The lasting impacts of the pandemic are being felt by a significant number of workers who have had to work more and be more flexible, resulting in them experiencing the symptoms of burnout.
Looking ahead, workplaces need to consider both physical and mental wellbeing before we tip into a wellbeing recession. To stop this trend, it’s important for each and every one of us to reflect on our own wellbeing and then consider how we can align our efforts with others and create change. For example, how stressed do you feel each day? Do you constantly feel under pressure, and are you noticing any other health symptoms?
So, take a moment now to visualize your ideal work life and consider how you would feel working in a holistic enterprise? Would it look something like this?
- You’re able to work remotely to suit your work/life balance.
- Your values are represented in the work you do.
- You create healthy boundaries, especially with remote working.
- You have a proactive approach daily by managing your feelings and taking note of
your emotions. - You’re clear on how your emotions drive your behavior.
- You’re able to take on new challenges.
- You adapt to and bring about change.
- You’re achieving your work and life goals.
- You’re operating as the best version of yourself.
It’s an exciting possibility. However, does it feel that your work life is near your ideal holistic enterprise model at the moment? You are working remotely, catering for personal emergencies, being bombarded with text messages, emails, and demands from others, or you’re impacted by your own ineffective habits.
How would you rate your workplace currently on a scale of 0 to 10—with 10 being the ideal holistic workplace? There are amazing opportunities available to improve our workplace wellbeing, however there needs to be commitment from businesses to move in this new direction.
Small Changes Aggregate into Successful Outcomes!
Consider a workforce being totally engaged, enjoying work, having the right balance with their personal lives and creating impact for your business.
Change is happening, however, and businesses are now looking at the whole-person approach in the workplace, providing a great opportunity for you to contribute and create change!
How would it feel if you started this movement, aggregated efforts with others and created unstoppable momentum that became a model for all organizations?
“Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things” Peter Drucker
The Pandemic Legacy
As part of a recent Deloitte and Swinburne University of Technology study, more than 2000 Australian workers were surveyed and it was found that one in three people are working more hours since the pandemic. Many are also working outside their standard hours and not being compensated. These factors have the potential to start a wellbeing recession if they are not addressed. In addition, more than 90 percent of workers now say their physical and mental wellbeing is just as important as their pay.
Managers need to look at all the options for genuine flexibility for workers. For the future, the study suggested that wellbeing needs to be built into workplace principles of operating just like employment agreements.
The Whole Person Approach to the Workplace
With the lines between work and home life becoming increasingly blurred, and stress mounting due to the global pandemic and its related economic consequences, many employees are struggling with their health and wellbeing. Enterprises are now looking beyond short-term fixes and are starting to embed well-being programs that look at the whole person. Examples of companies with successful wellness programs include Accenture, Asana, Google, Intuit, Microsoft, and SAS.
Employee expectations are also changing given the recent pandemic, with remote working increasing. In the past, wellbeing programs have been a piecemeal approach in organizations. We need organizations to include a whole-person approach in their wellbeing programs, covering not only physical wellbeing, but fostering emotional and mental wellbeing as well as social, organizational, career, and even financial wellbeing of their employees. Organizations are very good at business plans and models, and the same approach needs to apply to the workforce.
Workplaces need employees to bring their best selves to work. This can be aided by giving employer’s choices on where they may like to work and using technology to aid them in the workplace.
Your business can start creating a holistic health and wellbeing program for everyone that covers mental, financial, social, and physical health. A holistic enterprise is possible provided the right culture exists within a business, and the relevant strategy and resources are in place by ensuring:
- All stakeholders buy into the approach,
- Resources are provided,
- The culture reflects the holistic approach, with management buy-in, and the
- Results are measured.
After coming though the pandemic, the immediate benefit gained by creating a holistic workplace is employee satisfaction. Employees will also be more productive and business performance will increase through the new wellbeing approach.
Being an Agent of Change
Remember, the starting point for any change process is you. By looking beyond ourselves to the needs of others, each and every one of us has the potential to have an impact that can accumulate into amazing outcomes through a “ripple effect.” For example, if you shared insights from this article with twenty people and encouraged each of the twenty people to share with six others, who could then share with six other people, consider the number of people this could impact.
EMOTIV is an agent of change through its global research and the results are far-reaching. The change is occurring as EMOTIV is supporting individuals to operate at peak performance. EMOTIV provides six basic measures of mental performance, derived directly from your mental activity. Each measure is automatically scaled to suit your normal range and base level of each condition – the system learns your usual state and capabilities and provides an adjusted value showing your relative performance on each occasion, compared to your overall behavior. EMOTIV’s performance metrics graphs include six metrics for INSIGHT, EPOC X and EPOC+ headsets including stress, engagement, interest, excitement, focus, and
relaxation.
EMOTIV’s technology will have an impact on a bigger scale by flowing through people, organizations, communities, and societies. This is an opportunity to be a part of a global change process that could change the course of history and serve us for generations to come.
“One person can make a difference and every person should try” J.F. Kennedy, US President, 1961 – 63
EMOTIV is Improving Wellbeing in the Workplace
EMOTIV aims to make it easier than ever for public and private organizations to realize the benefits of validated neuroscientific and behavioral insights. Together with our partners, we aim to improve workplace wellness, safety, training, and productivity strategies
EMOTIV’s wireless brain-monitoring headsets and apps have empowered tens of thousands of passionate individuals around the world to monitor and better understand how the human brain functions in real-life situations.
The time has come to listen to our brains. This is the real future of work. EMOTIV is here to support individuals in the workplace and businesses to become holistic enterprises.
At EMOTIV, we have a lot more for you to discover, with sophisticated tools that act like a virtual coach inside your mind, enabling you to regain focus and getting you back into that powerful flow state. EMOTIV will ensure that your working conditions will be evidence-based and dynamically adapted to how you feel.
It is time to redefine the future of work, not only with respect to what artificial intelligence and automation are going to change, but to tailor our work conditions and environments to how we feel. It is time to better understand how we can thrive at work by leveraging rigorous neuroscience to improve our workplace wellness, safety, learning and performance. EMOTIV is there to support you on this journey.
EMOTIV is a recognized pioneer and market leader in the field of BCI enterprise solutions and EEG technology. Its award-winning EMOTIV EPOC+ headset and the 10-year anniversary edition EPOC X provide professional-grade BCI data for academic research and commercial use (EMOTIV EPOC X brain-computer interface).
