Designing a workplace environment focused on well-being is in your hands. When organizations create settings that support their employees’ well-being, the result is heightened employee engagement and lower levels of employee burnout.
Organizations whose design is centered on strengthening employee well-being, will notice employees who are excited to express their untapped individual and collective potential. They’ll notice that employees have more pep in their steps and feel more purposeful because they are encouraged to be their best, bright, most beautiful version of themselves as the result.
The design of your work environment can have substantial effects on employee well-being in multiple ways. Here are five design elements to unleash human magic at your organization:
Inclusive leaders who link team members’ individual professional value with the company’s purpose often have superior engagement and performance outcomes. By tapping into their employees’ purpose and meaning, the employee competence, autonomy, and relatedness (or being part of a team) are ignited. Although financial rewards are nice, welcomed benefits, employees whose work involves cognitive or creative skills are not motivated only by the Benjamins. More often they stay because their work and the people they work with brings meaning to their life.- To survive the great resignation leaders need to speed their own evolution, modeling behaviors (such as consultative leadership, demonstrated concern, and support of their team members), to promote psychological safety. Much has been written about psychological safety – yet only a handful of business leaders often demonstrate the positive behaviors that can instill this climate.
When team members value one another’s contributions, care about one another’s well-being, and have input into how the team carries out its work, they are showing how safe they feel. Open dialogue also shows that psychological safety empowers members of the organization to share their opinions, explore disagreements, and reach a reasonable outcome where all involved are seen and heard.
- Individual skills and expertise are no longer sufficient to address complex challenges, employees add the greatest value through coordination, collaboration, and creativity. A learning environment that includes frequent and sustained personalized coaching has been shown to fire up employees, boost their skills and performance. Employees who are trained to take on new tasks and resolve issues on their own improve both their well-being and job performance.
- Autonomy and flexibility exist within the framework of the company’s purpose and values where each team organizes and executes priorities. By instilling a sense of trust in their employees, leaders foster a sense of security and autonomy in their employees and in turn their loyalty.
Employees who have more autonomy and flexibility with their work schedules are shown to have better mental health and overall well-being. For an employer, the benefit is longer engagement and a reduction in turnover. Employees who have high demands coupled with low control have a higher risk for depression, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease.
- A sense of social belonging is created when the work culture promotes supportive relationships among colleagues. Authentic human connections start with treating and valuing everyone as an individual and making sure everyone feels they belong. Belonging is that sense of inclusion, where the employee feels they can add value while being accepted for who they are. Work relationships that lack social belonging result in psychological distress, can manifest poor mental health.
There are many benefits to integrating these principles, with each organization defining the awesome sauce that will unleash the magic of its workforce. Organizations who demonstrate care for their employees’ well-being will be more likely to have employees who care about the organization’s well-being.
Share with us the ways in which you’re unleashing human magic at your organization and/or the ways in which your organization is designed to amplify your human magic.
At BETA Coaching and Consulting, we strengthen inclusive well-being strategies.