• Paid time off, workday structure and boundaries, and checking in with employees promotes good work/life balance within the company and enhances employee well-being.

Encouraging employees to have a healthy balance between work and their life away from work supports employee well-being and good mental health. A company can do this in the following ways:

• Encourage time off: Encourage workers to use paid time off to ease stress, recharge, and restore energy levels. Make sure employees can work with supervisors to adjust the workload or schedule so the employee can have time away from work. One way to encourage workers to use vacation is to place limits on how much can be carried over from year to year. If this is company policy, remind workers of this throughout the year to avoid a large bank of paid time off in December.
• Provide structure: When the workday ends, make sure it’s truly over. Set boundaries for communication. It’s possible for workers to be in touch with the office 24/7, but being constantly on call takes a toll. Place limits on emails and make it clear that workers are not expected to respond to emails received after a certain time.
• Check in: Talk with employees to see how projects are going and assess workload levels. Regular check-in sessions, one-on-one meetings, or an email to ask how things are going can help managers gain an understanding of how staff members are doing. For staff members in the office, a manager can walk through the department on a regular basis to chat and see how things are going. Touchbase video chats are an option for casual conversations with remote employees.