Feel good about your finances
Feel good about your finances
Getting on top of your money
Do you feel like you’re in control of your spending, debt, or regular financial in and outgoings?
Research from National Australia Bank (NAB) has revealed that for 26% of Australians getting on top of their finances is their top priority. It’s not surprising financial security is one of the top factors which can impact our personal wellbeing.
Financial safety can bring freedom and confidence, which is a valuable part of maintaining positive mental wellbeing.
According to the Australian Government’s Head to Health, some signs that financial stress is affecting your mental wellbeing include:
- Arguing with the people closest to you about money
- Having trouble sleeping
- Feeling angry or fearful
- Mood swings
- Tiredness
- Loss of appetite
- Withdrawing from others
Seeking support to address financial issues can prevent prolonged impact on a person’s mental wellbeing.
How finance impacts our wellbeing
Managing your money can give you financial freedom to make choices that allow you to enjoy life.
Personal finances are among the top causes of stress for Australians.
The top five causes of stress:
- Personal finances
- Family issues
- Personal health
- Trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle
- Issues with the health of others close to us
The subsequent strain of these can affect our mood, decision-making and daily behaviour.
The Australian Psychological Society research has found people who report higher levels of mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression or distress can be more likely to undertake risky behaviours.
According to Verywell Mind, risk-taking behaviour may give people the feeling that they have more control over their circumstances.
Some examples of this include gambling, smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol and taking recreational drugs.
While many people make goals to ‘be better with money’ – few know what resources are available to assist with money management.
10 steps to boost your financial wellbeing
1. Spend less than you earn
Use your banking app to monitor your spending before you start shopping. Consider saving any non-essential shopping for another time.
2. Take control of your newsfeeds
It’s easy to buy an item you’ve been considering when it repeatedly pops up with a discount or offer. Instead of clicking the ad, mark it as irrelevant or hide the seller.
3. Unsubscribe from mailing lists
It’s easy to spend more when you receive a promotional email from your favourite brand. Consider unsubscribing so you stop receiving regular updates.
4. Create a budget that works for you
Ask yourself, what money is coming in? How much do I spend on essentials? And how much is left over, and where does it go?
Focus on where your left over money goes and if you’re not saving, then consider reducing your spending.
5. Build an emergency fund
Put away money every month to build up funds for when you’re dealing with unexpected costs. Experts say you should aim to save enough to cover 3-6 months’ worth of expenses.
6. Save for the things you want
Saving for non-essentials that you want is a great way to build a positive spending habit. Start by setting up a savings goal in your banking app with automated payments into a savings account.
7. Consolidate your debts
If you want to consolidate your debts, speak to your bank for financial advice or contact the National Debt Helpline.
8. Speak to your workplace employee wellness program
If your money matters are bringing you down, check with your employee wellness program to see how they can support you.
9. Engage a financial counsellor
If you are on a low income or struggling with bills and debt, a financial counsellor can assist you and advise you on what to do. These free services are offered by not-for-profit organisations.
10. Get a better deal
Take the time to see how cost effective your current services are, and what you’re using, can help you see where you could save more money.
You can do this by changing your plan or switching to another provider, e.g. utilities, phone, health insurance, car insurance and roadside assistance etc.
Help your employees boost their financial wellbeing with our comprehensive digital wellbeing platform. Learn more about our solutions or chat to us about how we can help you.
Resources
If you have been impacted by hardship, natural disaster or COVID-19 there are free resources and services available.
There are a range of services available for individuals, business owners, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, farmers along with rural and regional businesses.
- MoneySmart
- National Debt Helpline – 1800 007 007
- Mob Strong Helpline – 1800 808 488
- Small Business Debt Helpline – 1800 413 828
- Rural Financial Counselling Service
Crisis support
If you or someone you know is in crisis and needs help now, call triple zero (000).
For support, contact 24/7 mental health services:
- Lifeline – 13 11 14
- BeyondBlue – 1300 22 4636
- Suicide Call Back Service – 1300 659 467
- Kids Helpline – for young people aged 5-25 – 1800 55 1800
- Open Arms – Veterans and families – 1800 011 046
- Mensline – 1300 78 99 78
Sources
- Financial wellbeing ahead of travel when it comes to new year resolutions – NAB
- Stress and wellbeing How Australians are coping with life – Australian Psychological Society
- Factors associated with risk-taking behaviour – Verywell Mind
- Finances – Head to Health
How to build the best habits for you
How to build the best habits for you
Humans are creatures of habit
When we do something regularly, we’re forming habits. In fact, around 40% of everything we do each day is habitual.
Habits can have positive and negative impacts on our lives, like brushing our teeth or not getting enough sleep.
To form a habit, its good to have an incentive to make completing the action of our habit more appealing.
Using an incentive activates the part of our brain which influences our motivation and reward learning – the amygdala.
The goal of a habit, particularly positive ones, is for the behaviour to become automatic.
Self-control and repetition are cornerstones of forming a habit, but there’s a bit more to understand about how our habit come about.
