Kenneth Lawrie, Chief Executive, said during the pandemic "Now more than ever we have to work together as one council to protect the health and wellbeing of our citizens". It remains true, that we will not be able to help our citizens unless we protect the health and wellbeing of our employees. This guidance offers some advice and options to manage service delivery and support employees.
Kenneth Lawrie, Chief Executive, said during the pandemic "Now more than ever we have to work together as one council to protect the health and wellbeing of our citizens". It remains true, that we will not be able to help our citizens unless we protect the health and wellbeing of our employees. This guidance offers some advice and options to manage service delivery and support employees.
Employee counselling service
We have an Employee Assistance programme supplied by Wellbeing Solutions Management.
Employee mental wellbeing
Supporting the mental wellbeing of our employees is so important particularly in times of major upheaval and stress. There are numerous tools and techniques to support employees with this. The more you are aware of, use and share them, the more likely your employees will be healthy.
Here are some of the ways you can support your employees:
- ensure employees are aware of where support is available.
- encourage employees to be aware of the things that can have a positive impact on mental wellbeing and the activities and resources that make them feel better. Employees should try to do things to stay mentally and physically active outside of their working hours. This might include things like cooking, exercise, watching their favourite TV programmes or other hobbies.
- ensure employees take annual leave. Employees need to take time away from the workplace to maintain resilience and to ensure a rest from work.
- ensure employees know to take regular comfort breaks. Refreshed and relaxed employees perform better. There are benefits to the employee and the organisation in employees looking after themselves. Also ask employees to ensure they maintain reasonable working hours each day.
Employee fitness
One of the biggest factors in wellbeing and feeling good about ourselves is keeping fit. Below are listed some of the ways to maintain or improve our fitness:
- We have in the Falkirk Council area one of the biggest percentages of pathway networks in the whole of Scotland. If your employees live outside the Council area encourage them to find new places to walk, run or cycle safely which are local to their home.
- Consider renewing your gym membership or taking out a new gym membership. Local gym or fitness instructors have online classes – look out for these on social medial platforms, e.g. Facebook. Encourage your employees to do the same.
- There are some really good ways on staying fit in these links:
- Below are links to a number of exercises that can be completed by disabled people with varying abilities, so they can achieve a long-term goal to get fitter, or simply keep active.
Making working from home work
Many Council employees are now working from home having opted to be a hybrid worker. This may present practical challenges for managers. This guidance is intended to assist managers in supporting employees to look after their wellbeing while they work from home.
You should:
- maintain regular contact with employees and encourage them to have regular contact with colleagues. This might involve new ways of working, for example, using MS Teams calling technology.
- be aware of those who live alone and working from home – they may need some additional contact.
- encourage employees to take regular breaks.
- avoid employees being 'always on' by ensuring that they identify non-working time plan workloads and ensure that employees have enough work to remain occupied (see Work planning below).
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Work planning
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- ensure employees are aware of who they should contact if they have any problems or their circumstances change.
How to spot when someone may be feeling isolated
It can be easy to feel isolated when working remotely/hybrid working.
Here are some things to look out for in yourself or in your colleagues, which may be a sign they are struggling and could do with some extra support:
- Late starting work, joining meetings, or hitting deadlines.
- Harder to contact than normal.
- Changes in behaviour, such as being distracted or short-tempered during tele-conferencing or video conferencing meetings.
- Only talking about business when speaking one-to-one.
- Lack of interest in work or new projects.
What do you do if you suspect that someone may be feeling isolated?
Role modelling healthy behaviours, having a positive outlook, and sharing how you are feeling can all help.
Regular, open communication is key, remembering that how you communicate is just as important as what you communicate.
For the sake of employee mental health, an open-door policy has never made more sense. Leaders need to ensure they are accessible especially if you see your employees less because of hybrid working. They should also aim to respond to people as quickly as possible. This could mean setting up one-to-ones and small team chats, by telephone or by video conferencing and making sure it becomes part of the weekly routine.
Regular communication will also make space for people to be open when they are struggling. A text-based 'one-word check-in' via email or Teams allows managers to ask, "how are you feeling?" each morning and get a quick update from everyone.
This provides a quick way to establish who in your team needs to be prioritised in terms of their wellbeing. This can result in leaving those who feel 'focused' to get on with their day and following up privately with anyone who might be overwhelmed. The more effort you put into communicating with colleagues, the better chance you have of helping them avoid feelings of isolation, which can lead to mental health problems.
This is especially important for employees who live alone and who might be feeling more isolated than employees who have friends or family close by. Solutions to this include as much face-to-face interaction online as possible through video calls, and regular manager check-ins, or inviting the employee to return to the office more often.
It does no harm to also signpost employees to the mental wellbeing page where self-care techniques, such as mindfulness practice and relaxation techniques are discussed. Information on specialist mental health wellbeing support is also available.