It is important to do everything possible to keep your workplace healthy throughout the year, especially as we enter flu season. Employee time lost due to illness can result in decreased production and employee morale. Here are some tips to help keep your workplace strong and healthy:
- Keep a clean and clutter-free environment. Having a clean environment is a must; however, clutter is a bit special. Clutter might not be physically unhealthy in the sense that it can make you sick — but it can increase an employee’s stress level while at work. Having employees with too much stress is unhealthy and can hurt productivity.
- Open channels of communication. When your staff has the opportunity to express and address concerns of the workplace at team meetings or one-onone sessions, it makes things better. This means that the issue is more likely to be resolved because attention has been brought to the situation.
- Keep fresh air. Typically an office has good ventilation systems. If not, opening a window when the weather is nice can bring some fresh air into the office. Plants are another way to keep fresh and cleaner air in your workplace.
- Utilize external expertise. Not every problem can be solved in-house. Utilizing an expert to help solve problems that make for an unhealthy workplace is recommended.
- Awareness. Always have a way to inform your employees of the health concerns that come along with the season changes so they know what to look out for.
- Keeping water available. Always have water available for employees. Having a water cooler or bottles available is essential because keeping hydrated is important to a workers’ health.
- Sick days when needed. Encourage employees who are sick to take sick days when needed. Of course, this needs to be properly managed to ensure it is not abused. Used appropriately, this can keep the workplace healthy and limit the possibility of cross contamination.
- Proper office equipment. Having the proper equipment such as chairs and keyboards can help prevent the most common things in the workplace, such as carpal tunnel and back injuries.
- Down time. Giving your staff the flexibility to get up and walk around, and providing the adequate space for downtime, is good for their health. Staring at a screen all day and stressing over a particular project can raise stress levels, which isn’t good for the employee or business.
- Lastly, encourage healthier habits. Although you can’t encourage everything that your employees do, you can help steer them in the right direction. Little things such as healthier snack choices in vending machines or ordering office sub portions instead of pizza at a meeting can be helpful.
