At the end of the day, every organisation’s leader, wants to see an increased bottom line. What most business leaders forget is: your employees’ state of wellbeing directly affects your company’s bottom line. For example, a work force with 20% of its workers having a whole and healthy lifestyle is most likely to get the most productivity and efficiency from only that 20% of its workforce. A whole and healthy lifestyle is when a person is thriving in all the different areas of their life. One may ask, what makes an employee whole? Is it the external things that the employer provides, like a safe and comfortable work environment, the remuneration and benefits package? Or maybe it’s the intangibles: the sense of self-worth that comes with being part of a team, recognition for good job done, or even a promotion.
It takes a whole lot more than the things listed above to make the life of a worker complete and even near perfect. Let’s make this concept more tangible, using the “the wheel of life”. It is a visual tool that helps a person quickly assess all the important areas of their life in one moment, to determine how balanced or fulfilled they are. The wheel helps you to better understand which areas of your life are flourishing and which ones need the most work. It is a very simple but powerful tool that could be used manually or taken online as if it were an assessment test. The wheel of life looks like a diagrammatic representation of the seven (7) important areas of a person’s life: Spirituality (religion), Finances, Career (or business), Health (body or fitness), Mind (emotions, psychology), Love (Relationship), Family and Social Life (friends / fun). This is how it will look like:
On a scale of 1-10 (one, being the poorest state, and 10 being the best state), you can assess where you currently stand in each area of your life. In whichever way you look at it, all employees should be thriving in all aspects of their lives to give off their best at work. In other words, you will need to make the most out of all the worlds that make your life, here’s how to have that done:
Everyone is different for this reason; you will need to decide what your definition of excellence in each of the eight areas looks like. Once you make that decision;
Make actionable steps that will help you grow from your current standpoint to a 9 or 10 standpoint.
Work towards steadily improving every aspect of your life, by determining the best ways in which you could bring each area as close to a 9, or 10 as much as possible.
Every worker must have work-life balance. It therefore goes without saying that family, love relationship, and social life should start off the wheel of life of a worker. Every worker’s mind must be at peace and in top shape, in order to deliver best results. Now, a healthy mind lives in a healthy body and as such health should also be considered in a worker’s wheel of life. The next important area would be what motivates people to work, their source of livelihood – money. Finance will therefore be the next area of the wheel of life of a worker. A career is what will help you secure your financial security. Your spiritual life may determine which direction you may go with your career, family, etc.
It should be everyone’s priority to live a fulfilled and meaningful life. Even more, it will be such a morale booster to see all those around you (both at home and in the work environment) living their best and most fulfilled lives. In the world of work, a worker needs to have the best of all worlds in order to be the best in their corporate world.
By: Mrs. Nana Adjoa Dei-Awuku
HR Business Partner,
L’AINE HR
