5 Tips to Help You Manage Inclusion in Isolation

24th July 2020

With nearly half the UK’s working population now working remotely due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s important organisations focus on their people’s wellbeing to help them feel fitter, healthier and more engaged at work despite the disruptions.

To do this organisations need to take a more pro-active approach to supporting and nurturing employee wellbeing and engagement.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs shows that a sense of belongingness and inclusion are key components of people’s wellbeing.

Here are five simple everyday things we can all do to make our organisations more inclusive, transparent and agile in the way we engage, look after each other, and ultimately improve together.

Tip #1 – Nurture a Culture of Appreciation

During uncertain circumstances it’s easy to forget to talk about the good stuff, so we need to try to make peer appreciation a habit.

Here are three easy ways you can show people they are valued at work:

• Listen to your teammates – show that what is important to them also means something to you.
• Tell people what you value about them when you’re having a catch up.
• Check-in with your colleagues – ask them what they are doing, what is challenging them. There’s a good chance you will learn something, and you might be able to help them out just by asking.

Tip #2 – Use Realtime Data to Understand How Your People Feel

If you make a sudden change to your work policy, do you have data to show how people feel about it, or are you relying on hearsay?

To get a sense of how your people are feeling, you need to provide tools that quickly and simply allow them to contribute their views, without fearing negative consequences for doing so.

It’s important you share that data transparently and show what is being done with the findings. If people see action and change as a result, this nurtures trust, and ultimately helps increase the feeling of psychological safety, which can boost employee wellbeing.

Tip #3 – Build Continuous Feedback and Improvement

Organisations need more resilience, more agility – in the world we live in now, we’ve seen that you might have pivot your organisation at short notice.

Therefore, we need to build continuous feedback and improvement into the way we do our everyday work. It’s important that everyone’s opinion is viewed as equal regardless of position or length of service.

• Using any tool capture views on what’s most important to the group.
• Work out the top 5 and seek volunteer Champions to progress suggestions or concerns.
• Come back two months later to check progress, and then start from scratch on your new top 5.

Tip #4 – Be Proactive in Optimising the Wellbeing of Your People

Having a wellbeing programme for people within your organisation is a fantastic start. But you need be proactive and make sure that people are aware of it, and how it can help them.

By directing your people to the right guidance and support you can nip problems in the bud before they became a bigger issue. It’s about proactively focusing on prevention, rather than reacting with a cure.

Tip #5 – Make Sure Your People Know How to Get Help

You need to have something in place to catch people in case they slip through the net provided by your wellbeing initiatives.

Sometimes people don’t feel comfortable or able to raise their issues in person, so it’s important to have a way where people can also get direct support digitally.

You can provide them with a direct, anonymous channel where they can confidently reach out so seek help.

Final Thoughts

Looking after employee wellbeing and engagement is something that requires ongoing attention. We need to put effort into looking after our people, we can’t just leave it and hope for the best.

A number of major organisations have recently made news headlines for failing to listen to their people or act on feedback leading to workplace chaos and negative publicity.

It’s your people that really make the difference to your organisation, so it’s your duty as a good leader to actively support their wellbeing by providing them with the right tools to thrive.

Trickle is an award-winning platform that seamlessly brings together engagement, recognition and wellbeing in one place. It is designed to give people a voice when they want or need to speak.

If you’d like to learn more about how Trickle can benefit your organisation please contact us for more information.