How habits begin
When it comes to understanding how our habits form, they generally come about in three stages.
- Something creates a trigger – Something will prompt your habit, like a time of day or an emotional state.
- The trigger automates an action – The cause produces an action (your habit) as a result.
- The action provides an outcome – The result of your habit could be a positive or negative outcome.
The power of goals for our habits
The most powerful thing you can have for your habit is a goal. It’s easier to develop a new behaviour or make progress towards an ideal outcome.
When we think about building positive habits, they are often health related.
Examples of health-related habits are exercising regularly, eating a nutritious diet, and drinking more water.
They might also be around making a budget, saving, or learning something new.
These are great habits and will do wonders for your health and wellbeing.
There are also a few that are easy to do and can make a positive difference.
Habits such as practicing gratitude, laughing more and giving compliments are small habits that will give you and those around you a measurable lift.
Tips for creating positive habits
We are what we repeatedly do, so work out your plan and get started with these tips:
- Prioritise – Choose a habit that is important and focus only on that.
- Clarity – Be clear about what the habit is. For example, instead of wanting to exercise more make it specific and measurable.
- Prepare – Before you get started make sure you have what you need. For example, if you’re wanting to stop drinking, get rid of the alcohol in your house.
- Know your ‘why’ – Be clear on why you want to build or break this habit and the benefits it will bring you.
- Commit publicly – Share your goal with family and friends to keep you accountable.
- Know what helps – Be aware of situations that help or hinder your progress. For example, if you’re trying to quit smoking, recognise the situations where you are likely to smoke and avoid them.
- Record progress – Use a journal to write down how you are going each day with your progress.
- Celebrate – Commit to a reward that will motivate you at the outset and make sure you celebrate.
Help your employees change their habits for the better with Springday programs, find better work-life balance, and boost their overall wellbeing with a comprehensive digital wellbeing platform by Springday.
Learn more about our solutions or chat to us about how we can help you.
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Why happiness should be in your team’s strategy
Why happiness should be in your team's strategy
Happiness is a general sense of positivity incorporating both joy and meaning in life.
While we all have different things that make us feel happy, putting happiness in your team and workplace’s strategy is essential for positive wellbeing.
Spending time with people we love, self-care, exercise or activities that make us happy are popular ways to experience joy.
To gain feelings of purpose and meaning in life, we benefit from achieving goals, taking care of loved ones, fulfilling responsibilities, and finding meaning in our work.
Whether it’s our own happiness or that experienced by our team members, it’s important to remember being happy doesn’t mean we are in a constant state of elation – rather, it is generally feeling more positive than negative in your life.
And of course, we all have off days.
The person we think, or who even describes themselves as a happy person, still experiences negative emotions – such as anger, jealousy, sadness, boredom, loneliness, and frustration – from time to time.
To support ourselves and our team members, we can encourage actions and practices to promote optimism and positive feelings – that good days will follow the bad days and there will be happy emotions again.
Promoting positive actions and happiness
Here are 10 things to remember when it comes to promoting positive actions and happiness in ourselves and our teams:
1. Socialise
It’s easy to put off a catch up when we’re feeling off but spending time with people we care about has multiple benefits.
Commit to a time and place with your important people and watch your stress levels go down, while your mental wellbeing and resilience go up.
2. Set goals
And make a plan to achieve them. Setting and achieving goals helps us to feel a sense of purpose and accomplishment.
Be realistic about what you can achieve, but don’t be afraid to set a challenge.
3. Reframe negative thoughts
Challenge negative thoughts – this doesn’t mean ignoring anything bad, but trying to take a balanced view and seek positives from the outcome you’re in.
For example – you need to walk to work because your train was cancelled but the weather is nice, and you will get some good exercise.
4. Smile! If you need to
Fake it till you make it.
Smiling causes our brains to produce dopamine, which makes us happier.
5. Get off socials
Social media is a great way of staying in touch with people when seeing them isn’t always possible, but it can also have a negative impact on our mental wellbeing.
6. Practice gratitude
Take time to recognise the things that bring you happiness.
It can be hard to remember them when we’re down.
Try noting down five things every day that you are grateful for, and it will help to positively shift your mindset.
7. Be in the moment
And savour it. Be fully present and notice the small things that bring you joy.
Pay attention to things that bring you positive emotions and take a moment to recognise how you’re feeling.
8. Practice mindfulness
There are countless tools available for this and it doesn’t need to take long.
Practicing mindfulness can increase your awareness, openness, and acceptance, and is a good opportunity to reset your mind and body.
9. Take care of yourself
From eating well to getting a good night’s sleep.
Taking care of your physical wellbeing and health has a huge impact on our mental wellbeing and happiness.
10. Exercise
It doesn’t have to be for long, even just seven minutes will do the trick.
Exercise releases endorphins which increase happiness so it can be a quick way to feel more positive.
Combine it with a socialising or a specific goal to achieve and you’ll get even more benefits.
A corporate challenge is a great way to promote fun and happiness within your organisation.
