Being the Change for Wellness at Work
One of the values we live by here at CareerCircle is to be the change you want to see.
When we realized that people’s experience went beyond their resume, we created the Candidate 360° profile. When we saw that the technology industry was sorely lacking in diversity, we started partnering with non-profit organizations who worked with underserved communities.
And this Mental Health Awareness Month, when 83% of US workers report job-related stress, we’ve decided to tackle how work can be a place for wellness.
Now don’t get us wrong…it’s a challenge. But we’re a team who has never shied away from a challenge.
In fact, we’re the team who recently helped 941 people get hired in less than 941 days so we know that when we set our minds to something, we’re going to accomplish it.
Kicking Off Our Wellness Journey Together
Our wellness initiative kicked off with Kim Sneeder, our Managing Director, opening the floor to the team to share with her one thing they love about the company culture and one that we need to change.
Because our leadership team and Kim, in particular, has been dedicated to creating a culture of transparency and honesty from day one, it wasn’t an issue to be completely honest about what we were facing. One of the recurring topics that was brought up was focusing on wellness at work through professional development, accountability, and more.
With this feedback in mind, the leadership team invited Ted Capshaw, a business coach and dedicated leader who helps people and companies grow before tragedy, to speak with us at our National Team Meeting about the 8 pillars of wellness:
- Emotional
- Mental
- Physical
- Professional
- Financial
- Community
- Relationships/Connection
- Spiritual/Values
The presentation sparked one of the most important conversations we’ve had amongst our team. People opened up about how work interacts with their life and the goals they have to make the changes they need to make. It also prompted the 3 key changes at our company we’re implementing.
How We’re Supporting Wellness at Work
After our conversations at our National Team Meeting, we took a pulse survey of our team to learn which pillars are most important to them. Spiritual/Values overwhelmingly took the top spot with mental and physical health tied in second. We knew that we needed to give people space to discover what they valued alongside the ability to live those values at work and be able to prioritize their health in ways they hadn’t been.
Team Accountability Groups
We’re an action-oriented company so it didn’t take long for our team to realize that we would reach our goals better if we worked together. As our team began to share the pillars that we wanted to focus on individually, accountability groups began to spawn amongst those who shared the same goals.
These accountability groups will be helping to support each other on hard days, provide resources to learn and grow together, and, most importantly, give us a chance to connect on topics outside of our day-to-day work.
Company-Wide Development Events
Beyond our accountability groups and our individual wellness days, CareerCircle as a company is also committing to providing development events that any team member can join. These will be anything from meetings about stress management or building your brand on LinkedIn to fireside chats about the challenges we’re facing.
These events will give us a chance to join together as a team to get a pulse on how our wellness efforts are going and make sure that we’re staying true to our goal of prioritizing wellness at work.
Building Your Own Wellness At Work Initiative
According to a post from RallyBright, almost 50% of American workers have left a job due to feeling undervalued. Investing in wellness at work is just one of the ways that you can help your employees feel valued every day. Building a wellness at work initiative doesn’t have to take weeks of market research and sign off. It can be made up of small, but intentional shifts in the way that work happens in someone’s life.
We kicked off our efforts by simply opening up the conversation with our team. Asking questions like, “What does our company do well?” and “What do we need to work on?” are an easy way to get the suggestions rolling in. Remember that this effort will only work if employees see actual change come from these conversations so only open them when you’re ready to take action.
When you’ve had those conversations, cater your initiative to what people really want. If the overwhelming majority of employees want more support when it comes to setting boundaries at work and you choose to initiate 5 minutes of stretching at the start of every meeting, you’re not supporting the needs of your team. Every team is different and they deserve personalized care.
It is also critical for leaders to know that words need to match actions. While it is wonderful to say that you care about your team’s mental health, it means more to provide appropriate time off and a focus on workload management. Remember to also practice what you preach, leading with vulnerability and honesty will encourage your team to come to work in the same way.
Ultimately, there is always more work to be done to value wellness at work, but we wanted to share the changes that we are making to inspire you to do the same for your workplace. Let us know on LinkedIn what you’re doing to prioritize wellness at work!