We all live busy lives therefore we often forget to show appreciation for our staff, praise them for their efforts and thank them for turning up as the best versions of themselves.
Not valuing your staff can lead to issues of demotivation and stress. Mental health problems are common and lead to 70 million work days being lost each year in the UK, costing employers approximately £2.4 billion per year.
Whilst there is employment legislation in place to ensure that a healthy and safe working environment is maintained, it is important that, senior leaders in particular, value, champion, support and motivate staff.
On Valentine’s Day, I think everyone should LUV their staff!
- Listen
- Understand
- Value
Any forward thinking company will want to create an environment where people are not frightened to talk to mangers or the HR department about any issues or mental health problems they are experiencing. Whether this be formally or informally you need to:
Listen. Perhaps you could have coffee and chat sessions or appoint a mental health champion and promote the fact that you are prepared to listen to people experiencing stress and anxiety that is affecting their work.
Understand that everyone is different. Some people thrive on stress, short deadlines and high pressure, others prefer to work calmly, quietly and thoroughly. Both are great assets for your company and you should create teams where people can use their different strengths, experiences and backgrounds to help solve problems and manage projects.
Value and care for your staff. From allowing staff to take appropriate rest and food breaks, to encouraging them to do exercise with gym passes or lunchtime walks, to providing flexible working arrangements so they can manage a good work-life balance.
Everyone should be encouraged to value the differences that we all have and recognise that we’re not all the same, but collectively the workforce is rich from being diverse.
Staff that feel valued are more motivated and better able to cope with pressures at work. One of the best things you can do is to talk to your staff, find out what they are working on, if they have issues and thank, praise and celebrate success. After all we all like a bit of recognition.
Good mental health at work and good management go hand in hand. If you fail to LUV your staff and make adjustments to help them cope with the pressures of work you could find your sickness absence increases and productivity goes down. So my advice is to listen, understand and value your staff, not just today but every day.