Help your employees improve their wellbeing both in the workplace and at home with a custom wellbeing platform by Springday, find out more here.
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Wellbeing and connection
Wellbeing and connection
Build engagement through a corporate challenge
As the boundaries between life and work have continued to blur in a post-pandemic world, the struggle to help employees feel connected within a hybrid working environment has been at the forefront of many discussions around the future of work.
Along with the challenge of building engagement for employees, organisations also need to consider the growing priority of wellbeing amongst workers.
A recent study of over 2,000 Australian employees showed that ‘more than 90% of workers now say their physical and mental wellbeing is just as important as their pay’.
Even prior to the pandemic, ABS reports that more than half (55%) of Australian adults weren’t meeting the recommended levels of physical activity of 150 minutes per week (or 30 minutes, 5 days per week), and 44% of adults described their day at work as mostly sitting.
So, how can organisations start to address this?
Team-based challenges are an excellent way to boost workplace engagement and foster team spirit through a healthy dose of competition.
These challenges bring an element of fun and play into the work environment, bring colleagues together and encourage workplace friendships, whether teams are working remotely or not.
They are also a great way to help employees implement habit-changes and improvements to their wellbeing, showing people that their workplace cares about their physical and mental health.
Here are 4 key things to consider as an organisation who wants to deliver a team-based challenge:
1. Identify the key outcomes for the challenge
It is vital to understand the goal of the challenge to identify an overall theme.
If it is to improve sedentary behaviours and boost fitness, you may consider a step or movement challenge.
It may be to increase social wellbeing and connection, so your challenge could be weekly engagement activities.
Come up with a list of primary and secondary outcomes to help ensure you stay on track with the organisational goals throughout the process.
Note: these goals should align with your overall wellbeing strategy.
2. Develop an engagement plan to get employees on board
It is all well and good to run a challenge for staff to improve their wellbeing, but if they aren’t actually signed up or engaged, it will be pointless for all involved.
Start with a communications plan, and make sure there is plenty of time to get employees excited and informed about the challenge before it actually kicks off.
You will also need to consider some ways to keep people engaged throughout the challenge and once it is over.
Some suggestions are to offer prizes throughout the challenge (rather than just for winners), keep any content or resources bite-sized, and consider having the challenge focused on habit-stacking so the positive changes can be continued even after the challenge is over.
3. Plan on how you are going to measure challenge outcomes
Like any initiative, it is futile to set goals for the challenge if you don’t have a way to measure their success.
Having measurement tools in place can also help you to evaluate the challenge and make suggestions for future improvements.
Springday movement challenges use pre- and post-challenges surveys to track self-reported changes to employee’s wellbeing, as well as changes in step and exercise data from devices.
4. Enlist a technology partner to help you deliver a seamless experience for your people
Now that you have an idea of what sort of challenge you want to run, it is important that your employees have a great experience.
This will be the key difference in whether they actually complete the challenge and stay engaged, or if they quit a week in.
A technology partner, such as Springday, can help you run the challenge and keep your people engaged and interested throughout the experience. This will also allow for people across all functions and roles in the business to get involved.
Using technology that allows for integration with phones and wearable devices means employees can simple sync their own tech, rather than having the added step of entering in daily steps and exercises manually.
Employees can also then feel secure in the knowledge that their data is de-identified and not sitting with their employer.
To read more about the benefits of activating a workforce through challenges, check out our whitepaper.
Contact us here if you’d like to learn more about our corporate step and movement challenges or chat to us about how we can help you.
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Are your employees really ok?
Are your employees really ok?
Why R U OK? Day is just the start for organisational wellbeing
R U OK? is an incredible initiative that most organisations in Australia and New Zealand get behind every September.
As a national day of action, we are encouraged to ask our friends, family, neighbours and colleagues how they are doing, and remind ourselves that we should be having these conversations every day.
Organisations run morning teas, host VIP speakers and put-up posters around the office to show their support, and reiterate the company’s EAP program is available.
While these are all great initiatives, come the following week, the only thing left from R U OK? Day will be some fading posters and a couple of half-eaten stale cupcakes in the back of the office fridge.
While these R U OK? Day initiatives are still a positive step in showing employees you care, without a supportive wellbeing strategy in place they can feel a bit tokenistic.
Talking about mental health for one week of the year will do little to make a difference for your people if wellbeing is shoved to the side the other 51 weeks.
So, how can organisations show their employees they care, every day of the year?
1. Destigmatise mental health
While we all remember to check in on each other around this time of year, we can get so busy and forget to do it regularly.
Talking about mental health more often creates a safe space for employees to open up and feel valued.
As a leader, schedule in 5 minutes at the start of your team meetings to check in on each other, open up about what things you do to manage your mental health, and pay attention to any changes in your team members and regular ask if they are ok and how you can support them.
2. Wellbeing strategy
Having a robust workplace wellbeing strategy in place can help support your employees mental health.
This should be aligned with your organisational goals and be considered in all business decisions.
This will help create a culture of care all year that has a meaningful strategic approach, instead of a collection of benefits that don’t align with their needs.
