Wellbeing conversation guide Purpose and benefits Iris Care is committed to supporting the wellbeing of all staff and service users. As a manager you can play a role in keeping this commitment by showing a genuine interest in the wellbeing of your team. Our wellbeing and happiness often directly affect our physical health; happy and healthy individuals are at work more often and are more productive and creative in their work. A wellbeing conversation is an opportunity for the employee to reflect on their wellbeing inside and outside of work and decide for themselves how this could be even better. Having the opportunity to think and talk about one’s wellbeing may help prevent more serious wellbeing issues developing. As a manager your responsibility is to be aware of what wellbeing support is available, to have conversations with employees about their wellbeing, provide an appropriate level of support where relevant and to signpost to other support available. This is an essential conversation to have.
When and how often could a wellbeing conversation be helpful? In normal circumstances, a reasonable time to ask about wellbeing is when you are having a one-to-one or regular check-in with the employee. The important thing is that you take a common-sense approach, using your judgement to decide when and how often to have a chat about it. This includes knowing if you need to check in with your staff outside of these scheduled conversations. Examples of specific circumstances when a chat about wellbeing may also be particularly important include: • If the staff member has returned to work after an extended period of absence the manager should conduct your return-to-work conversation as per the sickness policy and follow the process within it depending on the circumstances of the absence. However, it may also be beneficial to have a follow up wellbeing conversation(s) once the employee has returned to work and after the return-to-work conversation. • When you notice the staff member behaving in a way that is completely out of character for them e.g., being consistently late for or not joining meetings, appearing unduly distressed or distracted, less helpful or more withdrawn than usual, behaving erratically, not switching their camera on during Teams calls, not taking their usual care of their appearance etc. • There has been a distressing world event in the news that potentially could have a profound impact not only on our staff but also their families, communities and countries of origin. • There is a noticeable decline in their work performance or conduct e.g., missing deadlines, being less organised, making more errors than normal, impatience, raising voice and swearing.