As business owners, we know the pressure of being the person in charge and the driving force behind a business. It can be a stressful experience which can trickle through into other areas of your life impacting on your physical and mental health.

Running a business takes up time and can easily consume your thoughts. But a tired, stressed, and anxious owner is not an effective owner. So there’s an increasing need to focus on mental health and to bring elements of well-being into your routine. Investing in employee well-being is also extremely important and, according to new research by Xero, is good for your bottom line too.

Bringing mindfulness into the workplace

As a business owner you have a duty of care to look after the people you employ. The impacts of work-related stress means that there is a drive for, and necessary refocus on, a healthier way of doing business.

So, how do you include a well-being approach into your working environment and culture?

• • Build well-being – research shows that a happy team is a more productive team. Building positive well-being into your company culture sets the foundation for happier employees with a well invested team. Happy employees are also less likely to leave. Remember to review your approach after a few months to see what impacts have resulted from your new culture.
    Improve your work/life balance – reduce your working hours to something reasonable and aim to achieve a better work/life balance. You’ll burn out yourself and your staff by pushing to the limit, by working long hours with no breaks. It also has the potential for mental health issues. So, redress the balance now and achieve a positive impact.
    Talk to your staff about well-being – a focus on positive mental health must be communicated through the whole business. You’ll need your employees to also buy into the concepts around well-being so share your core values with your team and allow them the time and resources to try out what might work best for them.
    Schedule the time – to reduce stress you need to make time for your own health. Look for an activity that will help you relax and schedule the time for that activity to take place. It might be a walk, some form of contemplation or meditation. Have it become part of your weekly routine.
    Work well-being and employee happiness into your business targets
     – profit and productivity are not the only things to measure for success of your business. If you are making huge profits but have an unhappy workforce then the balance is off. Including well-being in your employee communications and reviews and being able to act of any feedback received is a great tool

Update your approach to well-being

If you’re feeling like the pressures of your business are getting on top of you, now’s the time to act. By making some small changes to incorporate a more mindful approach to your work and aiming for this core value to be replicated throughout your business – the whole team benefits from this proactive change.