A mental health workplace policy should be part of this, and include both prevention and intervention strategies to proactively prevent issues as well as support them where needed.
3. Prevent burnout
With the concept of burnout being talked about more and more in workplaces, organisations have a responsibility to put strategies in place to support their people and minimise psychosocial risk.
It’s vital to understand the structures in place that may be leading to employee ill-health.
You can provide your employees with all the mental health resources in the world and encourage them to look after their wellbeing, but if you’re expecting them to work 60-hour weeks with poor job design, they’re still going to experience burnout.
If a job requires people to be working unsustainable hours or creates stress inherently, you need to rethink the job design of the role to prevent stress and burnout at the source.
You may need to review workloads and adjust job responsibilities to ensure roles are healthy and sustainable.
4. Promote flexibility
While not every job role or industry is able to offer flexibility with working from home or differing hours, organisations that can adapt see great benefits in offering flexibility to their staff.
A global workforce study has shown that 89% of employees worldwide prefer to have the choice between working remotely and working in the office, allowing for greater work-life balance.
Encourage staff to take breaks, focus on output and productivity over hours, and ensure your managers lead by example.
Remember that flexibility and work-life balance looks different for everyone, so leaders need to build a culture of trust and care to ensure all staff members feel valued.
Help your employees have meaningful conversations all year round, find better work-life balance, and boost their overall wellbeing with a comprehensive digital wellbeing platform by Springday.
Learn more about our solutions or chat to us about how we can help you.
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National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing: how can workplaces respond?
National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing: how can workplaces respond?
We all know that everything we do in our lives can affect our overall health and wellbeing.
From what we eat, how well we sleep, to how financially secure we are and how satisfied we feel in our career.
For many of these areas of wellbeing, we can visualise how well people are.
Mental health is an invisible area of wellbeing that is often overlooked, yet is impacted by every part of our being.
According to the ABS National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, 43.7% of Australians have experienced a mental disorder at some stage in their life.
They define a mental disorder as ‘a clinically diagnosable disorder that significantly interferes with an individual’s cognitive, emotional or social abilities’.
With the line between work and our personal lives more blurred than ever, it is vital that organisations understand mental health and mental ill-health, and the role they can play in both prevention and intervention for their people.
So, how can workplaces support their employees mental health?
1. Have a robust wellbeing strategy in place
A workplace wellbeing strategy is an informed plan of action to help and support your employees to become happier and healthier.
This should be aligned with your organisational goals and be considered in all business decisions.
Your teams are more likely to adopt a wellbeing initiative that has a meaningful strategic approach, instead of a collection of benefits that don’t align with their needs.
A mental health workplace policy should be part of this, and include both prevention and intervention strategies to proactively prevent issues as well as support them where needed.
It’s important to consider the ‘whole-being’ in any wellbeing strategy. This is because all areas of wellbeing do not exist separately, they are interrelated and directly influence one another.
For example, an employee might be exercising regularly, meditating and getting plenty of sleep, but if they are not financially secure, or are feeling burnt out at work due to poor job design, this can create stress and negatively impact their mental and physical health.
2. Destigmatise mental health in the workplace
It is vital to create a safe environment for employees to focus on their wellbeing without judgement.
We all talk openly about the proactive approaches we take to look after our physical health such as going to the gym and eating well, however there is still often a stigma in the workplace around mental health where it is only ever spoken about in a reactive manner to treat an ‘illness’.
Imagine an environment where one of your people leaders announces they are leaving work an hour early to attend a psychologist appointment, or teams are encouraged to complete a short meditation together at the start of a meeting.
This creates a safe space for employees to take a proactive approach to their wellbeing.
3. Create a culture of care
It is easy for a company to say they care about an employee’s mental health, but you need to put this into action.
If you notice someone struggling or showing signs of burnout, make sure they feel supported in taking time off and accessing support services.
Showing compassion from the top down is vital to showing people you really care.
Leads need to consider employee wellbeing outcomes in decision making, not just revenue.
This creates a more inclusive culture for all staff.
Consider implementing initiatives such as peer support programs or buddy systems to allow staff the opportunity to connect with other people in the organisation.
This can remove some of the barriers of access for people who may not feel comfortable talking with their direct managers, and will impact the overall culture of the company.
4. What gets measured, gets managed
We’ve all heard this many times.
We get our teams to take engagement surveys and we measure retention rates, absenteeism, culture and FTE’s.
How often do you measure your employees actual wellbeing though?
Wellbeing tools that can report back how people are really feeling are essential to measuring the impact of your wellbeing strategy.
Having this data de-identified also gives employees the safety and knowledge that your core value is their wellbeing – not tracking their every move.
Measuring how your people are feeling about their mental health is necessary for informing an aligned wellbeing strategy.
Data and information about wellbeing are important elements to identify risk, analyse wellbeing initiatives, monitor progress and performance, and evaluate outcomes.
For more information on how to approach wellbeing tools, download our Measuring Wellbeing whitepaper.
