Prioritizing wellness is nonnegotiable

Here’s why.

By CAROLINE FERGUSON, Southwest Utility Solutions

Taking care of you is insanely important. Since the beginning of 2020, if that wasn’t apparent to you, personally, it should be by now.

Here’s the deal.

In a time when taking care of ourselves, both physically and mentally, is nonnegotiable, it is irresponsible as leaders to not prioritize wellness for our teams. Empowering our teams to believe that they are important, that they are worthy of prioritizing their wellness and mental health and modeling this same behavior are all game changers in today’s professional environment.

The Global Wellness Day organization defines wellness as “an active process of becoming aware of and making choices towards a healthy and fulfilling life. It is more than being free from illness, it is a dynamic process of change and growth.”

The World Health Organization defines wellness as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease.”

In the next few paragraphs, we’ll discuss how prioritizing wellness at work contributes to increased productivity, ways leaders can integrate ways of doing this for their teams and personal wellness takeaways for you to implement in your personal life.

Wellness at Work

The amount of change we professionally have experienced in the past year is astronomical. One could make the argument that in the past 18 months, we’ve experienced enough change for a lifetime.

Prioritizing your wellness at work, whether working in an office or remotely from home, has never been more important. Based on a 2020 study, more than one in four adults report symptoms of depression.1 The American Institute of Stress found that healthcare costs, accidents, absenteeism, turnover, decreased productivity and worker’s comp from highly stressed employees totals up to $300 billion for the US every year. The reality is that when people are sick, stressed out or feel isolated, their productivity will naturally decline as well.

Making our teams’ mental health and wellness a priority positively impacts the entire organization. According to a study completed by Psychologist Shawn Achor, employees who are happy are 31% more productive than those who are not. He also found that salespeople who are positive have 37% better sales.

So, the question becomes, how do you integrate prioritizing wellness at the office? And on a personal level, how do you prioritize this for yourself?

As noted in a recent article published by Chron, here are a few ways leaders can implement effective wellness programs with low-cost resources: 1. Bring in local health professionals to talk about nutrition, stress relief and exercise with your team. 2. Give your teams access to a gym (onsite or off) or some sort of outlet that allows for and encourages physical activity. 3. Create a weekly newsletter with wellness tips, challenges and activities to engage your teams. Make this fun! Consider ways to increase participation and engagement across your team.

The key with any program or system designed to improve wellness and mindset professionally is buy in. In order for any of our efforts to work, you need to create a system compelling enough for your teams to participate with. This looks different for an onsite team, a sales team, a corporate team, a supplier team, etc. None of this should be one size fits all.

Don’t create a wellness program thinking that what resonates to a property manager who is in the middle of chaos every single day will resonate with your accounting team back at their home office. Always consider the personal experiences and needs for each facet of your team.

Prioritizing wellness boils down to three core things: 1. Caring about your people. 2. Making sure your people know you care about them. 3. Providing opportunities for your people to prioritize themselves.

Ways to Personally Implement Wellness

Not all of us are fortunate enough to be a part of an organization that prioritizes wellness. If you are a part of an organization like this, do not let that stop you from YOU making your personal mindset and wellness a priority.

Here are a few ways that you can prioritize your personal wellness (1g): 1. Use your PTO as mental health days. Mental health days are just as important as sick days. While our industry is busy and chaotic, it is important even in the midst of it to slow down and listen to our bodies and minds when they tell us we need rest. 2. Pause and take a break. It is so easy to be nonstop all the time. Industry involvement, onsite lease ups, building new relationships, implementing new tech, dealing with problems and handling residents, owners, and management relationships are all so consuming! I get it! As an industry partner that serves you, I see it and I’m aware of it. In our own way, supplier partners experience the chaos, too. For at least a few minutes a day, you have to put your phone on do not disturb and turn the computer off. All the way off, people. Do not just put the monitor to sleep or log out. I mean turn it off. Eliminate the temptation to interrupt your break. 3. Set boundaries clearly. No one is ever going to look down on you for saying “I need this to be a work-related matter and I need to come back to it during appropriate hours.” As a new mom, the importance of boundaries and balance have become even more evident to me. Your family will thank you for putting the phone down at the dinner table. Your emails can wait, and your mental health will also thank you, I promise.

Wellness affects our productivity and our mental health. Prioritizing wellness in your company is more important than a company dodgeball tournament or taco Tuesdays. There is a pandemic of broken spirits, overworked teams and exhausted business owners occurring. Let’s do something about it. Let’s acknowledge what’s at stake and be proactive.

Caroline Ferguson is the vice president for Southwest Utility Solutions. She is also the founder of Grateful & Co., an organization with the mission to spread gratitude and increase mental wellness.

Here is a little about Southwest Utility Solutions: Southwest Utility Solutions exists for a very simple reason. The multifamily industry is fundamentally built and sustained by the value that owners, investors, and property management teams bring to the table. Your number one job: building the best, sustainable, and profitable community should not be plagued with industry partners that are preventing your property from being taken to the next level. We're building custom utility programs to ensure maximum utility recovery, savings and property profit for multifamily communities. Contact Caroline at cferguson@swutilitysolutions.com.