Creating a happy and productive work environment may seem like an unrealistic dream or something your company cannot afford. But especially after the Great Resignation in 2021, people are speaking loud and clearly that they are looking for companies who care about their well-being.
In fact, 86% of employees reported that they believe it’s important to find companies that care about how they feel (2022 Indeed Work Happiness Report).
Tara Kraus has been this statistic. In 2018, she up and quit her job – risking everything – to start her company, BreakWell. Through BreakWell, she helps small to medium-sized businesses avoid the loss of human resources, humanity and bottom-line profit by making sure employees are both happy and productive.
BreakWell’s Beginning
At work in her corporate job, Tara was stressed and overwhelmed. She ‘wore’ burnout like a badge of honor until she couldn’t anymore. She was unhappy and was not living the life that she wanted to be living.
Tara knew that if she did not change her situation and decrease her stress level, the stress would take a physical toll on her body. As a single mom of two young daughters, that wasn’t a risk she was willing to take.
Tara needed more balance in her life. The scale was completely tipped on the side of work. There was no such thing as balance, but she was going to find a better, healthier way to integrate work and life.
When Tara took that leap of faith – or as she puts it, jumped off a cliff – she entered the entrepreneurial world. She set out to solve the problem that she and many others experience daily – of work overtaking life.
Why Creating a Happy and Productive Work Environment is Not Optional
From Your Employees’ Perspective
We spend the majority of our time at work or with work on our minds – even more than we spend with our family and friends. Life is too short to be miserable at the place we spend most of our time.
Why does it have to be an either/or – happy or productive – business?
Why would I want to stay here – working my tail off while not feeling appreciated – when there are other places to work? Or when I could even start my own business as so many other people have?
From the Wise Executive Team Perspective
Unhappy employees tend to be unengaged.
According to this article on Forbes.com, a company loses $3,400 for every $10,000 a disengaged employee earns. If you have a company with 250 employees, in which the average salary is $47,000, you could be losing $3,164,040 each year due to disengaged employees.
Also from the 2022 Indeed Work Happiness Report:
- 86% of employees report that work impacts their happiness at home.
- 41% of employees feel less motivated to do their best work when stressed.
- When stressed, 40% of employees make more mistakes.
- Among those that indicate their company measures happiness and well-being, 80% are more likely to stay with their current employer for the next year.
- Yet only 49% of people reported that their company is measuring happiness and well-being.
You don’t have to, and shouldn’t, choose between happy or productive when it comes to your employees. Though it may seem like a well-being or employee care plan will not fit into your budget, making it a priority will actually help your budget and bottom line.
Tara Kraus created BreakWell to help you nurture a world where you have and/both – happy and productive employees.
Tara’s both/and is to be a mom, raising two daughters and a successful founder supporting other business leaders and creating a new future for workplaces centered around employee-care.
Why You Need BreakWell to Create Your And/Both Business
BreakWell is a verb. It is an action – to take a break and support your well-being.
BreakWell, the noun and company, creates space in your workplace. This allows employees and the executive team to clear their minds and take a break to reset and care for yourselves as individuals and as a whole.
When you step away from a day-to-day problem, you allow your mind to stop trying so hard to figure out the answer. And then the answer comes to you without trying!
Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, we have learned to push through and keep pushing, which burns us out. Instead, if we ease up and stop pushing and grinding, we will build resilience and be able to achieve much more.
This has been proven again and again in the well-being of individuals and in businesses. Also, BreakWell has helped many small to mid-sized businesses improve employee-care and appreciation, productivity and bottom line!
How Partnering With BreakWell Looks
- We at BreakWell know the right questions to ask employees.
- We are unbiased and better able to see issues insiders and executives don’t.
- We tailor action plans to the systems you already have in place.
- We help you choose appropriate ways to support the personal and professional development of your workforce according to the feedback we get.
- You shine as a company that truly cares about both a happy and productive work environment – and employees – while we make everything as seamless as possible.
- You feel cared for throughout our fun, uplifting and affordable process!
Examples of webinar topics that have positively impacted employees include stress management, ergonomics, digestion, dealing with grief and how to buy or sell your home. We’ve seen a drastic increase in the number of employers offering these live webinars during the workday because they address and remove the employees’ distractions.
Of course, employees also always love the on-site chair massages!
Why These “Interruptive” Events Increase Productivity
It may seem counterintuitive to allow non-work-related activities during work hours, but here are the truths.
- Employees inevitably get distracted while they are at work – whether it’s a backache, how to process grief in home life or feeling burned out.
- When these services are accessible during the workday, employees actually spend more time working and less time trying to process distractions. This increases engagement.
- When companies support the whole person, employees feel cared about and more connected to the company. This increases loyalty, retention and trust.
And this is why your best recruiting and retention strategy is nurturing a happy and productive work environment where employees are proud to work!
For help formulating the right employee care plan for your business, connect with Tara Kraus, founder of BreakWell, on LinkedIn.