Resetting the workplace: Employee energy

On a scale of 1-10 how energised do you feel at work today? Stop for a moment and reflect on your answer. How energised you feel is a direct indicator of your wellbeing so it is important to understand this both for yourself, and for the people you work with too.

Resetting the workplace: Employee energy

The most important asset that any organisation has is the ENERGY of it’s people. If you don’t have energised employees, then you cannot expect your organisation to perform at it’s peak and thrive. There is now abundant evidence indicating that the wellbeing of employees plays a crucial role in enhancing performance and productivity as well as engaging and attracting talent. In fact, having highly energised employees can be a real source of competitive advantage. However, to unlock this, the commitment to employee wellbeing needs to reach beyond just programmes, resources and benefits. A wellbeing strategy can truly transform an organisation when a clear vision and strategy is integrated into the overall strategy of the business, and when employees and leaders change their behaviour to build an organisational culture that enables everyone to bring their utmost energy and talent to work.

The first step to embedding wellbeing in any organisation is to measure employee wellbeing and understand what challenges people feel and face that impact their wellbeing at work. The Let’s Reset 7 needs of wellbeing & performance is a framework that measures the 7 needs we all have as humans in order to thrive at work.

These needs are: Security, Autonomy & Control, Relationships, Creativity, Physical wellbeing, Mental wellbeing and Purpose.

The process of measuring and understanding these 7 needs is about putting your own oxygen mask on first. To really think about your own wellbeing at work and to reflect on things that improve it and energise you, whilst also becoming aware of the things that negatively impact your wellbeing. By understanding your own wellbeing strengths and challenges you can then begin to create an environment for others to measure theirs and to open up authentic conversations that can genuinely help all understand, then improve, their wellbeing and energy at work.

The extraordinary value of intentionally taking care of yourself, and those around you, at work is now proven to have benefits across employee engagement, commercial performance and talent retention.

For many employees the most powerful thing that improves wellbeing and energy at work is to review day-to-day behaviours and ways of working then change the things that negatively impact wellbeing.

As an example, below are five key behaviours that can have a significant effect on improving employee wellbeing, energy and your organisation’s performance:

• Do your most important work when you first get to the office, for an uninterrupted stretch of 60 to 90 minutes, and then take a reset break.
• Get up from your desk at lunchtime for at least 30 minutes, and do some type of movement.
• After 2 hours of work, take a break of at least five minutes. If that isn’t possible, do one minute of deep breathing to clear your bloodstream of stress hormones.
• When you stop working for the day, do something that allows you to transition mentally, emotionally and physically between work and home.
• Set a pre-sleep routine that includes no tech and a bedtime that insures you get at least seven hours of sleep.

Finally, the importance of starting work conversations by not always talking about work but asking “How are you?” and then being prepared to listen. It is evidence based that this is one of the most transformative behaviours you can adopt to embed a culture of wellbeing in your organisation. Not surprisingly, it has become known as the ‘POWER of “How are you?”’.

Helen Gorman and David Beeney join us for a Global Conversation: Reset Wellness at Work on 28 June 2024 - find out more and book your place here

Published 23 April 2024