June 2022 - Culture Works

How to Manage Wellness in the Workplace

Employee Managing Their Wellness in the Workplace

How to Manage Time, Wellness, and Self: Part Two

To manage personal wellness, individuals need to make conscious efforts with the goal of improving physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health.

While often associated with yoga classes, seminars, and green juice smoothies, personal wellness should be more a long-term, evolving process than a short-term, achievable goal. Although we admit, we do enjoy yoga, seminars, and green juice smoothies – Who says you can’t have both?

Wellness isn’t only significant at home or in the workplace. You should consider and adjust both aspects of your life in your journey toward personal wellness.

So, we’re here with the second part of our three-part series. Today, we’re discussing strategies to manage your personal well-being in the workplace.

What is Wellness in the Workplace?

Wellness in the workplace refers to the mental and physical health of employees in the company. Therefore, your efforts to improve wellness may include elements intended to support healthy behaviors as well as reduce risks to both mental and physical health. By addressing these risks and practicing healthy behaviors, you can improve your work life as well as prevent more serious health issues in the future.

How Do Companies Improve Employee Wellness?

Companies may take a number of approaches to improve employee wellness. For example:

Wellness Activities
Free Medical Screenings
Health Coaching
Health Club Memberships
Stress Management Practices
On-Site Fitness Programs or Facilities
Accessible Kitchens or Healthy Food options
Company Wellness Competitions
Wellness Education: Programs, Courses, Online Resources

In addition to utilizing the wellness resources provided by your company, you can also implement several strategies to manage your own wellness in the workplace. Let’s dive in.

How to Manage Your Personal Wellness

For many people, wellness can be difficult to prioritize amongst packed schedules, demanding projects, and a busy personal life. However, investing in your personal well-being can help you build healthy habits to better navigate these obstacles.

Prioritize a Proper Sleep Schedule

According to Fort HealthCare Business Health, reducing your sleep by as little as an hour and a half for just one night could result in daytime alertness being reduced by as much as 32%. Further, reduced sleep can also impair your brain’s ability to process and store information as well as problem-solve.

The adult body requires approximately six or seven hours of sleep per night to function correctly. Prioritize sleep by first deciding what your schedule will be including a goal time to wake up and a goal time to go to sleep. Consider implementing strategies to help you keep this schedule, such as:

Setting alarms to remind yourself to get ready for bed
Designing a calming nighttime routine
Turning off devices at a certain time
Skipping naps (we know, we know! But naps can make it difficult to sleep at night and lead to drowsiness or grogginess, especially if the nap is after 3 pm.)
Create a quiet and dark environment to sleep

Take Steps to Manage Your Stress

Work-related stress can cause you to feel unhappy with both your job and your personal life. The good news is that there are a few strategies you can use to manage your stress and improve your personal wellness.

Find Your Stressors

Try to pinpoint your stressors by asking yourself what exactly is making you feel stressed and why? You may choose to keep a journal to record your thoughts as well as information about stressful circumstances. This technique can help you to learn more about your specific stressors so you can better prepare for and respond to similar events in the future.

Develop Healthy Responses to Stress

Common poor responses to workplace stress may include stress-eating and shutting down. These habits can be tough to break so we suggest slowly transitioning into healthier options– seems a little counterintuitive to stress yourself out about not responding to stress correctly, right?

Instead, replace these habits with healthier alternatives. Consider a quick walk around the block in the sunlight, a meditation break, or even just a couple of minutes of breathing exercises to allow yourself to slow down, process, and figure out the best way to navigate the situation.

Set Aside Time to Recharge

Brains and bodies require rest to recharge and function efficiently. To recharge, you should be taking time to completely disconnect from work–no thinking about work while making dinner, no tinkering with a project while watching tv at night. When you come back to work after recharging, you’ll likely find yourself feeling focused and productive.

Socialize and Communicate

Isolation and a lack of communication can negatively impact your mental health and well-being, both in your work and personal life. Socializing can sharpen cognitive skills, reduce stress as well as contribute to your sense of happiness and well-being. Set aside time to spend with your friends and family and try to keep these plans.

As for socializing in the workplace, communication can foster relationships among colleagues and ensure you are getting the support you need.

Learn more about supporting your company culture through human connection, here.

