Ihmisen kokoinen työyhteisö-book written by Pekka Hämäläinen, is an intensive collection of research and stories about employee wellbeing. The book builds around ten commandments about human centralized work community. No matter of the field one’s working in, this is a book for all work communities.

The world is changing around us and the working environments are changing along. Employers will have to adapt to these changes to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all their employees. More research about employee wellbeing is coming out every day. It is very trending topic and nowadays employers are knowledge about their rights. Those studies are showing that how employees feel at work really affects the results of their work. Knowing this every company and their team leaders should take this under consideration.

1. Put people before profitability

As a team leader you should always put your people before profitability. If you do not take care of your employees/team members the consequences will be seen, not only in their health but also in the company results. It is proven that employee/team members wellbeing generates better results at work. It is common sense, if someone feels unhappy at work there are most likely not willing to give everything to the company. With high employee wellbeing, the employees are more committed to the company and will care about the results they are generating.

Treat your employees as humans and the rest comes with it.

2. Respect self-determination

Employees want to feel like they belong that they are part of the company. You will need to let them be part of the process. When you are treating them as humans by listening and discussing their capabilities, they will know that they are respected. By giving them the feeling, you are really listening and caring is super important.  Regular feedback and discussion about what they want to do and learn is crucial. All jobs include something that is not fun to do but when you are part of the process and involved in other ways, you are willing to do the boring stuff as well.

The importance of including your employees comes highly important during the times of changes. Changes that affect the whole community should be discussed with the community. Not all things make sense to them but being open and honest about what is coming means a lot in times of uncertainty. These discussions can in addition give you point of views that you did not think of in the first place.

3. Take responsibility of your actions

If you are slacking someone else has to do your job. Treat others how you want to be treated- this saying goes perfectly into working life. If you always do the bare minimum and let others do the rest, you are not respecting them enough. What if everyone would think the same way? The job would never be done correctly.

4. Invest in your communication skills

A team feels better and more connected when you show that you care. Everyone should invest more in their communication skills. Many mistakes, conflicts and misunderstandings could be avoided if everyone was clear about their words. We all need communication skills daily, not just at work but at home too.

As a team leader communicating clearly and honest with your team will create trust. Even if sometimes the only thing you can communicate about is you not knowing the facts.

You need to show your team that you care about them. This way they will be honest with you too and this will bring the whole team further. When people feel like they are listened to they will feel happier at work. Listen, care, offer help, ask for help and communicate clearly.

5. Do not be afraid to doubt

Best results come when you ask questions. In a well working team, everyone is allowed to ask questions. The more the better. The more point of views you get on the table the better.

Doubting someone is not the same thing as fighting. When you ask questions, you will understand others better. For example, if your employee is telling you that the current bonus system is not working. One solution could be just taking that in and figuring out a new way. You should ask that employee why is it not working and how would they make it better. This way you will create right away a result that suits both of you.

6. Listen to yourself, remember your limits

A big part of employee wellbeing are your own strength and limits. No one will benefit from you being burned out. It is important to learn and teach to listen to your body and mind. Know when you need to rest. Many of us are too afraid to stop for a minute and think about how you are really feeling at the moment. The work life is changing to a faster paced environment, where overtime hours are cool and being exhausted is trendy. This is a dangerous thing and will lead to severe burn outs if not treated early enough.

We need to learn when to say no. We need to learn to take some time off and relax, learn to listen your brains and body.

7. Do not let others use you or you use them

Like mentioned earlier, you should treat others the way you want to be treated. Do not let others step over you and make you feel unappreciated. In addition, do not do that to others either.

It is not wrong to be kind and willing to help but many people mistake that as weakness and will try to take advantage of you when needed. This will create a feeling of unworthiness and lower employee wellbeing.

As a team leader you should make sure your team works in a balanced way, without pushing anyone down.

8. Spread good vibes

Positivity and negativity are very easily spreading feelings. When someone walks into the room with a negative attitude every time, it will affect the whole team. Same goes with positivity, someone can make the whole workplace shine in a new way with their happy attitude. Your coworkers will remember you from your attitude, you choose if that is positive or negative. If you are always in a bad mood at work your coworkers will start acting the same way around you.

It is important to find the small good things and remind your coworkers about them. Specially during these uncertain times in the world, we need as much as positivity as we can get. Being positive does not mean you have to think about sunshine and rainbows all the time and ignore the hard parts in life. It just means you can choose the way you act about certain things and this way affect the whole team.

9. Share information

Like written earlier communication skills are big challenges at work place. Openness about things at work will create trust around. Share all the information you have, even if it is no information. When someone is being unclear and does not communicate well, it creates unnecessary uncertainty around and eventually will lower employee wellbeing. For example, if you found out that one department is moving to another location but you do not know yet which one or when. You will choose not to tell anyone because you do not know all the facts. Later the others find out that you knew this before and did not share the information, it will look like you are hiding things. Even if you were trying to do the right thing, most of the time is better to share all the little pieces and be honest. This way everyone will know that they can count on you.

10. Admit your mistakes and learn from them

Best way to learn is from your mistakes, so make them! It is in the human nature that we try to avoid mistakes to our last breath and if mistakes happen, we will spend time to hide them somehow. We all make mistakes and that belongs to life, if we try not to make them or hide them it will just take too much energy out of us.

As a team leader you should show your employees that is okay to make mistakes. Create an environment where they see that they will not be punished about it.

Human centralized work community follows these ten rules in order to create an environment that creates greater employee wellbeing. The focus on all these rules is the human. Treat them the way they deserve and respect everyone equally. There will be times when some people act so bad, they might not deserve all the respect and understanding from you. Going through these written rules and your own feelings might help you find the way back to a happy workplace together.