Wellbeing in the workplace is not a new concept - the term ‘work-life balance’ has been in use in the UK for around four decades as generations of workers have sought to find some sort of harmony between their careers, family and personal lives. It’s definitely an art and will look different to everyone, but since the Covid-19 pandemic there has been a significant shift, or refocus to being ‘well’ in the workplace. Many corporate workers realised they can work from home, with more flexible hours and days to suit their lifestyle and families. Furthermore, employers learned that productivity is not impacted by this style of working, and in fact enabling workers the agency to work within their own framework can actually help to boost productivity, reduce overheads and achieve results.

As such many have come out the other side of the pandemic not just seeking, but also expecting the kind of work environment that more flexibly supports their lifestyle in this kind of way. But beyond this, your employee’s wellbeing is something that you should be mindful of in a holistic way as well, providing systems and processes that support them to do their jobs better, so they can live their lives better. As a business is this something that you are currently supporting or could be doing more of? How ‘well’ is your business currently working?

Quantifying wellbeing

Wellbeing as a term itself can be hard to define, mainly because it will mean something different to each person. As a business this can make it difficult to, first of all cater to everyone, but also measure the wellbeing of your workplace. But there are some useful statistics and markers that can help to indicate how your employees measure their wellbeing at work. Mainly, are they satisfied with their job? If not, what is causing the dissatisfaction? Stress, poor work-life balance, workload and workplace culture are all indicators of how your employees view their satisfaction at work, and subsequently their wellbeing at work.

January 2022 statistics for UK job satisfaction reveal that the top three causes of job satisfaction are:

• Type of work (43%)
• Work-life balance (38%)
• Colleagues (36%)

In the research conducted by Ipsos, it was also found that of those dissatisfied with their job, causes included:

• Management issues (28%)
• Workload (27%)
• Overall culture at work (26%)

As a business you should definitely be paying attention to these kinds of numbers as the research also indicates that these statistics are directly influencing whether or not employees are looking for other roles. Therefore your employee wellbeing and satisfaction is essential for talent retention. Ensuring your business is working ‘well’ will provide you with more stability, opportunities for development and growth within your team, and a better client lifetime value as you create an environment that nurtures relationship building, trust and familiarity.

3 ways you can work on employee wellbeing in your workplace

Have you considered the ways in which your business can integrate certain practices, processes and tools to make things better for your employees, without compromising on success? Here’s our three tips for what you can do as a business to help improve and foster a positive environment for your employee’s wellbeing.

1. Work smarter, not harder

It’s the age-old saying of quality over quantity - just because your team is working longer hours, taking on more clients and increasing their workload it does not automatically equate to more productivity. Efficient, energised and motivated employees are definitely better than burnt out ones. Burnout can directly influence your team’s motivation, focus and productivity, and leaves room for mistakes and errors, so it’s so important to get a better understanding of how your team can work smarter and not harder.

For example, would it impact business day to day if a handful of your employees found they were more productive between the hours of 7-3, instead of 9-5? Make sure you are respecting their personal time as well, if you feel you need to email outside of working hours make sure it’s to an inbox that they can only access from their work devices within working hours. Setting boundaries like this will show that you as a business respect their work-life balance and motivate them to be more efficient during work time.

2. Be proactive

Try not to be too assumptive in your approach to your team management. It’s really important to take a level of responsibility for your team’s wellbeing at work. From 2022 research of UK workers, it’s evident that many feel that individual happiness at work is in fact a combined responsibility between the employer and the organisation, with managers the second most responsible for employee wellbeing after the individuals themselves.

So don’t wait for a problem to develop before you take action, be proactive. Schedule regular reviews as an opportunity to discuss any work-life matters that you can help support day to day. In addition, more informal check-ins can be arranged to see how your team is managing any new clients, their workload or getting on with deadlines. You could also use the opportunity to find out how satisfied they are with their role and work - remember type of work is a key indicator of job satisfaction - are there any responsibilities or tasks they would be interested in learning and developing? You might find opportunities for upskilling within your team that make your employees more energised and motivated in the workplace while helping you push business forward.

3. Invest in innovation

It’s undeniable that in a post-pandemic world everyday work life is more digitalised than ever before. The tools and practices you adopted to survive through the pandemic (online meetings, working from home etc.) are still viable today and can help your teams to stay connected and work better. But could you go further? What innovation could you adopt to help your employees be more efficient, accurate and successful in their work?

New tools and technologies don’t have to be complicated and convoluted. Most business tools are designed to make life easier and more efficient in the workplace. As well as streamlining tasks to improve efficiency, integrating certain tools can increase accuracy, communication and client experience. Investing in innovation in this way demonstrates to your employees that you don’t just care about the end goal, but how it is achieved. Providing them with the best possible tools to do their job will boost that all-important efficiency, make them feel supported in the work they are doing and help to minimise any stress in the workplace.

Work ‘well’ with DocPortal

DocPortal is all about enhancing client experience with a document management platform that makes life’s everyday and essential documents easier to send, store and manage. But what’s more is that as a business tool DocPortal also makes life easier for you and your team, increasing efficiency and streamlining daily tasks for much more effective client management and workplace wellbeing. Here are all the ways DocPortal can help your business to work ‘well’...

• Unlimited secure document sharing and storage enables your team to instantaneously send and receive client documents digitally, rather than manually.
• Easy client onboarding supports your clients in the acquisition process.
• Integrated e-signatures and confirmations eliminate mundane and repetitive administrative tasks.
• Smart integrations with your current business tools like Salesforce make client management much more efficient.
• Easily appointed digital executors make it easier to establish and nurture leads more authentically.
• Custom client workflows automate interactions to minimise daily tasks while maintaining client touchpoints.

For more information about the benefits of DocPortal for your team, let’s talk over on our website. Submit your contact details here and one of our team will be in touch.