What's happening in the world of mental health?
Are my employees families really my responsibility?
A resilience survey carried out by the Josh Bersin academy for their Big Reset Playbook - Returning to the workplace showed that:
"organisations that help workers take care of their families are 5.1 times more likely to accomplish outstanding outcomes in areas such as financial performance, customer satisfaction or change agility."
What does "taking care of their families mean"?
That sounds expensive
We aren't suggesting you allow your staff unlimited time off work to deal with family problems. Or that it's acceptable for them to be preoccupied in the workplace. What we are suggesting though, is allowing staff to understand that they will be supported to get through the difficulties.
If they feel that they can't bring anything into work they might take time off sick or even look for a new job. Both of those options are expensive.
If your staff felt that they could talk to someone within the organisation to help them to develop a plan which works for them and work that would make things a lot easier.
How can listening help?
When we have a problem, it's sometimes really difficult to see a way out of it. We might feel that we are lost in a forest and we can't find our way home. Sometimes just having the space to talk about what's bothering you will allow you to start to develop your own solution.
If a staff member is underperforming how many times do we go straight to a punitive approach? Maybe we will give them a warning, expecting them to leave their problems at home. But sometimes it's not that simple. We can just take our brains out and leave them in a pot as we enter the office.
Listening can lead to a better outcome for everyone
But what if we actually took the time to understand whey they are late to work or why they are taking lots of private calls through the day? Maybe they have got caring responsibilities you don't know about, or perhaps a relationship break up that's taking all of their thought.
There might be some things you could do which don't have a big cost to the business but would make life a lot easer for your staff member. Perhaps starting work a little later would help to reduce their lateness. Not having to panic every morning about getting to work at 8.30 means that by the time they start work at 9am or 9.30 will give them the brain space that they need to do a great job for you.
