How to Support Your Staff Virtually

At this point, we’ve all grown accustomed to working from home. The shock is more or less out of our systems, and the ‘new normal’ is now just ‘normal’.

However, that doesn’t alleviate businesses from putting supportive frameworks in place to assist staff in whatever way they need the help - whether that support is towards mental, emotional, or physical health. 

1) Speak with your team members

Consider this: you may be the only person a staff member has spoken to that day.

Checking in with your team, whether it’s on Zoom or just a positive message can make a huge difference to the way your staff feel about working from home.

2) Encourage moments of connections

Perhaps for five minutes at the end of the meeting, you encourage your whole team to get up and walk around their living room.

Or maybe it’s a designated coffee break in the middle of the working day, where all your team can gather and socialise.

Ultimately, you need to create a space to ensure your staff are doing more in their day than just working non-stop, because while that’s great for your productivity, it isn’t so great for your team’s mental, physical, or social health.

3) Health plans

As individuals, we all want different things.

That’s why we often recommend sitting down with your staff and creating each member an individual wellness and health plan.

While some may appreciate company-wide yoga sessions over Zoom, others may find that to be a waste of time.

However, individual health plans allow the company to acknowledge that each team member may need to something different, this opens up an honest conversation about how health varies for each one of us.  

4) Work/life balance

As lockdown continues on, the work/life balance lines have continued to blur. Whereas, before, workers could use commuting time, lunch hours, and coffee breaks to themselves, now, the first thing they do is wake up and turn on their laptop.

There is no natural break to the day. Instead, the clear boundaries between work and life have blurred into one melting pot.

Meaning that there is no natural end to the working day. This contributes to higher levels of worker stress, less personal time, and more screen time.

By encouraging your workers to put down the emails, you’re allowing them to take a break for themselves and their health.

5) Introduce health-conscious practices

At OH One, our job is to analyse and implement ways to improve the wellbeing of your workplace.

Whether that’s through physiotherapists, specialist nurses, or just improving the general health of your workplace. Exploring one of these options may lead to processes such as therapy, yoga, or physicians.

Essentially, regardless of what you need, we’re here to help you. All you need to do is get in contact with us.