Caring for Your Employees' Wellbeing & Mental Health Amid Remote Work

Working remotely has taken a toll on the mental health and wellness of employees. Straddling feelings of isolation, new working environments, and heavy workloads have caused many to experience stress and burnout from working from home. There has never been a more urgent call to prioritise staff welfare and wellbeing – as more companies witness an onslaught of work burnout symptoms among their workers, more help for employees must be put in place.

Challenges of remote work

According to the 2022 Hybrid Work Report by HubSpot, most remote employees find it hard to engage in bonding activities or communicate with colleagues as 72% of them experience “Zoom fatigue” when they work from home.

Additionally,  90% of remote working respondents admitted to dealing with some degree of burnout while 75% expressed feelings of being overworked and citing it as a reason for a potential career change. Factor in the reality of how a majority (57%) also struggled to clearly differentiate the boundaries between work and personal life , it is no wonder employees are stressed by burnout and facing lower productivity.

When it comes to working from home wellbeing tips and ideas, bear in mind that each employee has their unique set of concerns contributing to burnout at home.

4 ways you can support work from home employees

1.  Do regular check-ins

It is crucial to look out for those exhibiting burnout symptoms, especially since remote work makes conversations move slower and leads to fewer interactions between staff. Consider following the 5 Ways to Wellbeing, which are guiding steps designed to improve mental health and wellness in the workplace. These five actions are: staying connected, being active, taking notice, constantly learning, and giving. Constant check-ins with employees are a multifunctional means to address employee burnout and cures.

2.  Look out for signs of burnout

What might seem like laziness might be a sign of work from home burnout. Reduced performance and productivity, detachment, lack of creativity, fatigue, anxiety, difficulties concentrating are work burnout symptoms as well. Unsustainable workload and expectations have to be addressed as soon as possible, as the mental and physical health of employees rests on the line. 

3.  Cultivate a culture of transparency & trust

Being the first to share about mental health is difficult, especially if it is new to the company. Wellbeing activities for team meetings could be a starting point to integrate honest conversations between employees. This would make it easier for employees to open up about their struggles – by openly empathising with others and validating their feelings, employees can do the same for each other. With these support structures, work from home wellbeing ideas shared in response enable employees to adopt a collective response to feelings of remoteness. 

4.  Recognise & reward employees

Having a work from home arrangement also makes it harder to track progress, identify impacts, and recognise short-term achievements. Although everyone’s work seems to exist in isolation, the fact remains that all assignments are dependent on one another. This makes it all the more important to amplify the good work done by employees.

In 2022, DHL Express Asia Pacific retains the title of #1 Great Place to Work® for the fourth consecutive year. These awards are a recognition of DHL Express’ focus on building a strong positive company culture based upon fairness and transparency, where help for employees is given promptly and equal opportunities are provided for all. 

Ultimately, the importance of investing in the workforce should not be taken lightly. Mental health initiatives, bonding activities, and a positive organisational culture have become more significant in the wake of the pandemic, and being able to supportsupporting employees’ work from home wellbeing should become one of the top priorities for any organisation, no matter if its a small e-commerce business or an established MNC. 

With a world-class logistics partner like DHL Express by your side, you can tap on our global network and reliable shipping services to streamline business operations. That way, you will be able to allot more resources towards meaningful support for staff welfare and building a positive remote work culture for all. Sign up for a DHL Express account to get started today.