Wellbeing is an important element of the success of employees in an organisation; when they are physically and emotionally fit and well, they are more likely to succeed and stay with the organisation.
These are some tips for getting off to a good start with wellbeing:
- Make sure employees know what organisational support is in place for wellbeing, for example, the employee assistance programme.
- Open up a dialogue with your new employee about wellbeing. While it may take some time to establish a relationship where you both feel comfortable talking about wellbeing, eventually you want to have a positive relationship where the employee feels able to share anything that may be affecting their work, and where you know them well enough to be able to spot any signs that they may be emotionally unwell.
- It may start things off in the right way for you to talk about your own approach to wellbeing. For example, tell the employee if you try to stop working on time most days, if you do not reply to emails after 6pm, or if the team has decided that meetings will not take place before 10am and after 4pm to help people balance work with their personal life. Take care to explain your own ways of working in case the employee thinks they need to do the same, for example, you may choose to work later because it suits you, but you should make clear there is no expectation for the employee to do the same.
