The 4Rs of Organizational Self-Care

The past 19 months have provided an abrupt recognition to many people about the importance of personal self-care. It’s been a wake-up call for individuals to make decisions that support their mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health needs. And while many organizations have adopted new policies and practices to support this, the whole topic of organizational self-care is an opportunity to strategically plan how leaders can support their current and prospective team members to provide an environment where they can thrive.

The reasons for its importance should be clear by now. With attrition rates rising (The Great Resignation), reports on increasingly aggressive behavior in public places (airplanes, stores, and schools to name a few), and a general unease in the workplace (as reported by a variety of leaders with whom I’ve spoken), we have to approach work differently in the future. Worker shortages along with high unemployment, are evidence of a great reset on the number of people available and interested in the types of jobs that are open. The proof of that is our recognition of the difficulty in finding a salesperson in a store, a server in a restaurant, and a delivery date for a desired item; along with employers dealing with increased time-to-hire. 

But the focus on organizational self-care is more than a competitive advantage, it’s necessary for the well-being of our most important resource, our team members. 

In manufacturing environments, plant managers don’t wait until equipment breaks down to repair it. They know there’s a loss for every minute the machinery isn’t functioning, and it will show up in reduced productivity, increased costs, and poor customer service. Instead, they have a predictive and preventive maintenance schedule that must be followed. They proactively plan downtime to replace worn parts, lubricate moving parts, test functionality, make repairs and do whatever is necessary to maximize output. 

Humans are much more valuable and sensitive to environmental factors than machines, so it’s important to have a strategy to care for the team as well. How do you do that? Here are four key elements.

Rest
Rather than thinking of rest as something that happens outside of work, when employees are sleeping, how do you build periods of rest into work? This is a time to relax, gather strength, and refresh oneself. It might look like a specific time during the week where team members can disconnect from email, texts, chats and other demands, to do something that supports rejuvenation. 

That might mean going to a restaurant to sit and eat lunch instead of grabbing food in the workplace. It might mean going to an off-site training session that provides a different environment. It might mean sitting in an office or a conference room with the door closed reading a professional journal or writing in a personal journal. Resting will be different for everyone, but it should be scheduled, protected, and accepted across the organization as being a necessary part of growth. Just like sleep deprivation is harmful to our health, failure to rest in the context of work is harmful to our productivity.

Relationships 
There’s a tremendous amount of conversation about work from home these days. I’m convinced that outside of face-to-face service businesses and hands-on manufacturing industries, any organization that doesn’t provide an opportunity for hybrid work schedules will risk lower engagement and higher attrition. And while we’ve proven over the past 19 months that we can build relationships remotely, those relationships are stronger when we can include in-person experiences. 

I attended a two-day board meeting in-person recently and made stronger, more trusting connections because of the side-bar conversations, reading body language, more naturally inserting questions and comments into the discussion, and observing the full spectrum of the environment. I’ve also been fortunate to work with a number of new clients during the pandemic, all virtually (we’ve never met in-person). And when I finally saw them face-to-face (even mask-to-mask) in the past several months it was like a magical moment of cementing our relationship. 

The objective is to create opportunities for relationships to develop, face-to-face where possible, by bringing the team together around topics for discussion, problem solving, and having fun. This is all part of team building. And of greater importance these days is creating space to discuss workplace and environmental issues such as hybrid work, priorities, culture, diversity, inclusion, etc. Providing a framework for and introducing the topic as a group, lays the groundwork for small group discussion, leader-team member discussion, and new ideas that can lead to stronger engagement.

Restore
There’s a familiar saying, “no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” And your teams won’t know how much you care unless you tell them and show them. Recognize their accomplishments. Celebrate their milestones. Encourage their growth. Develop their skill sets. Know who prefers this privately vs publicly. Observe what excites them. Give different team members the opportunity to lead projects that they’re passionate about. Let them try new skills. 

Many years ago, my team was preparing for a series of employee communications meetings. As the senior HR leader, I could have presented the material, but instead asked several of my team members to do it. Their presentation skills and ability to handle some of the tough questions was outstanding and I was able to recognize, celebrate, encourage, and develop them.

Reprioritize 
As we approach end of year performance evaluations and identify priorities for the coming year, we can all create a long wish list of things to accomplish. But the reality is we won’t have enough time, and other urgent projects will crop up during the year. So, what’s really important? Identify the projects and assignments that will create the most value, remove more roadblocks, address the greatest risks, and build a stronger team. This starts at the top of the organization as the C-suite focuses on vision and mission and the strategic plan. There are trade-offs that must be analyzed.

Finally, remember that organizational self-care requires constant attention to team member needs, internal and external environmental triggers, and ideas on how work gets done. Leaders must model this behavior for others. It’s an investment in our most important resource, our people.

 

Copyright 2021 Priscilla Archangel

Photo by Katarzyna Bialasiewicz iStock