Are we as an industry practising what we are preaching in terms of work life balance?

In the past eighteen months, employers across the globe have been hard at work ensuring their employees are not only productive as they work remotely but have prioritised key aspects such as physical and mental health of employees, and their families.

This was prompted by the outbreak of Covid-19 in early 2020, forcing workers to be adept in working from home, while maintaining good levels of productivity. Though, it was not an easy feat, we have seen how encouraging positivity, physical and mental wellness has had positive outcomes for the Short -Term Insurance industry.

It was also noted how most employees battled with the new normal, with some parents battling to find the balance as children did studies online. We have also seen how most people, particularly those living alone or with no children, battled to shake off struggles of loneliness, or not being able to leave the house or see family, and friends.

As Covid-19 surged on, green shoots of positivity emerged as employers observed the benefits of technology with Teams or Zoom meetings being the order of the day. However, there is no replacement for human contact.

Robert Owen, the Welsh manufacturer also a famous labour activist, was the originator of the “eight-hours labour, eight-hours recreation, eight-hours rest. This was in 1817. It was the perfect breaking up of a 24-hour day into three parts. That, however, is seemingly out of the window. We have seen, with the insurance industry not excluded, how employees are working longer hours. There is no separation of home and work – “We live at work” and we leave little time for rest and family.

Covid-19 has changed the narrative of our daily living, while it continues to wreak havoc on economies and take away loved ones.

There has certainly been a battle when it comes to getting more workers focused on work life balance. It has not been easy as more workers are putting in more work hours at home, failing to balance between work and personal life, they have an inability to switch off. We are seeing more and more cases of burn-out.

There has been key and well-timed advice for the virtual office, one of these being taking a lunch break and working away from the work station. Some other great initiatives started by corporates include on-line gyms, virtual learning, giving employees a half day every week to focus on their personal responsibilities, a no meetings day is also useful as it reduces “screen time” and helps employees focus on doing the actual work. Though it can never be the same as the actual office, this has come in handy for staff fatigued by Zoom and Teams.

The question for Human Resources professionals, amid employee’s mental fatigue, bad eating habits, lack of exercise, loneliness, parental responsibilities, is what more can we do? How do we help line managers play a role in encouraging the mental and physical wellness of their employees? There aren’t definite answers, however, we have seen that the initiatives listed above do help. The encouragement to line managers and leaders in general is that they must prioritise their own wellness so that they may deal with the wellness of others. It is important to manage time and ensure your weekly plans as a leader includes time to self-reflect as well as time to catch up with team members individually to check on them, their families, and general spirits. These catch-up sessions should not in any way touch on work issues but must be about the individual. Line managers must be able to pick up on any issues that affect the employee’s wellness and should use Employee Assistance Programmes as their go-to tool.

The key to practicing what we preach is continuous engagements with employees. When we know what is on the minds of people, it is only then that we can find solutions. Though work has become a lot more fast paced since the advent of Covid 19 and Working from Home, it is important that we also prioritise holistic employee wellness – This should not be difficult to understand as it is merely taking care of your investment in order to get the best out of it.