April is Stress Awareness Month, an annual event that for the last 33 years has worked to educate the public on the causes of stress and ways to alleviate it.
The right amount of stress is sometimes necessary to be productive, however too much can have a negative effect on workplace productivity and your employee’s mental wellbeing.
Looking at ways to improve your company’s work culture could have a wide range of positive benefits for your business. It may help you:
- Boost productivity and reduce the number of human errors prompted by stress
- Promote better communication, as your employees feel more confident discussing issues
- Reduce staff turnover and retain talented team members for the long term.
A healthy and positive mindset is one of the simplest ways to reduce stress. Adopting a new way of thinking might open you up to new ways to help your workforce, as well as boost your own mental wellbeing.
Read on to discover three wellbeing philosophies from around the world that may be the key to you nurturing a better, more positive, and more productive business.
1. Hygge: A Danish term that promotes finding contentment from feeling cosy and comfortable
Hygge is defined as “a quality of cosiness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being.” In simplest terms, it means to boost your wellbeing through comfort.
Hygge is often described as the feeling you get from:
- Having a nice meal with friends and families in a dimly lit setting
- Being wrapped up in warm covers while reading a great book
- Listening to your favourite music while enjoying a soothing warm bath.
The idea is to relax and feel as at-home as possible, so you can forget your worries, and free your mind.
Louisa Thomsen Brits, a British Danish author, asserts that a sense of Hygge can help make mundane tasks dignified, joyful, and beautiful.
Taking time to embrace Hygge in your own life might leave you feeling more refreshed and able to tackle any challenges at work. It might involve turning off your phone while you’re with family and taking time to fully enjoy your time with your loved ones.
You could also bring Hygge into the workplace by taking steps to ensure your office space is comfortable. It could involve finding suitable chairs that benefit staff who spend long periods of time at their desks, having a communal lunch space so staff can eat together, or setting aside funds for staff outings that help your team bond.
2. Lagom: A Swedish philosophy that champions restraint and enjoying things in moderation
Lagom is a Swedish belief that you should show restraint in all aspects of life and find satisfaction in having “just the right amount”.
For example, in your day-to-day life, you may be late for an appointment, but rather than spend minutes explaining your excuses, you could simply just apologise and move on. In your personal life, you may enjoy a nice drink, but not feel the need to get drunk.
The full phrase “lagom är bäst” roughly translates as “enough is as good as a feast.”
It’s an ethos which acts to reduce waste, avoid unnecessary dialogue, and use your time more efficiently. The idea that “just enough” is preferable to constantly seeking out perfection.
At work, you’ll have surely experienced a meeting or two that will have felt they could have been summed up in an email. You may have projects that have been held up trying to get things “just right” and ended up hindering your team’s overall workflow.
Understanding where your time is needed most and knowing when to accept you’ve spent enough of it on something could have a positive boost on your wellbeing, your team’s mindset, and your company’s overall productivity.
3. Ikigai: A Japanese concept that blends passion, talent, purpose, and fulfilment as a means to a long and happy life
The Japanese often follow the philosophy of Ikigai, which aims to give life purpose. Ikigai pushes you to assess your inherent talents and interests, and find an outlet for that energy. In harnessing your purpose, they believe you can achieve the level of fulfilment needed to live a long and happy life.
Your purpose might be your business, or it could be being a mother or father, or indulging in one of your hobbies. Taking time to focus on your purpose could bring you greater satisfaction and reduce residual stress.
You could also find ways to help your staff find their own purpose. This might involve regular one-to-one reviews to address ways you can help them grow within your business and find greater enjoyment in their work.
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You may opt to offer greater flexibility in the workplace, such as hybrid or remote work, or flexible start and finish times. This might gift your team more time to focus on other areas of their lives that give them joy, so that the time they spend at work is more productive.
The boost to your employee’s happiness could help you foster a more beneficial work culture that promotes longevity, reduced staff turnover, and better opportunities for talent recruitment.
Sage software could help you streamline your business, giving you more time for the important things in life
There are many great philosophies from around the world that might help you improve your emotional wellbeing and that of your team. Countries, such as Finland, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden regularly rank among the happiest in the world.
Sage software is a financial tool that could help you promote any one of these mindsets. It allows you to gain greater control over your financial processes, reduce inefficiencies, automate processes, and frees up you and your team to focus your time elsewhere.
At Solutions, we’re here to guide you through all the benefits of our software, through your initial consultations to the support we’ll provide every step of the way during your time with us.
Get in touch with us today by emailing enquiries@solutionscloud.uk or calling 0115 840 5075.
We want you to help you reduce all the unnecessary noise and inefficiencies within your business, so you can better focus on the things that truly matter.
