Putting Health First: How Line Managers Can Support Employee Wellbeing

1. Ensure Privacy: Any conversation about an employee’s health must be private and confidential. Line managers should schedule 1:1 sessions in safe spaces, e.g., a private office or a pre-booked meeting room. Alternatively, selecting a space outside of the office where traditional office hierarchies are not spatially enforced would be an excellent idea. You could speak about your concerns over a cup of tea in a local café or go for a walk to get some fresh air and chat things through away from the pressures of your workplace. 

2. Don’t Overstep Boundaries: Line managers should never ambush their employees into revealing personal details about their mental or physical health. They must give them leeway to speak and reassure them that they only need to share what they are comfortable talking about. While the conversation should be informal, line managers must remember their professional responsibilities and not push for personal information. 

3. Express Concern, Not Disappointment: Line managers could use specific phrases to verbalise their worries, e.g., “I’m checking in on you because I’m not sure you’ve seemed like yourself lately” or “I’m concerned about your wellbeing” to explain why they want to have this conversation. This discussion should never be about reprimanding a team member for ‘slacking off’ or failing to meet targets. 

4. Stay Focused: It couldn’t be more important for line managers to provide their team members with their full attention during these types of conversations. They should switch off their email alerts and place their phones on silent to limit any distractions. 

5. Actively Listen: Active listening = empathetic listening. Line managers should let their employees speak freely without interruption. This conversation should be about how their team member is feeling – it’s not a space for the line manager to dominate the conversation. They mustn’t adopt a hardline of inquiry but should instead allow the employee to steer the conversation in whatever direction they want to. Line managers could employ nonverbal cues like nodding to demonstrate active listening without interrupting. They could also issue small, supportive verbal reassurances whilst listening, e.g., “I understand”, “Please go on”, and “I’m listening”.

6. Recognise Limitations: Line managers are not usually trained health experts and should never try to answer medical questions with specific advice or diagnoses. Instead, they should acknowledge their team member’s medical concerns and questions but tell them they’re not in a position to diagnose them. They should always be honest and tell their employees when they don’t know the answer to a specific question (while working to gather more information about how they can best help them).

1. Risk Assessments: Line managers should undertake risk assessments to gauge how safe their workplace environments and practices are for their employees. Thrive4Life’s sister company, Osteopaths for Industry, offers employers a Manual Handling Risk Assessment that (if relevant to your organisation) can help line managers improve physical health conditions in the workplace. At Thrive4Life, we also offer a 15-minute Employee Health Check that can help you and your employees keep track of fundamental health factors like blood sugar levels, BMI, and cholesterol. 

2. Flexible Working Arrangements: Where possible, line managers should try to offer their team remote work options, longer breaks, and hybrid work arrangements. The extra time these arrangements can give employees can help them take care of their health by scheduling medical appointments, getting in some exercise, or having some downtime to relax and switch off from work. Line managers should also be flexible when setting targets and help struggling employees meet their KPIs by sharing out tasks and offering every team member reasonable deadlines that take into account their workload and professional/personal commitments. 

3. Ergonomic Working Arrangements: Line managers should provide ergonomic working arrangements to ease any physical discomfort or strain employees may be struggling with. To do this, they can offer workstations with adjustable heights, footrests, and ergonomic computer equipment. These measures can all mitigate the risk (or lessen the discomfort) of individuals suffering from musculoskeletal issues. Line managers should also ensure their office space has adequate lighting, is toxin-free, and is accessible for wheelchair users.

4. Improving Nutrition: Line managers should take steps to look after their employees’ nutritional needs. According to research, we make around 200 food-related decisions every single day. However, these decisions are significantly affected by our physical environments. This means that if employees are surrounded by unhealthy foods in the office, this can trigger or exacerbate health issues like diabetes, obesity, or disordered eating. Line managers could arrange for healthy meals to be made available to their team members or provide vouchers for health food shops or cafés. Similarly, they should take stock of employees’ nutritional restrictions and communicate these to their company’s cafeteria, e.g., any allergies, halal/kosher requirements, vegan diets, gluten intolerances/coeliac disease, lactose intolerances, and individuals who eat a sugar-free diet.

5. Activity Plans: As office workers spend a large proportion of the working week sat at a desk in front of a computer, they run the risk of leading largely sedentary lifestyles. To combat this, line managers should organise activities that improve their team’s fitness levels and keep them physically active. Activities like runs, walks, or even group sports can provide physical stimulation and improve employees’ mental health by breaking the monotony of their office routine. 

6. Encouraging Kindness and Positivity: Having kind, supportive colleagues can make all the difference to a person’s health. Line managers can create a friendly, kind, and psychologically safe workplace by organising team-building activities like office potlucks, ice-breaker sessions/games, and encouraging employees to share their hobbies and interests. Not only can this improve employee mental health, but learning to care for one another can help employees support each other’s physical health needs.