22 Jan Five things that help employees thrive
The Australian workforce has spoken
As I emerge from the holidays and look to the year ahead, I’ve been asking myself this question:
“If we are still talking about getting people to return to the office in 2024,
are we having the right conversation?”
I’m looking forward to elevating the conversation this year so that we look beyond where people work and focus equally on what they need to be their best and do their best work.
The latest Thriving Workplace report, released by SuperFriend, helps shine a light on the path forward.
SuperFriend facilitates Australia’s largest annual corporate mental health survey, with 10,000 employees taking part, and the results provide an impressive Thriving Workplace Index. The Index highlights the industries that are making inroads to provide environments where employees can thrive, and over the past year, those that made the largest improvements were Mining and Real Estate.
So, what can we learn from them?
According to the report, focusing on five key domains will help employees thrive and improve outcomes such as psychological wellbeing and productivity:
1. Connectedness — this is the most important area to focus on to help employees thrive. It’s also a key strategy for combating employee burnout and workforce turnover. Connectedness is all about creating a workplace and organisational culture that supports:
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- quality interpersonal relationships
- mutual respect
- effective teamwork, and
- opportunities for collaboration.
2. Safety — not surprisingly, ensuring we protect people from harmful experiences such as harassment, bullying, discrimination and violence is a key driver of mental wellbeing. What I found interesting was the opportunity to build more awareness about the business policies and support services available to protect employee health, safety and wellbeing.
3. Leadership — it’s no secret that leaders have a huge influence on employee wellbeing. According to the report, those likelier to have a team that thrives:
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- effectively lead and manage workplace change
- provide role clarity
- develop fair and supportive relationships, and
- take responsibility for creating a safe work environment.
4. Work Design — when we help teams manage their workload by setting clear responsibilities and priorities, and invite them to contribute to decisions that affect their job, they’ll feel more empowered and this influences satisfaction levels.
The report also put some hard data around my observations about “the right amount” of in-office days for hybrid teams: the average employee prefers to work from home 2.2 days per week, and this is an important driver of satisfaction.
5. Capability — in the context of the Thriving Workplace report, capability focused on what businesses can do to build the skills and resources available to support mental health. It found that only one in 10 employees believe the workplace is having a positive impact on their mental health, and yet, implementing mental health programs can provide organisations with a $15 return on investment in the way of productivity, retention, and reduced work claims, for every $1 spent.
As you kick off the year, what are your plans to help your team thrive?
If you’d like to chat more about COMUNiTI’s insights into creating thriving workplaces and spaces, get in touch!
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