Why I’m a Business Owner who Prioritizes Employee Well-Being

How I focus on life-work balance as an employer of a small (and growing) remote team.

Happy employees do better work.⁠

In the age of corporate burnout and high turnover, finding ways to keep employee well-being high is a priority in my business. We don’t measure success based on hours worked. We base it on goals, outcomes, and fulfillment.

Here are six ways that I prioritize well-being at Field & Co.:

Four-day workweeks.
Unlimited + encouraged vacation time.
Notifications off when you are.
Saying YES! to social and personal events.⁠
Being patient with client responses during summer months.
Meetings only when necessary.

But hey, as business owners, we’re already investing in many efforts to help us grow and scale. Why should our team’s well-being be a priority?

Keep reading to learn why it’s an important part of my business, and how I’ve started putting these well-being principles into action.

By creating a workplace that prioritizes team well-being, you provide a space where everyone benefits.

It's not a secret formula:

Higher satisfaction +

More creative energy +

Improved mental wellness =

Better work and better results, A.K.A. that growth and success you're looking for.

You can start by looking at boundaries. When everyone on my team experiences the same boundaries and benefits, it adds a lot of value to my business. I integrate wellness principles into my own working style and my employees are all regularly encouraged to reflect on their life-work balance in accordance with the same principles. (That’s right, “life” comes first in that equation!)

Boundaries Benefit Everyone.

Boundaries are necessary in all relationships, both personal and professional. I have boundaries with my clients, and I respect theirs in return. It is equally important to have boundaries with your team and for them to establish them as well: with you, each other, and their work. As an ethical business owner, it’s my responsibility to create clear boundaries and expectations for my team. Just as I cannot be at my best when I’m working 60-hour weeks, missing out on personal events, and spending a whole day in back-to-back meetings, I can’t expect my team to work well under those conditions either.

Happy, healthy employees are productive employees.

We get more work done when we are charging our social battery, getting enough rest, making a fair wage, and given a balanced amount of responsibilities. Whatever expectations I would expect from a respectful work environment, I extend to my whole team as well.

Let’s be honest:

You’re hiring the best candidates possible to join your team, don’t you want them to choose to stay with your organization for as long as possible? Implement wellness boundaries and benefits, and you increase employee morale, engagement, and output.

Here at Field & Co., mental health + employee well-being is number one for the whole team.

We prioritize mental health + well-being by:⁠

Taking Mondays off! While we are passionate about our work, we’re equally as passionate, if not more so, about our personal lives. Having an extra weekend day makes all the difference, and nobody likes Mondays anyway.⁠ Happy team = great work. It’s as simple as that.
Encouraging (unlimited) vacation time. This ensures a healthy life-work balance because life should be more than your 9-5.
Turning notifications off. I encourage my team to turn their notifications off outside of our office hours because they don't need to be "on" all the time. The same goes for weekday events or appointments, snooze those notifications!
Saying “YES” to social and personal events! Again, it's all about a healthy balance. My team shouldn't miss out on those opportunities because of office hours or work expectations.⁠
Implementing extended project timelines. We take our time with our work because feeling rushed isn’t fun for anybody. We do not subscribe to hustle culture around here. The creative process is made up of so much more than just the work, and it needs to flourish without pressure and strict guidelines. Good results take time.
Scheduling meetings only when necessary. Meetings are where we brainstorm, get creative, make the big decisions, and dig into the heart of the project. BUT... we aim to keep meetings concise, intentional, and minimal. We only get clients or teammates on the phone, zoom, or in a conference room when we reeeeeally need to. Everyone’s time is limited and valuable. And let’s be real, a lot of things can be discussed in a Slack message.⁠

Find boundaries that benefit the type of work you do as well as the type of people you want on your team.

I want to work with healthy, well-rested, creative, and eager employees, so I create an environment that prioritizes that. These initiatives work for our business structure, and there are things that you as an employer can do in your workplace to create positive outcomes.

Your team represents your company.

If you want your clients to have trust in your business, they need to trust your values, ethics, and business guidelines. Align your business values with their personal values and see how quickly your business will grow. Your audience will be more likely to invest in your offering if they know your team is happy + well.

Everything is about balance.

Check in on your team as often as you can to ensure they are thriving and their work is reflective of that. For your business to keep growing, your team needs to grow not only in size, but in strength.

Be realistic and set wellness principles that keep your team working at their peak performance. Depending on your industry, maybe you can create a four-day workweek. Do what is practical and best for your business — after all, no one knows your business better than you do.

Books I Love on the Topic of Work-Life Balance and Employee Well-Being:

Treat your team with respect and they will bring their best selves to your work.

My preferred way to be a leader is to run my business with respect first for my team and my clients. We all have so much in common and each of us deserves to be treated with kindness. When we put respect first and receive the same in return, we can show up fully dedicated to each other’s success.

Here are some ways you can respect boundaries and foster employee well-being in your team:

Shorter workweek, take Mondays or Fridays off if you can. Poll your team to see what they would prefer!
Specific office hours that no one is expected to work outside of. Employees may choose to complete their work at different times of the day, but all communications should happen during specific office hours.
“Quiet hours” during the day when no one is interrupted to get into deep work.
Unlimited and encouraged vacation time. Try not to let this become a competition of who can take the least amount of their unlimited time.
Unlimited and encouraged mental health days.
Limiting meetings to crucial ones, keeping most things to a quick message or email.
Wellness benefit funds, to be used as needed.
Prioritizing open communication from your team by regularly asking for feedback.
Optional social events, during office hours.
Task, schedule, and project organization and systems so expectations and timelines are clear.
Hiring appropriate staff to ensure workloads are balanced and employees can focus on their area of genius.
Paid overtime (if necessary).

There are so many ways to implement healthy boundaries into the structure of your business to avoid burnout and make each employee feel safe and welcome.

We've implemented a number of initiatives here at Field & Co. to ensure a healthy work environment. My team and I are constantly working to evolve our communication and organizational style to keep things working the best way possible for our specific group dynamic (and I really mean constantly here). Work with your team to create a working environment that benefits everyone.

Make sure to follow for more helpful tips + advice. Your business deserves the best. Click here to work with Field & Co.!⁠

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