Be Patient With Yourself

At Culture Works, we want to remind you that personal wellness is a constant process and deliberate effort; don’t be hard on yourself if you struggle to pick up these habits right away! Be patient with yourself in your journey toward personal wellness.

“Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection.” — Kim Collins.

Stay Tuned for Part Three!

Stay tuned for part three of our series, where we’ll discuss how to manage self.

Do you have a positive company culture? Find out by reading our article “Five Signs You Have a Positive Company Culture.”

June 26, 2022

How to Leverage Learning and Development to Improve Employee Retention

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man sitting with laptop smiling at a coffee shop

Recently, employees’ priorities and desires have shifted—especially as a result of the pandemic.

Many individuals previously valued high-end office amenities and compensation above all else. Now, however, the list of desires has changed dramatically. (That’s not to say that brag-worthy offices and compensation don’t matter!)

There is one element that employers can leverage to improve employee retention: enter learning and development (L&D). Let’s continue this conversation on how to leverage learning and development to improve employee retention.

What is Learning and Development?

Learning and development (L&D) is an HR function defined as “a systematic process to enhance an employee’s skills, knowledge, and competency, resulting in better performance in a work setting.”

In Human Resource Management, Back to Basics by Filip Lievens, it’s written that the goal of L&D is “to develop or change the behavior of individuals or groups for the better, sharing knowledge and insights that enable them to do their work better, or cultivate attitudes that help them perform better.”

So, what does this look like in real life? L&D can look like a variety of things depending on the business making the investment. For example:

One-on-one coaching
Seminars and/or workshops
Continued education
And more!

Infographic of How to Leverage Learning and Development to Improve Employee Retention

What Are the Benefits of Learning and Development?

There are various benefits—for both employees and employers—when it comes to implementing an effective L&D strategy for your business. Some of the benefits include:

Increased productivity
Reduced workplace risk
Increased job satisfaction
And of course, increased retention (which in turn leads to financial savings!)

How Learning and Development Improves Employee Retention

Increased employee retention is one of the best benefits of a successful learning and development strategy. In fact, according to a LinkedIn study, “94% of employees would stay at a company for longer if the business was investing in their career development.” Wow, that’s a statistic that can’t be ignored!

Moreover, L&D is something that you can’t ignore—especially given the Great Resignation that we’re observing now. The job market is HOT, and research shows that 86% of professionals would change jobs if a new company offered more opportunities for professional development.

PS: Employers who are fearful of the Great Resignation… Check out one of our latest articles on how to prevent the Great Resignation in your business.

How Can You Make Learning and Development Possible for Your Business?

We know, all of this L&D talk sounds great… But how can you make L&D possible for YOUR business? Below, we’ve listed three tips for getting started.

Incorporate Learning and Development Right Off The Bat

Many employers make the mistake of not implementing learning and development for new hires until they’re “comfortable” in their roles. Professional development, however, should be accessible from the get-go. This will ensure L&D has a more profound impact on an employee’s experience.

Build Learning and Development into Everyone’s Schedules

We know, everyone is busy! Whether it’s monthly or quarterly, it’s important to set aside a designated time for L&D on everyone’s calendars.

Make Learning and Development Accessible

Contrary to popular belief, L&D doesn’t have to break the bank. In fact, it’s often cheaper than many of the other perks you might offer your employees. That being said, learning and development opportunities should be spread across the board—and not just available to key employees and executives.

In fact, coaching has been named one of the most requested employee benefits, and the results are a win-win for both employee and employer. The bottom line? All of your employees are worth the investment of L&D!

Interested in learning more? Read on to see how learning and development can transform your company culture.

June 12, 2022

How to Manage Time

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How to Manage Time, Wellness, and Self: Part One

Today, the average employee has a lot on their plate. In addition to work, they have to worry about managing their time, their own personal wellness, and self. At Culture Works, we recognize that many might not know where to start. (Yes, it can be overwhelming!)

Moreover, sharing these tips with your employees from the top down can prove extremely beneficial.

So, we’re here with the first part of our three-part series. Today, we’re talking about time management.

How to Level Up Your Time Management Skills

What is time management anyway? According to MindTools, time management is “the process of organizing and planning how to divide your time between different activities.”

At Culture Works, we believe that there are three pillars that contribute to successful time management.

