What is the secret to success during the Pandemic? It’s probably not what you think…

It is no secret that an engaged workforce is the secret to a successful organization. Higher rates of employee satisfaction result in increased productivity, higher sales figures and longer employee retention, not to mention lower rates of burnout and attrition. Gimmicks like in office massage, team lunches and exciting off-site team building exercises were a great way to build rapport among teams in the past. But in the #WFH world we now inhabit, how do leaders, and on a macro level, organizations, continue to build rapport and maintain engagement?

According to an August 2020 study by Cushman Wakefield, feelings of anxiety, uncertainty and fear for the future are on the rise amongst those working from home, with higher levels of millennials and Gen Z expressing frustration over the challenges of telework. Complaints over lack of space, distraction from children or other household members, and loneliness ranked highly in this particular study.

When we consider the myriad challenges of working from home — kids, pets, distractions, ill fitting work spaces — finding a productive groove is a daily, if not hourly, challenge and the results are a mixed bag of positive and negative. Some workers report increased productivity after eliminating a traffic filled commute, while others cite arguing children and the omnipresent lure of the refrigerator a major drain on mental resources. What is the solution?

In discussions with our top speakers on leadership and our clients, leaders across a huge range of Fortune 500 organizations, the answer is simple: investment in employee wellbeing.

The single biggest struggle facing organizations as the pandemic drags on is maintaining an engaged and cohesive workforce. Suffering from so-called “Zoom gloom,” the need to reinvigorate our teams is greater than ever…and now is the time to do that.

An investment in daily wellbeing practice can be the simple solution to turning this around. Wellbeing speakers like our mindfulness expert Pandit Dasa are working with organizations on an ongoing basis, creating short daily videos on meditation, mindfulness and healthy habits, including diet and exercise that are concise, actionable and effective.

Feedback from programs like this has been extraordinary. One organization stated that their daily mindfulness series had the highest engagement of ANY virtual event ever. Every day employees receive a short 20-30 minute video on an aspect of mindfulness, such as healthy eating, meditation or focus, which includes a prerecorded video, a practical exercise to do on the spot and a take away message for the day. 

Reviews for Pandit’s course were glowing, with employees raving about the awesome benefits of this “time out” of the workday that was not only sanctioned, but recommended by their organization.

The results are clear: organizations need to focus on their employees’ mental and physical wellbeing in order to successfully manage a remote workforce into an uncertain future. 

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Derek Sweeney is the Director of Speaker Ideas at The Sweeney Agency. www.thesweeneyagency.com. For 15 years Derek has been helping clients find the right Speakers for their events. Derek can be reached at 1-866-727-7555 or [email protected]