5. Provide resources and support services
Ensure your employees have access to support services at all times, and that they feel safe to use them.
Partner with an EAP provider to ensure they know anything they disclose is anonymous and that they will have professional help available to them.
If you’re in an industry where vicarious trauma is high-risk, consider implementing mandatory psychologist appointments for staff, or set up mental health champion groups to respond and debrief on incidents.
Your people leaders can also benefit from psychosocial training, such as Mental Health First Aid, so they are equipped to respond and provide a basic level of support.
Consider a digital wellbeing platform as a supporting tool where all employees – from frontline workers to remote or office workers – can access mental health support and resources anywhere, anytime.
This can help overcome some barriers that may get in the way of staff accessing what is available to them.
Contact us here if you’d like to learn more about our solutions or chat to us about how we can help you.
Burnout in the tech industry: what can you do about it?
Burnout in the tech industry: what can you do about it?
Burnout has become a major problem in the tech industry, as many IT workers are struggling with chronic workplace stress and exhaustion.
A 2022 study of more than 36,200 IT professionals across the world has found that two in five tech workers are at high risk of burnout.
This comes as a result of longer hours and more demanding workloads which leave little time for personal life and create work-life conflicts.
The same study also found that 42% of tech workers who are facing high levels of burnout are considering quitting their company in the next six months, while 62% of tech professionals report being physically and emotionally drained.
What is burnout?
According to WHO, burnout is an occupational phenomenon resulting from “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”
Everyone feels some level of stress at work from time to time.
But there’s a difference between feeling tired after a big work week and consistently struggling to find the energy to be productive.
The latter is a common symptom of burnout.
Burnout can happen after a person is exposed to chronic stress for a prolonged period, resulting in emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced professional ability.
It often leads to an employee disconnecting from their workplace, struggling to find meaning in their job and underperforming as a result.
How do you reduce employee burnout in the tech industry?
There are a number of contributing factors that can lead to chronic workplace stress, which leads to burnout.
These five tips can help you prevent burnout in your tech organisation.
1. Focus on communication and support
Ongoing communication and support from managers are crucial.
Employees who feel supported by their managers are 70% less likely to experience burnout regularly.
Encourage managers to have regular meetings, weekly check-ins, and to collaborate regularly via communication channels such as Teams or Slack.
It’s also important to provide more opportunities for feedback, in order to create a continuous flow of constructive feedback from managers and peers.
Ensure that this feedback is then addressed, so that employees feel that their voice is valued and heard.
Employee appreciation is another key factor in ensuring that employees feel supported by their managers.
Everyone wants to feel appreciated, and a simple ‘thank you’ can go a long way in improving the way employees feel about themselves and their work
2. Consider job design
To proactively break the cycle of stress and burnout prevalent in so many tech companies, you need to understand what the main pain points in the business are that are leading to employee burnout.
If a job requires employees to be working unsustainable hours or creates stress inherently, you need to rethink the job design of the role to prevent stress and burnout at the source.
You may need to review workloads and adjust job responsibilities to ensure roles are healthy and sustainable.
On top of this, you should ensure that your IT workers are always given reasonable deadlines for completing their work.
A study by Gallup found that when employees have enough time to do their work, they’re 70% less likely to experience burnout.
3. Foster a positive workplace culture
A 2022 Global Burnout Study found that burnout is predominantly caused by organisational structures and cultures, and is not the fault of the individual.
Creating a positive workplace culture helps to make employees feel more valued, which can reduce their likelihood of burnout.
To create a positive workplace culture, you should promote collaboration, reward employees for their work, be transparent, support diversity, promote inclusion and offer opportunities for learning and development.
4. Offer flexibility
Flexibility is one of the best (and most sought-after) benefits you can offer your employees.
A global workforce study has shown that 89% of employees worldwide prefer to have the choice between working remotely and working in the office.
Another study found that 82% of Millennials said they’d remain more loyal to their employers if they had more flexibility at work.
Employees value employers who empower them to manage their own time.
By sending out a clear message for employees to embrace flexible working, you can help your people find a better work-life balance, which can help prevent burnout.
5. Invest in employee wellbeing
It’s essential to support employees to do things that support their personal health and wellbeing – such as practising good sleep habits, nutrition, exercise, social connection and more – so they can feel and perform their best.
Doing so helps to replenish their physical and emotional energy, along with their capacity to focus.
This is where a fun workplace movement challenge or an employee wellbeing platform can help.
DXC Technology is a tech company which has benefited from investing in both a wellbeing platform and movement challenges for their workforce.
One DXC step challenge – powered by Springday – resulted in a 9% increase in regular exercise and 25% improvement in stress levels, while 15% of participants also reported better sleep.
A Springday wellbeing platform provides a library of expert wellbeing resources, wellbeing assessment tools to track progress, healthy-habit programs, and more.
These can easily be accessed anywhere, anytime via a mobile app or desktop platform, which helps to remove some barriers that may get in the way of staff accessing the wellbeing resources you provide.
