Alexandra Levits Water Cooler Wisdom 5 Ways to Increase Your Teams Well Being

Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom 5 Ways to Increase Your Team's Well Being You want your team members to be ashappyand productive as possible. A little while ago, we talked about some easywellness ideasyou can implement. Here are other novel ways you might switch things up for the better. Nix Email After 11PM People who work all day generally need to sleep at night. If you want healthy and happy employees, don’t encourage them to be online at all hours. Tell your team, flat out, that they can do what they want with their own time but their manager and colleagues don’t want to hear from them after “curfew.” And whatever you do, don’t send email yourself after 11PM. This behavior is likely what started your team on it in the first place. Young employees in particular are vulnerable to pressure to work all the time and be available whenever their bosses are, and often try to one-up one another in this respect. Rotate Seating As I said last year,open officesneed to go away. But that aside, you might also get rid of permanent seating arrangements. In theWall Street Journal, Rachel Feintzeig interviewedChristian Catalini, a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management who studies workplace efficiency. Christian recently examined the impact of proximity at an academic campus in Paris. When scientists were shuffled around to different buildings because of an asbestos problem, the result was more experimentation and more breakthrough ideas. Changing up seating also prompted workers to meet, collaborate with, and form friendships with a greater variety of people. It keeps things interesting without sacrificing too much privacy. Purchase FitBits Devices like theFitBit, which track actions like steps walked and time slept, are surprisingly effective in nudging people toward new and better habits. Purchase FitBits for your whole team (they’re not that expensive) and launch a contest to track who walks the most steps in a week. The competition aspect will spur your employees to get out of their chairs more. Note: there are apps that track steps too, but because many women don’t carry their smartphones on their persons, the FitBit bracelet is more effective. For more ways to be a more effective manager, head over to Intuits Fast Track blog.