them a chance to share any pressing issues or concerns – a fantastic alternative to physical face-to-face meetings.

Keeping your employees informed with special announcements and important news is also a crucial part of maintaining their engagement and involvement with the company’s vision and goals. Here at Moneypenny, we use Workplace from Facebook to share company-wide updates and daily goings-on so nobody in the business feels out of the loop – even those away on maternity leave or holiday.

3. Embrace new ways of working

Working away from the office, as a distributed team, requires you to think more carefully about the ways you communicate and collaborate with your employees.

Consider the various digital tools you could implement to strengthen collaboration amongst your team. Project management tools like Trello or Monday.com, for example, empower staff with a sense of ownership and accountability, whilst helping everyone to understand tasks and manage workloads so they don’t risk becoming burdensome.

Again, an instant chat platform like MS Teams or Slack, provides team members with a casual space to share thoughts & ideas and keeps conversations flowing throughout the day, without the level of formality or delay of an email thread.

4. Introduce virtual team-building activities

Team-building is an important part of workplace culture. But with social distancing measures anticipated to be in place for a long time, it’s a great idea to create new ways to interact with your teammates outside of the work environment. This helps to keep those relationships strong, particularly between colleagues who otherwise may have only little interaction during the remote working day.

Again, incorporating a digital tool or platform can offer a space to come together for post-work drinks on a video call or hosting a virtual team quiz.

Keeping active can also be a challenge when working from home. Introducing virtual gym classes, yoga lessons, or mindfulness groups via Facebook live stream or videos can prove to be fun and help to promote both physical and mental health.

5. Recognise and reward

Whether it’s a birthday, a workversary, or a great achievement; it’s so important to mark those key milestones and accomplishments – even when you’re not there in person!

Maybe it’s a simple ‘happy birthday’ team singalong on a video call, a cake in the post, a thank you card, or a gift voucher – showing appreciation for your employees and their efforts will have a hugely positive impact on their wellbeing, and in turn, this will help to build a positive workplace culture that helps to support good staff retention rates and excellent brand reputation. You can find out more on our tips for creating a great workplace culture, outside of the office, here.