Kindness should be an employee benefit

Companies are getting much better at taking their employees’ mental and physical wellbeing seriously, and there are many employee benefits which pull in this direction. Gym membership, health insurance, wellness and mental health days to name just a few. All of which are great and long may they last.

But have you considered the benefits of kindness in the workplace?

Studies show that being kind not only improves mental health*. For example by reducing anxiety and depression. But it also has physical benefits such as lowering blood pressure, reducing the risk of heart disease and strengthening the immune system.

So when thinking of your employees’ mental and physical wellbeing think about how you can design ‘being kind’ into your system. Not in a ‘let’s-have-a-be-kind-day’ way, but in a more systemic way.

Not only can kindness improve trust and psychological safety, but it can also lead to a healthier, happier workforce. (Of course, there are good and bad ways to approach kindness in the workplace. There's a version that avoids difficult conversations or lets people get away with poor performance and that's not the kind we're talking about here.)

So, if being kind can provide similar benefits to other employee perks, it's worth thinking more about how to design it into work systems.

* for an overview of Dr Tristan Inagaki's work research have a look at https://lnkd.in/eSpGfia8

Photo by Kevin Butz on Unsplash