Employee Wellbeing: Are your team ready for 2023?

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Employee Wellbeing: Are your team ready for 2023?

It’s the festive season – and whilst life tends to get much busier at this time of year, it’s also a good opportunity to reflect on the last 12 months and how you can continue to thrive in 2023.

We know running a small business can be challenging at the best of times, and with the cost of living rising and some uncertainty afoot, looking after your team is more important than ever. Taking steps to ensure your team’s wellbeing over the busy festive period is a great way to make sure things are good to go and everyone is ready to hit the ground running in 2023. Using HR software that takes the stress out of HR admin is a brilliant way to start the new year organised – and you can read more about the benefits of that here.

Annual leave allowance – use it or lose it!

As much as you might hope everyone has used up their annual leave to take a well-deserved break throughout the year, some of your employees might have the odd day or two to use up before holiday renews in January. If this is the case, it’s a good idea to have a conversation with them about using up their holiday if they can’t carry it over into the new year, and when would be an appropriate time to take it.

Making sure your team use their leave is not only important from a legal standpoint, but also a good way to minimise the chances of employee burnout. It’s been an unpredictable year and there will be times where people’s mental health is impacted. If you’d like to read more about how to support your employees struggling with stress around the festive period and into the new year, you can find out more here.

A reminder of cost of living support

As exciting as Christmas can be, the cost of living is a dark cloud looming over many households as they are having to make tough financial decisions. Unfortunately, choosing between buying Christmas presents or heating their home is becoming a scary reality for a lot of people.

Although we understand the cost-of-living crisis is also having a negative impact on small businesses, many employers are taking steps to ensure their employees are as supported as they can be.

Some steps you could introduce might be:

Review pay: This is the obvious one and doesn’t necessarily mean offering hefty pay increases; but making sure you pay your employees fairly and on time
Bonuses: Many businesses are considering a one-off bonus to help with the rising cost of living and energy prices
Benefits: Financial education, discount schemes, Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP), pensions and savings, and salary sacrifice schemes to name a few
Flexibility: Whether its working from home to safe on travel costs, coming into the office to save money on energy bills or offering holiday buy-back, it’s a good idea to talk to your employees and find out ways you can be more flexible to help them out during this time

Read more here to find out more information on how you can support your employees through the cost of living crisis.

Encourage motivation by discussing your employees career goals for the new year

Another great way of improving your employees wellbeing and maintaining motivation is by setting career objectives, so starting to think about the appraisal process and how this will bring the best out of your employees in 2023. Using an online appraisal management software can be a really great way of keeping appraisals organised and recorded.

Appraisals can be an excellent way of engaging your team and can be a really positive experience between you and your staff – in fact, 65% of employees said that they wanted feedback more often. Appraisals are also an excellent time to tell your employees that they are valued and thank them for a year of hard work.

You can read more about how appraisals can be an excellent tool for engaging your team here.

Finally, show your team how much they are valued!

A thank you and showing genuine gratitude often goes a very long way. When things are busy and people are working hard, sometimes the value and impact these little conversations can have can be forgotten about. Showing your team how important they are to you and your business will go along way to them feeling valued and supported.

By following these tips you’re putting yourself and your team in the best possible position to achieve your goals in 2023 and beyond. If you’d like to have a chat about how our HR support can help you manage tricky HR admin get in touch with the team today.