As more companies increase their focus on hiring millennials, the importance of providing a healthy work-life balance has drawn more notice in the business community. These young professionals are putting more value on their time outside of the office. To get a competitive edge on recruiting, employers have started offering benefits like flex-time, off-site work, and weeks of vacation days. While this strategy has helped many companies attract high-quality talent, what is the real benefit of promoting a work-life balance in the workplace, and what are some ways to develop a culture based on this ideal?
Benefits
Helping your employees learn how to manage their work-life balance has many advantages. When your staff knows how to maintain a healthy ratio between work and play, they are more likely to have lower stress levels and higher job satisfaction, which can have a positive impact on your business.
Reduced employee burnout: Experiencing stress is an everyday occurrence, and most people feel some form of it in their work. However, prolonged periods of stress caused by a poor work-life balance can create adverse health effects. Your workers could experience side effects like hypertension, anxiety, digestive problems, headaches, depression, and insomnia. A weak balance can also create burnout, which is a term used to describe a form of stress brought on by occupational conditions. This in itself can cause mental exhaustion, mood swings, irritability, and poor work performance.
Increased job satisfaction: The most effective way to prevent burnout and a loss of productivity is to focus on increasing your employees’ job satisfaction. When workers feel fulfilled in their daily duties, you can expect to see a rise in retention rates, a decrease in absenteeism, and higher loyalty. These improvements then create an increase in profitability, and more satisfied customers, as happy employees offer better customer service.
Recommendations
Over the past decade, wellness initiatives in the workplace have taken a foothold with businesses of all sizes. That’s because the benefits of having a healthy workforce have been proven to help with job satisfaction, retention rates, productivity, and healthcare costs. By supporting your employees in their efforts to improve their financial, physical, and mental health, you can create a better work environment.
Create a financial literacy program: Many Americans graduate with an average of $30,000 in student loans, and some of your employees could be struggling with financial hardships too. Creating a financial literacy program can help your workers develop the skills necessary to manage their money more effectively. Education focused on 401(k)s, assistance programs, and debt consolidation are beneficial to professionals who might be working their first full-time job. You can also help your staff members prepare for future home purchases by encouraging them to use a second chance banking platform. This option allows employees with poor credit scores to have a savings and checking account with features like early paycheck deposits, no transaction fees, and real-time text alerts. Setting up automatic savings payments can also help workers put away money to pay off their more substantial debts. With a more financially stable personal life, your employees will be less stressed and more productive at work.
Provide fitness-focused benefits: Offering your staff extra benefits like free exercise programs, on-site fitness classes, and insurance discounts can go a long way towards promoting a healthy lifestyle. You can even host workplace fitness challenges to facilitate some team building while keeping your employees active. Providing these types of programs to your workers can remind them how important their physical health is, in the office and at home. A fit and healthy employee isn’t only happier. They also take fewer sick days, have less workplace accidents, and work more efficiently.
Promote mental health: Mental health awareness should also be a focus in the office, as it can have just as big of an impact as your staff’s physical and financial wellness. To ensure that mental health is a priority, you should encourage your employees to take frequent breaks, go on vacations, and even use off-site work options when life gets too hectic to come into the office. Offering flexibility to your employees shows your trust and empowers your workers to create their own routines to maximise productivity.
Conclusion
No matter how many employees you have, helping them maintain a healthy work-life balance can be beneficial to their job satisfaction and the success of your business. Your workers are your most important asset, and you can show how much you value them by offering benefits they need most to improve their quality of life.
Author bio: Binu Jacob, Blog Contributor
Photo credit: Nastuh Abootalebi on Unsplash