We have several different solutions that can help you support your employees to prevent burnout through managing stress, finding better work-life balance, and boosting their overall wellbeing.
Book a free consultation with us to find out more.
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Preventing stress and burnout through cultural and structural shifts
Preventing stress and burnout through cultural and structural shifts
While issues concerning wellbeing as a result of people’s working environment – such as stress and burnout – may have already existed before COVID-19, the pandemic was merely the catalyst that brought them into the spotlight.
Despite much of the pandemic being (hopefully) behind us, burnout is still a growing phenomenon in the workplace.
According to the Global Burnout Study, which was published early this year, burnout has increased by over 5% in the last year. And rates of burnout continue to rise with more pressure on the global economy.
While rising rates of burnout have led many organisations to invest in employee wellbeing, many of these look at wellbeing as a box-ticking exercise and aren’t addressing the root causes of workplace stress and burnout.
Here are four tips for tackling sources of stress and burnout in your workforce while supporting employee wellbeing.
1. Establish an informed wellbeing strategy
In order to make a real impact, the workplace wellbeing process needs to begin by developing a clear strategy.
This is more than just wellbeing initiatives!
Yes, initiatives can be beneficial, but they need to be tied together with an informed strategy.
A strategy takes an integrated approach that supports the wellbeing of employees day-to-day, year-round, and is embedded in all business decisions.
A workplace wellbeing strategy is an informed plan of action put in place to help your employees become happier and healthier.
Your teams are more likely to adopt a wellbeing initiative that has a meaningful strategic approach, instead of a collection of benefits that don’t align with their needs.
Initiatives without strategy can fall flat because they might not align with the needs of your workforce, and don’t have a clear goal.
A strategy ensures that wellbeing initiatives are linked to measurable outcomes for your business and your people.
2. Foster an organisational culture of wellbeing
The Global Burnout Study found that burnout is predominantly caused by organisational structures and cultures, and is not the fault of the individual.
Without addressing necessary cultural shifts within your organisation as a part of your wellbeing strategy, your initiatives can be futile.
When you create a strategy, it needs to be integrated into your organisational culture and overall business plan.
An organisational culture of wellbeing starts at the top with senior leaders and managers, who need to lead by example and inspire others to proactively prioritise their health and wellbeing.
Without this buy-in from the top, organisations are never going to see success in rolling out their wellbeing strategy.
Any workplace wellbeing offerings should be championed by leaders and managers within the organisation, and personal prioritisation of wellbeing should be encouraged and celebrated.
When everybody prioritises wellbeing, it creates a more inclusive culture and a better employee experience.
3. Consider your job design
On top of promoting wellbeing in the workplace, you also need to take a look at the structures in place that may be leading to employee ill-health.
You can provide your employees with all the mental health resources in the world and encourage them to look after their wellbeing, but if you’re expecting them to work 60-hour weeks with poor job design, they’re still going to experience burnout.
Structural shifts are an essential proponent of workplace wellbeing.
To proactively break the cycle of stress and burnout within an organisation, you need to understand what the main pain points in the business are that are leading to employee burnout.
If a job requires people to be working unsustainable hours or creates stress inherently, you need to rethink the job design of the role to prevent stress and burnout at the source.
You may need to review workloads and adjust job responsibilities to ensure roles are healthy and sustainable.
4. Make wellbeing resources accessible
The key to engaging employees in daily healthy behaviours that will help them feel and perform their best, is to make it simple.
With so many conflicting priorities in our busy lives, it’s important to ensure wellbeing activities don’t feel like too much extra work.
Everyone across your workforce – no matter their title, location, race, gender, ability or otherwise – should be empowered with the information and the tools to make wellbeing a part of their everyday lives.
There have been so many changes to the way we work since the pandemic, which can make it harder to put wellbeing initiatives in place that are accessible to employees at all levels of the organisation.
All workers – from office workers to remote workers to frontline workers – can benefit from a digital wellbeing platform as this allows them to access wellbeing resources anywhere, anytime.
This helps to remove some barriers that may get in the way of staff accessing the wellbeing resources you provide.
Partnering with Springday as your wellbeing partners not only gives your workforce access to a wide range of wellbeing resources at the click of the button via a desktop browser or mobile app, but it also provides you with strategic advice and ongoing support from your wellbeing experts.
Learn more about our solutions or chat to us about how we can help you.
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The ‘whole being’: taking a holistic approach to employee wellbeing
The 'whole being': taking a holistic approach to employee wellbeing
It’s no secret that a happy, healthy and engaged workforce is key to improved corporate performance – and recognition of this has led to workplace wellbeing becoming a ‘must-have’ in most organisations.
However, investing in employee wellbeing should go beyond absence management, illness prevention and physical fitness.
Wellbeing is more than just getting regular exercise and eating healthy foods.
Yet many health and wellbeing programs still only look at these physical aspects.
It’s time we zoom out and look at the bigger picture of holistic wellbeing and consider the ‘whole being’.
Why take a ‘whole being’ approach to employee wellbeing?
