Dark mornings, more nights at home, cold weather – the winter months can be gloomy for most people. For those with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), however, it can be more serious and significantly impact their day-to-day lives.
As a business leader, it’s important to understand how debilitating SAD can be, and be aware of what you can do to support employees that suffer from the condition whilst maintaining their productivity.
From creating a more comfortable environment for people to open up about how they are feeling, to adjusting start and finish times to allow your employees to maximise the daylight hours – here are HR Star’s top tips for managing SAD in the workplace.
- Raise awareness: Utilise your internal communications processes to make people aware of what SAD is, the symptoms and how to better manage it. This will help to create a more comfortable environment for your employees to open up about how they’re feeling.
- Adjust hours: Adjust your company’s start and finish times to maximise the daylight hours, so your employees aren’t starting or finishing work in the dark. Another thing that you can do is to suggest hosting team meetings outside (if the weather is nice enough!).
- Walk the walk: It’s important to model your behaviour, so that your team members feel they can prioritise self-care and set boundaries. Whether you’re taking a walk at lunchtime, switching off your email to relax and recharge or something else, make sure you are continually sharing your own healthy habits with your team – and encouraging them to follow in your footsteps.
- Promote healthy eating: Eating healthier is proven to make you feel better, so consider making fruit and healthy alternatives more accessible in your workplace. Removing that snack box and replacing it with a fruit bowl, for example, will help to encourage your team members to embrace a healthier lifestyle – which can help ease the symptoms of SAD.
- Offer Employee Assistance Programmes: These programmes are a fantastic way to cover many aspects of wellbeing. Professionals are trained in telephone counselling, debt and money assistance, legal advice, and general wellbeing and health. HR Star has a fantastic contact who can help support your business with implementing an EAP if needed.
Looking for more advice on how your organisation can support employees that suffer from SAD? Get in touch with one of HR Star’s experts by emailing [email protected].
