The beginning of the year is an important time for companies. It is time to review what has been achieved in recent months and to set goals and expectations for the coming quarters. HR managers are no strangers to this dynamic: they are in charge of enhancing the workforce’s wellbeing and putting it at the service of smarter productivity.
To succeed in their task, they need to boost some aspects that, when working properly, set them apart from their competitors. Many of these companies will join those that already have the help of wellbeing experts in 2023 to provide the ultimate push to their results.
Emotional wellbeing service, ifeel works closely with HR managers across a range of sectors. As a result, the ifeel team has drawn up an internal report with the main needs in the HR field, which will set the trend in this area during the year that has just begun.
The conclusions at year-end are compelling: people come first, especially in times of change and great uncertainty. In fact, requests for training, counselling, and other healthcare resources from psychologists who are experts in workplace wellbeing have increased by 4 times since January 2022, and this trend is expected to consolidate in the coming months.
As ifeel’s internal report on HR trends for 2023 indicates, one of the main concerns for companies is reducing absenteeism by acting on those triggers related to employees’ psychological distress. Organisations know that this cannot be achieved without healthily integrating work with the other aspects of employees’ lives.
In addition, around 65 per cent of large companies rank improving communication between departments and team cohesion as their first concern, followed by the interest in strengthening the capacity for self-care of overall wellbeing.
Consequently, ifeel’s emotional wellbeing service for companies offers a list of the primary needs expressed by large companies and which will set the trend in the HR field by 2023. Read on to find out more…
1. Improving communication between departments
As a company grows, its structure becomes more complex. That’s why good internal communication is essential to improve performance. Unfortunately, this is often an area where conflicts or weaknesses arise that HR managers need to address.
2. Bringing cohesion to distributed teams
Remote work, hybrid formats, departments based in different countries, languages, and time zones… Maintaining team cohesion despite the difficulties and effectively coordinating tasks is still on the radar in people management.
3. Increasing emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence is essential for successful relationships, even in the workplace. That is why HR managers ask for professional help to improve their abilities, and their teams’ in this area.
4. Taking care of interaction with peers
Regular contact brings closeness between coworkers, but it also has other effects that should be managed properly. HR managers continue to seek help in areas such as conflict resolution, improving social skills, active listening, or the ability to give/receive feedback.
5. Enhancing mental health self-care in the office
All of the above issues are related to employee wellbeing. However, HR managers also seek training and information to support their team members and encourage implementing best practices for mental health care on and off the job.
They know it is essential to prevent problems such as burnout, as well as excessive stress and anxiety stemming from work, and for this, they need the help of end-to-end emotional wellbeing training and services.
Research by the Royal School of Psychiatrists found that 1 in 6.8 people experience mental health problems in the workplace. Furthermore, the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health found that up to a staggering £8bn could be saved across workplaces in the UK with improvements to mental health support for workers.
With this in mind, it seems more important than ever for employers, and their HR departments to develop tools and strategies to provide the proper support required to create a healthier and happier workplace.
By Mark Adair, Correspondent, Bdaily
