January is officially ‘Get a Balanced Life Month’ – a time to reflect on your work responsibilities and home life, and make positive changes to ensure you’re getting the most out of both. Here, the Occupational Healthcare experts at YourGP explore why this is a good time for employers to assess their own workplace culture, and advise on the best ways to create a balanced working environment for all.

New year, new career?
Records show January is the most popular time of year for job changes. There are various reasons behind this – some employees may prefer to wait until the New Year to move on to another role in order to avoid any potential stress over the Christmas holidays. Others may have used the Christmas break as a time to reflect on what really matters to them and what they want to achieve in their career. The New Year is often seen as a fresh start to make it happen.

The true cost of staff turnover
There are of course some benefits to team members moving on to roles elsewhere. An employee leaving can free up space for a new person to join the team and bring innovative ideas, valuable experience, and positive energy to the table. However, a high level of staff turnover is usually indicative of a problem and that changes to the workplace environment are required. As well as causing significant disruption to the workplace and affecting the morale of the whole team, staff turnover also has a potentially huge monetary cost:

• Recruitment and advertising costs for seeking a replacement
• Productivity loss during the time between the previous employee leaving and the new employee starting
• Cost and time spent training the new recruit
• Cost of new equipment such as uniform, badges/passes, and homeworking equipment

A happy team is a productive team
It therefore makes complete business sense to ensure your team is as happy in their role and comfortable within their working environment as possible. Not only will they be less likely to move on, they’ll also be:

• Less likely to feel stressed and better able to cope in stressful situations
• Less likely to take time off due to sickness
• More productive
• More creative in their thinking and problem solving
• Make fewer mistakes and therefore report less accidents in the workplace

So it really does pay to invest in the happiness of your team by creating a balanced work culture.

Creating a balanced work culture
An employer who values a healthy work / life balance and demonstrates that every day to their team will help to create a better working environment for all. It all starts with leading by example:

• Ensure workers take regular breaks and enjoy their lunch away from their desk. Create a quiet break out area to relax in, or stock your staff room with books and magazines to provide a little escapism.
• Encourage your workers to switch off after work. Don’t call, text or email during out of hours – instead schedule any emails to be sent during working hours.
• Be flexible in allowing employees to respond to events outwith work, for example attending an important family occasion. Remote working and flexi hours can be a huge help here.
• Have regular work catch ups. Find out how they are coping with their workload – are they regularly having to put in extra hours, for example? Are they feeling stressed and what can be done to alleviate that pressure?
• Be open and approachable if they need to talk to someone about issues in their personal life.

If you would like further information on how to create a happier, more balanced worklife for your team, get in touch with YourGP’s team of Occupational Health specialists on 0131 225 5656 or email occhealth@your.gp.