While wellbeing has become essential for many organisations, it’s common to focus mainly on physical and/or mental health.
While these are two important components of an individual’s wellbeing, there is more to be considered.
Someone may take excellent care of their mental and physical health through healthy eating, meditation, and exercise, but if they’re unhappy in their career, they aren’t fulfilled in their relationships, or their financial situation is out of control, this can have a domino effect on their overall wellbeing.
Organisations need to adopt a holistic, or ‘whole being’, approach to wellbeing in order to make a real difference.
A holistic approach considers the many different factors that make up a person’s wellbeing and is more likely to be successful in terms of impact on individual employees and the business at large.
What are the five key pillars of a holistic wellbeing strategy?
At Springday, we’ve identified five core pillars which affect overall wellbeing.
These pillars are physical, emotional, social, career, and financial.
The reason a holistic approach is so important is that these pillars of wellbeing do not exist separately, they are interconnected and directly impact one another.
1. Physical wellbeing
Physical wellbeing is probably one of the first things your mind goes to when you think of wellbeing.
It’s your physical health – including fitness, energy, sleep and nutrition.
Corporate physical wellbeing programs have been around for a long time, with the traditional approach thinking that offering a free gym program ticked all the boxes.
Thankfully, physical wellbeing initiatives have now expanded to incorporate not only corporate gym memberships, but also step challenges, sleep programs, alcohol and drug information, access to recipes and nutritional education, and access to on-demand workouts.
2. Emotional wellbeing
Emotional wellbeing is the state of your mental health, such as positive emotions and stress levels.
Emotional wellbeing has come into the spotlight more than ever over the last few years, and many organisations have started implementing wellbeing initiatives that aim to strengthen employee mental health and prevent burnout
Many organisations will offer company-wide ‘wellness’ or ‘recharge’ days, or mental health seminars as a part of their emotional wellbeing program.
While these initiatives can be beneficial, you need to be doing more if you want to make a real difference in the emotional wellbeing of employees.
You should actively work to create an inclusive work culture by destigmatising and increasing awareness of mental health in your organisation, providing a space where employees feel safe to open up.
You may also need to address the root cause of stress and burnout by assessing your organisational culture and job structures.
The Global Burnout Study, which was published early this year, found that burnout is predominantly caused by work design and culture.
Allowing for flexible working arrangements and promoting work-life balance through flexible working policies, encouraging staff to take regular breaks and limiting email hours, can also be beneficial for reducing stress and burnout.
3. Social wellbeing
Social wellbeing comes from satisfaction in your social relationships and a sense of belonging, both within and outside of the workplace.
Although it’s an often-overlooked pillar, social wellbeing is a vital component of your overall health and wellbeing.
Social wellbeing in the workplace can stem from relationships with colleagues, alignment with company values, and feeling valued as a person, colleague and employee.
It’s the role of HR leaders and managers to ensure the work environment is a suitable place for employees to foster positive relationships and develop lasting friendships, many of which can transcend beyond the office.
Nurturing the social wellbeing of your people comes down to creating a sense of belonging and showing your employees you care about them personally (not just how they impact the bottom line) and appreciate the work that they do.
It’s also beneficial to encourage social interactions and make time for fun outside of the workplace as well (e.g., team lunches, virtual catch-ups).
4. Career wellbeing
Career wellbeing is all about your level of satisfaction in your current job, including how often you feel positive, engaged and productive.
It’s also about how you feel about your career prospects tomorrow and how your work is helping you achieve what you want out of life.
It’s about having a sense of purpose and direction and feeling satisfied with where you’re at in your career.
Leadership programs, coaching and mentoring, skills training and career progression opportunities all help to nurture an employee’s career wellbeing.
On top of this, you can also provide them with resources from experts that can help them learn the skills to better manage their time, reduce their stress levels, find purpose in their work and feel more satisfied in their career.
5. Financial wellbeing
Financial wellbeing is how satisfied you feel with your current financial situation, including managing your finances.
It’s about having the financial freedom to make choices that allow you to enjoy life.
Financial wellbeing is intrinsically linked with all other areas of wellbeing.
Poor financial wellbeing can negatively impact mental health and stress levels.
On the other hand, having good financial wellbeing has a positive flow on effect on all other areas of an individual’s life.
Yet, how can you help employees take control of their financial situation when even talking about money or salaries can feel taboo?
By providing resources to help employees learn money management techniques, such as tracking spending and budgeting, securing their financial future with investments and superannuation, and how to tackle debt.
A custom wellbeing platform built by Springday allows you to implement initiatives and provide expert resources for employees that address all five pillars of wellbeing, tied together by a holistic wellbeing strategy.
Learn more about our solutions or chat to us about how we can help you.
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More than just initiatives: the importance of a workplace wellbeing strategy
More than just initiatives: the importance of a workplace wellbeing strategy
Workplace wellbeing has become more than just a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have.
However, many organisations look at wellbeing as a box-ticking exercise and have limited or fragmented wellbeing initiatives with no way of measuring their impact on employees.