Awareness
Arrangement
Adaptation

Let’s talk about each in a bit more detail.

Awareness

What is awareness? When it comes to time management, awareness is thinking realistically about your time by understanding it’s a limited resource.

There are many practices to develop awareness. Here are two practices that we’ve found to work at Culture Works:

Define Your Peak Performance Time

Break your typical day into three to four time slots. For example:

Early morning: 6 am to 9 am
Late morning: 9 am to 12 pm
Afternoon: 12 pm to 3 pm
Evening: 3 pm to 6 pm

Your time slots, based on your work and self, might look different! Perhaps you have three slots of longer time as opposed to four. The options are endless.

Anyway, once you’ve broken apart your day, over the course of a week, rank-order these slots from your most to least productive. Then, organize your to-do list based on your hours of peak productivity.

Shift Your Perspective

Another practice to develop awareness is by gaining some perspective. When working, ask yourself: How will the tasks I am doing right now help or hurt me in the future?

Then, adjust your work accordingly.

Arrangement

Let’s move on to the second pillar of time management: Arrangement. Proper arrangement means designing and organizing your goals, plans, schedules, and tasks to use time effectively.

There are many practices to take control of arrangement. Here are two practices that we’ve found to work at Culture Works:

Schedule Protected Time

Interruptions happen, especially with remote work—so plan for it! Make calendar appointments with yourself to ensure focused time dedicated to your most important projects.

This will help build accountability.

Prioritize Activities and Obligations

Make these things a priority. Oftentimes, it is not enough to simply list out your tasks, to-do lists, and meetings.

Adaptation

The third and final pillar of time management is adaptation. Adaptation is when you monitor time while performing activities and adjust to interruptions.

There are, of course, practices to master adaptation. Here are two ideas that we’ve found to work:

Sprints, Not Marathons

We know… Marathons are impressive! When it comes to work, however, using a short burst of effort toward completing a task can be effective. Remember, progress, no matter how small, is still progress.

Use Meaningful Reminders

The reminders you set in place should have detailed explanations or descriptions.

Time Management Capacity (and Time Blocking!)

Another practice we recommend is the use of capacity buckets to hit targets. This is a simple, four-step process you can use to manage your time successfully:

Identify buckets (work at hand)
Allocate goals
Block time
Reflect on outcomes

However, we believe number three could use a bit more detail.

What is Time Blocking?

“If you don’t control your schedule, it will control you.” —Todoist

First, what is time blocking? Time blocking, according to Todoist, “is a time management method that asks you to divide your day into blocks of time. Each block is dedicated to accomplishing a specific task, or group of tasks, and only those specific tasks.”

Time blocking, for some, might look like the below:

But how do you time block?

Review Your Week: Prioritize items on the list (i.e. urgent vs. non-urgent, deadlines vs. recurring tasks)
Break Down Tasks: Daily, weekly, monthly, meetings, administrative
Estimate Time for Tasks: Slot time boxes into your calendar, review your estimates and results, batch related tasks together
Completing Tasks: Devote your entire focus, close other browsers, put your phone away, find a quiet place, do not respond to emails and/or instant messaging

Not yet seeing the benefit? Below, we’ve provided an example of someone who doesn’t time block vs. someone who does.

Time Blocking vs. Not Time Blocking Example — *Image courtesy of Todoist.*

Using Covey’s Four Quadrants to Unlock Time Management Success

Lastly, we’d like to introduce the four quadrants of the Covey Time Management Matrix. We promise – it is not as scary as it sounds… (And it’s definitely not as scary as the 1999 Keanu Reeves film!)

Covey’s four quadrants help prioritize your tasks based on urgency and importance. Each task lies in one of four quadrants labeled one through four.

Take a peek below.

For example, an HR emergency would land in quadrant one whereas long-term planning or relationship building might land in quadrant two. Quadrant three might be home to interruptions, emails, calls, meetings, and so on. Try to steer clear of tasks in quadrant four; for example, busy work and time sucks.

Stay Tuned for Parts Two and Three!

So, there you have it! Our best tips on how to level up your time management skills. Stay tuned for parts two and three of our series, where we’ll discuss how to manage your personal wellness and self.

Interested in benefitting your employees? Read on for 10 unique ways to support your company culture through human connection.

How to Managing Time, Wellness, and Self

June 2, 2022