New Year’s Resolutions (and why they matter)
A new year offers new personal and business opportunities and possibilities to improve on the past year and take an incremental upward/forward step. Many people look forward to January 1st and use the milestone to signify the beginning of a healthier happier lifestyle. However, inconveniences like life in general, work, and a lack of time and support can become obstacles to the achievement of positive change. An employer’s input here can result in a win-win situation.
An employer has a unique opportunity to offer support; and help a new year’s resolution to stick for one person, which may become contagious to others. The creation of a support structure for your employees’ goals and resolutions could have a positive impact on their lives and your business in the new year. In order to best help employees with their resolutions, have an informal discussion to discover what’s important to whom, and then offer specific, affordable assistance suitable for your business. Start small. Offering too many support services can lead to a lack of focus and lower success.
Mental wellbeing
Unhappy feelings can impact the personal and professional aspects of life. An employer is a potential leader of change with the opportunity to help employees reduce their own workplace stress, be more mindful throughout their day, understand the importance of their health and get things moving with friends and co-workers.
Workers in a poor state of mental health can suffer from negative effects to their physical health as a result. This can be referred to as a physio-psycho-social effect where an employee experiences positive/negative physical effects from their corresponding state of psychological health within a social environment like a workplace. Sub-optimal mental health can mean more frequent absences, an increased risk of disability and overall reduced productivity.
Eat healthier
Around 32% of Brits make new year’s resolutions but only 34% of those manage to keep to their resolutions beyond the middle of January. The most common new year’s resolution is weight loss, followed by getting fitter and healthier eating.
A simple way for employers to help employees achieve the goal of healthier eating is to ensure that the office environment has a ready supply of fresh fruit for employees to snack on, and fresh water. Having healthy snacks and water in easy reach can reduce unhealthy snacking and a reliance on caffeinated or carbonated drinks products. Ensuring that high sugar snacks like biscuits, cakes and doughnuts are not in regular supply can also help. Something as simple as rethinking the office snack basket can present significant results. If you have any vending machines, swap the products for healthier options or get rid of them!
Get fitter and lose weight
Employers can support employees’ resolutions to get fitter and lose weight by offering to subsidise or pay for corporate gym membership. If the business cost is considered too high, employers could offer this as a salary-sacrifice perk. Such encouragement can have a low cost impact to the employer but can have a huge positive psychological impact for employees. The potential challenge is in the management of health-promotion programmes, since employees might be reluctant to divulge personal information (like current and ongoing weight) to another employee who manages the programme.
Develop yourself
Some resolutions are about personal or professional improvement; with employees wishing to increase their knowledge, contribution to their organisation and earning potential by gaining awareness of, or proficiency in, new skills areas. Employers can remind employees about any currently available resources, and encourage them in their own professional development by accommodating reasonable requests to participate in professional and personal development opportunities.
Make more family/me time
Up on the wish list for many employees will be more flexible working hours, leading to more me-time or quality time with families. Recent years have seen a rise in the number of companies offering a more flexible way of conducting business. Technology makes this possible. Supporting employees with smarter working initiatives like hot-desking or 24/7 access to the company intranet (so that employees can work from anywhere and communicate with clients at any time of day) goes a long way towards this goal. Tech-savvy employers would do well to investigate methods of streamlining their business and placing vital client documents in cloud storage – within easy reach of employees.
A recent study by the CIPD, of the employment practices in 5 European countries, indicated that flexible work arrangements can lead to a more fulfilling work environment and an extended working life.
The business case for support
The most common new-year’s resolutions have a direct impact on employee health. Employers therefore have a vested interest in helping or encouraging employees to achieve their resolutions, since happy employees are more productive when working, and less likely to take time off from work due to sickness absence.
For helpful advice on how to encourage your employees to achieve their new-year’s resolutions, feel free to contact us. We wish you happy holidays and a prosperous new year!