These initiatives are often selected at random and don’t address the many different components that make up an individual’s wellbeing.
The company will pay for yoga classes, compensate gym memberships, or have a once-off company-wide ‘wellness day’ and the box is ticked, the program is considered complete.
However, to really make a difference in the wellbeing of employees, it takes more than just wellbeing initiatives!
Yes, these initiatives can be beneficial, but they need to be tied together with an informed strategy.
A strategy takes an integrated approach that supports the wellbeing of employees day-to-day, year-round, and is embedded in all business decisions.
Why is a workplace wellbeing strategy important?
A workplace wellbeing strategy is an informed plan of action put in place to help your employees become happier and healthier.
Your teams are more likely to adopt a wellbeing initiative that has a meaningful strategic approach, instead of a collection of benefits that don’t align with their needs.
There are many initiatives that you can implement to improve the wellbeing of your staff.
These can include physical health programs or challenges, mental wellbeing resources, mindfulness practices, personal development opportunities, and more.
What ties all of these initiatives together is a strategy.
Initiatives without strategy can fall flat because they might not align with the needs of your workforce, and don’t have a clear goal.
A strategy ensures that wellbeing initiatives are linked to measurable outcomes for your business and your people.
An informed wellbeing strategy that aligns well with your health and safety practises will help you address risk factors within your work environment and enable employees to thrive.
It will also articulate your organisation’s commitment to employee wellbeing and help embed the strategy in your company’s overall vision and culture.
What should a workplace wellbeing strategy consider?
Many organisations put initiatives in place that address the mental or physical health of employees, but fail to address the other pillars that make up a person’s wellbeing.
While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to developing a robust health and wellbeing strategy, the fundamental elements should support every aspect of your teams’ health.
At Springday, we take a holistic approach to wellbeing.
We’ve identified five core pillars which affect overall wellbeing. These pillars are physical, emotional, social, career, and financial.
The reason a holistic strategy is so important is that these pillars of wellbeing do not exist separately, they are interconnected and directly impact one another.
For example, if someone eats nutritious foods, exercises regularly and practises meditation, they’re covering all the bases in terms of their physical and mental health.
But if they’re struggling financially, the stress from this can have a domino effect on their mental and physical health.
So, establishing a strategic, integrated and holistic approach to wellbeing is more likely to be successful in terms of impact on employees and efficient use of resources.
Three tips for creating a wellbeing strategy
1. Measure the wellbeing of your organisation
Without being able to measure the core issues of wellbeing within your organisation, initiatives can be futile.
It’s important that you assess the levels of wellbeing within your organisation, so you can act on improvements that matter.
Just as any project needs tools and a framework to measure its success and impact, wellbeing needs to be measured to ensure activities are targeted and impactful (plus, this helps with ROI!).
You need to know what your employee’s needs are and identify areas of risk to make the improvements necessary to make a real difference.
Measuring wellbeing is necessary for informing an appropriate wellbeing strategy.
Data and information about wellbeing are useful for identifying risks and issues, analysing options, monitoring progress and performance, and evaluating outcomes.
Indicators can also help to identify areas of need when creating a wellbeing strategy that is integrated into overall organisational culture.
Want to know more about measuring wellbeing? Download our Measuring Wellbeing whitepaper here.
2. Embed your wellbeing strategy into your culture
The issue with a lot of workplace wellbeing strategies is that they’re often treated as an add-on.
Once you’ve developed a strategy, make sure that it is prioritised when you roll it out and integrate it into your overall business plan.
Put wellbeing initiatives on meeting agendas and refer to wellbeing regularly in team meetings.
If you’re offering additional time off and flexible work, make sure people take it and don’t make them feel bad about asking.
On top of this, make sure they aren’t going to have more work on their plate when they come back.
Have senior management and team leaders champion the wellbeing strategy.
The success of your strategy rests on how well you and your managers practice what they preach.
Every business decision should consider employee wellbeing outcomes, not just profit.
When everybody prioritises wellbeing, it creates a more inclusive culture and a better employee experience.
3. Invest in a wellbeing partner
Creating and implementing an informed, holistic wellbeing strategy on your own can be challenging and time consuming.
Investing in a third-party wellbeing partner can help you take the guesswork out of your strategy and ensure that all of your offerings are centralised, while giving you expert support from people that have done it many times before.
Ideally, when investing in employee wellbeing, you want a good return on investment.
Keeping that in mind, one-stop shop solutions like Springday are an excellent option for producing the best wellbeing outcomes for your budget.
When all of your wellbeing offerings are in one place, it’s much easier to align them with your goals and keep track of what features people value most.
We can help you assess your organisational needs and evaluate your employees’ wellbeing and engagement to develop a tailored, holistic wellbeing strategy for your workforce.
Aggregate data from our Wellbeing Check Tool provides a basis for creating this strategy, while also providing the insights needed to monitor progress and performance over time and evaluate the outcomes of the strategy.
Contact us here if you’d like to learn more about our solutions or chat to us about how we can help you.