The perks of cultivating social wellbeing at the office
When we think of our own wellbeing, we often think of physical wellness. However, we also need to consider social and relational aspects in order to get a complete picture of our wellbeing. Fostering a work environment that promotes wellbeing shouldn’t be overlooked as it can help your law firm or legal department recruit and, most importantly, retain top legal talent.
Social wellbeing is the ability to build personal connections with others, deal with conflict, and be a part of a positive social network. As such, social wellbeing in the workplace isn’t limited to a group of people that work well together but, more specifically, is about team members developing meaningful relationships with their coworkers. According to O.C. Tanner Institute’s 2015 Health and Well-Being Study, about 76 per cent of employees who have a close friend at work are more satisfied with their job.
The necessity of cultivating social wellness in the workplace has become more apparent: remote-based work settings are more frequent and lack of social interaction is an undeniable part of our modern lives. Investing in social health at the office is key to a holistic employee wellness program that can lead to benefits such as increased productivity, improved talent attraction and retention, more collaboration, and increased willingness to innovate.
Cultivating social wellness
Building social connections in the workplace is about fostering an environment that supports mutual respect, trust, and belonging among team members. Initiating social wellbeing doesn’t have to be costly – it simply starts with communication. Increasing awareness of varying communication styles and personalities can help your team understand themselves and work better together.
A key part of cultivating a culture of wellness is fostering social connections and supporting social wellbeing amongst employees. It’s also important for the workplace to create a culture of caring that promotes job satisfaction, a collaborative environment, recognition for a job well done, and reinforcement of individual contributions.
Takeaway
The types of relationships fostered at work can positively or negatively affect your team’s stress levels, engagement, productivity and efficiency.
What matters most is creating a caring organisational culture that values and promotes job satisfaction, a collaborative environment, recognition for doing the job well and reinforcement of individual contribution in a non-competitive way. That’s how management can create an emotional connection with their employees and that quality emotional connection is what helps attract and retain the quality talent you want as part of your progressive organisation.
The Counsel Network is a Canadian legal recruitment firm providing services for law firms and in-house legal departments. If you are thinking about hiring a lawyer for your team, reach out to us for a confidential discussion today.
Chaaya R. Jugdeb, Recruitment Associate
403.444.1767 / 647.484.8313