As a leader, one of the key factors contributing to your success is the culture you foster. It’s becoming more and more evident that well-being, a subtle yet significant aspect that has often been neglected, can lead to substantial positive changes in the workplace. As a leader, you have the power to shape this culture and drive these changes.
Livit is a culture-first company. Our workplace culture is one of the best in Asia in 2022. We’re not playing when it comes to company culture. However, having a company culture is one thing, while having a company culture that’s thriving is a whole different story.
Just like your company has a brand that promises something to your customers, it also needs to have a culture that acts as a promise you give to your employees to motivate them to deliver the best results. If you want to make wellness part of your company’s promise, you might want to implement these few tips to get started:
Start (and join) the conversation
Create space for employees to connect and uncover their wellness needs. Foster healthy communication that happens not just vertically but also horizontally, create a peer network, build opportunities for them to talk, and then create a system that can better support the employees’ needs that are also easily accessible.
It is very important as well as a leader that you share why wellness is important to you, too. Keep messaging consistent. It will take some time for it to settle in, and it will need a proactive effort from the company’s leaders to set consistent examples.
Align on goals and resources
Talk with your team, always be transparent about the big-picture goals, and explain why each person’s goals are connected. At Livit, we use tools like Leapsome that the employees can collaborate with and work together to achieve key results for various goals.
Also, it’s important to ensure that people have resources to meet their goals, including wellness. Team managers can start a conversation with each team member on how to maintain their wellness so that managers can voice each member’s perspective, which creates a sense of tailored care and the feeling of being listened to.
Act on your company values
Turning to company values can be an effective way to activate a positive culture. Leaders can do exercises such as asking employees how they’ve been impersonating these values in the last few weeks and the decisions they had to take. This makes values more tangible. This exercise can’t be a one-and-done exercise, though. Values must be practiced constantly to keep a healthy culture – especially when problems arise.
Reexamine how you create safety
For a company culture to thrive, each of its members needs to feel safe within the environment. You can do initiatives like free yoga classes for employees and meditation or pampering Friday to increase employees’ well-being, but there will be no wellness at your company if people don’t feel safe.
So, what exactly is this safety that we’re talking about? It is whether your team feels safe enough to make a mistake. To try something. To put their efforts into something without fear of being threatened or punished.
Safety can also look like boundaries. Do your employees exercise their right to decline a meeting or put off notification on Slack when they’re not feeling well? Let employees know that it’s okay to protect their energy and personal lives.
Ensure accessibility and inclusivity
Each person has their definition of wellness. It might look like flexibility during the day, no meetings day, or clear rules when we can be off chat and email. Redefine what benefits could look like and encourage each team member to voice their opinions so that leaders can create an aligned wellness plan that addresses what people want from wellness, not just the leaders’ ideas of it.
Accessibility is key, too. Ensure your team knows what’s available, how to access it, and how to use it – no matter who or where they are.
Measure your wellness culture by going out, listening, and finding the gap between what you hear and what your team members hear. The smaller the gap, the better.
Do you need our help building a culture of well-being in your workplace, especially when most of the team is either hybrid or remote? Check out our remote work culture and book a free consultation here.
Would gathering your team to have a fun work-and-travel experience in a beautiful tropical paradise be an ultimate wellness boost? We can make it happen and take care of all the logistics! Bring your team to work from Bali.
