4 Ways Founders Can Help Their Team Achieve Work-Life Balance

Burnout is real, and entrepreneurs aren’t the only ones who suffer from that. Employees do, too.

To keep your team from burning out and quitting on you, you have to work at ensuring your people maintain a suitable level of work-life balance. The following are 4 ideas for accomplishing that goal: 

• Motivate Employees to Exercise

According to research conducted at multiple universities in the United States, employees are better able to cope with both work and family-related stresses when they get sufficient exercise. The researchers determined that exercise also apparently plays a role in helping people juggle work and family responsibilities.

But how do you actually get your employees to work out? Sure, you can buy them all gym memberships – but if they’re working hard all day, they might not feel like going to the gym after work to use the membership.

It might take some creativity to ensure that your team members really do get up out of their chairs. Perhaps you could organize a company-wide group walk for 15 minutes every day. Or you could send a memo notifying everyone that, from now on, nobody gets to sit down at sales meetings; you’re all ditching the chairs and holding standing meetings. You could also make an investment in standing desks for everyone on your team who wants one, or purchase some exercise bikes and treadmills for the office break room.

Another idea would simply be to poll your people and ask them for feedback on what would best motivate them to exercise. Then take action to make their ideas happen.

• Let Them Bring Their Dogs to Work

Back in 2016, NPR reported that 7 percent of employers were allowing pets to come to work along with their owners. Implementing this strategy could actually help you achieve goal number one mentioned above, because any employee who brings their dog to work would probably also walk the dog at lunchtime or during breaks. That aside, when your employees bring their dogs to work, it can also help them reduce cortisol levels and save money (because they won’t have to pay a dog walker if they’re walking the dog during their breaks at work). 

A couple of important caveats:

• You’ll need to implement and enforce a pet policy. It should include a stipulation that animals who come to work must be well-trained and well-behaved. 
• Dogs will need to be appropriately restrained, especially when they’re leaving or entering the office. Make sure people use a high-quality dog leash as they are coming in or going out.
  

• Allow People to Work Remotely

Nowadays there are many jobs that can be performed remotely. In cases where employees are able to do their jobs from home, encourage them to do so at least part of the time.

• Provide and Enforce Paid Vacation Time

Some employers allow their employees to collect pay for their vacation hours instead of actually using them. This is a mistake. It’s better to motivate employees to use their vacation hours so they can enjoy some relaxation time away from the office.

There are many other things besides these that you could do to encourage healthy work-life balance for your employees; however, these are some of the most effective methods that could be implemented. Take some time to consider whether any of these ideas would be beneficial for your company and your team.