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Mental well-being in the workplace: how to create a culture of relaxation? 🧘
As an HR manager, you probably recognise it: the pressure on employees is increasing and stress almost seems to become a regular part of the working day. In an increasingly fast-moving world, ensuring mental well-being within your organisation is becoming an increasingly important part of your remit. Creating a relaxing culture may seem like a challenge, but with a few tweaks to the day-to-day, you can play a big part in this as an HR manager. In this article, we discuss four concrete steps you can take to encourage a culture of relaxation, so that employees not only feel mentally fit, but also enjoy going to work more.
Time to read: 5 minutes
Rest outside working hours: don't send messages 💤
How often do you see employees responding to work-related emails or messages even in the evening or on weekends? As an HR manager, you know that the line between work and private life is increasingly blurred, especially as we increasingly work remotely. This can lead to a constant stimulus of availability, which is not conducive to mental well-being. By introducing a policy of not sending messages outside working hours, you help employees to truly relax when they are not at work.
For example, you can easily implement this by agreeing with your team that no work-related communication takes place after 6pm and at weekends. Set a good example in this: schedule e-mails to be sent only the next working day. This will make employees feel less pressure to be constantly reachable. This small vitality initiative ensures that rest actually becomes rest, strengthening mental resilience in the long run.
A calm start: start with a breathing exercise 🌬️
You probably recognise it: the busy mornings where everyone shuffles hurriedly behind their desks and starts working immediately. But what if you start the day differently? By doing a short breathing exercise together with your team every morning, you not only create a moment of calm, but also a sense of connection.
A simple way to start with this is to organise a joint breathing exercise every morning five minutes before the start of the working day. This can be done via a short online session or simply during the first meeting of the day. Ask your employees to close their eyes for a moment and consciously focus on their breathing. This routine helps start the day with less stress and ensures that employees face their work with more focus and calmness. It is a vitality initiative that does not take much time, but can make a big difference in the workplace atmosphere.
Space for relaxation: break between work ☕
Every HR manager knows how quickly a working day can become packed with meetings and deadlines. This can leave employees with hardly any time to catch their breath. Yet it is precisely those brief moments of informal relaxation that are crucial for your team's mental well-being. How can you ensure that enough space remains for these important moments of rest?
How about a daily coffee break where employees don't have to do anything at all? Create a set moment in the day when everyone takes time to catch up and talk to colleagues about things other than work. This could take place at 10:30 every day, for example, where you provide a quiet place in the office where employees can relax for a while. In this way, you slowly but surely build a culture of relaxation, balancing work and fun. This vitality initiative encourages not only relaxation, but also mutual cooperation and commitment.
Exercise works: go walking meetings 🚶♂️
Every HR manager has experienced a meeting where everyone sits silently and lifelessly behind their screens. Energy sometimes seems to be in short supply, and it is precisely that energy you need to be productive together. A great way to break through this is to hold meetings on foot. It may sound simple, but the benefits of walking for mental wellbeing are enormous.
Plan a meeting where you and your team go for a walk. This could be a short walk through the park or even just around the office. The idea is that you move around, which gets the thinking process going and gives your body much-needed exercise. This vitality initiative not only provides fresh air and exercise, but also gives the space to interact in a relaxed manner. You will find that creative solutions often emerge during these walking meetings and employees feel better than after a traditional, seated meeting.
Conclusion
As an HR manager, you have a unique opportunity to make a difference to the mental well-being of your team. By introducing small but thoughtful changes, such as limiting communication outside working hours, introducing breathing exercises, creating informal moments of relaxation and encouraging walking meetings, you can build a culture of relaxation. Every vitality initiative you implement contributes to a working environment where employees are not only more productive, but also feel happier and more relaxed. So together, you create a working environment where well-being and job satisfaction go hand in hand.
