To achieve success for your business and your team in our post-Covid world, employers must deliver on their wellbeing pledge to their employees.
A focus on wellbeing is one of the main conditions employees look for from their employer – and this has only increased since the start of the pandemic; the best finance employees will not consider working for an employer who is not serious about their wellbeing offering.
Are you delivering a great wellbeing programme for your team?
The Importance of Your Wellbeing Pledge
Wellbeing in the workplace is vital in our post-pandemic world; never before has there been such a significant threat to the public’s physical and mental health.
In a CIPD report released just before the pandemic, a disappointing 44% of employers have a standalone wellbeing strategy to support their employees, and while this is up from 40% in 2019, it shows that there is still a lot of work to do.
Fail to provide excellent wellbeing strategies for your employees means you risk a range of problems such as sickness, absenteeism, presenteeism, physical and mental health problems and disengagement.
Fail to provide an excellent wellbeing strategy for your employees for a long period, and you risk not being able to attract or retain quality employees.
The following are some key leadership behaviours that can increase wellbeing in your current team and work to attract the best candidates to your organisation in future.
1. Reinforce Your Company Wellbeing Pledge
For many teams, the past few months have been about simply surviving and getting through the weeks; there may have been little time for wellbeing initiatives to be revisited.
Ensure that you have an excellent wellbeing programme in place and that it is adhered to.
Despite Covid, are you making sure your team are taking their holidays and that they’re not overworked? What are you doing to ensure that remote employees are getting the right work-life balance and that they are supported in their roles with tech or any other type of assistance they need to do their jobs well?
2. Reduce Uncertainty
With everything that has happened recently, you can expect there to be an increased level of stress and anxiety within your team. Bear in mind that things may be happening for them both inside and out of the workplace.
Being clear on the role and organisational policies and strategies and reducing uncertainty is an excellent way to help employees feel secure, which will help their wellbeing, and there are a few different ways you can do this.
Being honest, always, and creating an environment where openness is encouraged is a great way to foster certainty and security in your team. Please speak to your team and actively listen to them; excellent, clear communication is essential.
3. Looking After Physical and Mental Health
Promoting good physical and mental health is something that you should champion as a leader and a role model.
This includes ensuring that Covid guidelines are adhered to. After several months of being back in the office, are people still socially distancing and handwashing or disinfecting as much as they were? Set a good example and make sure that all government guidelines are being followed.
During the past few months, as a leader, you may have felt pressure due to uncertainty and changing circumstances. As a result, you may have reacted to this by working extra, working late and the stress that comes with being under pressure in your role.
Your team will look to you for their cues on how to behave at work, whether you realise it or not. Look after your own mental and physical health – make sure you are taking enough time off, try to avoid unhealthy habits, get enough sleep, eat well and exercise. But importantly, make sure you are encouraging your team to do the same.
Finally
When it comes to your wellbeing pledge, remember that prevention is better than the cure.
As a recruiter, I have witnessed many great employees choose to leave an employer due to a lack of a wellbeing programme – don’t let this happen in your organisation.
Create an environment where employees feel that their physical and mental health is being properly supported and that they have everything they need to do their jobs and do them well. Creating a reputation as an employer with a dedication to your wellbeing pledge and you will become the first choice for the best talent, over employers who are still falling behind when it comes to looking after their teams.
If you are currently looking for new accounting talent, and need help attracting the very best candidates to your business, we can help.
Contact me on 01282 930930 or get in touch here to find out how we source the best finance candidates for your organisation.
Thanks,
Rachel
About Rebus Financial Recruitment
Rebus Financial Recruitment provides a specialist and focused recruitment service to its customers, which historically range from a wide variety of organisations including SME’s to large PLCs.
We strive to offer both the client and candidate a seamless recruitment experience. Using our expertise, we get to the heart of employer and employee needs; and, in doing so, we match the two perfectly. To find out more, get in contact with one of our team today, or you can call us on 01282 930930.
