Digital Wellness Expert Urges Businesses to Keep the Focus on Employee Wellbeing
The pandemic’s omicron variant is disrupting the workplace once again. As employers navigate the ever-changing re-turbulence in the workplace, Digital Wellness expert Mark Ostach is working with organizations to continue to extend patience, encourage wellbeing measures, and flex with purpose.
“The pandemic has shown us that despite a new calendar year, we need to continue to be able to navigate uncertainty by being patient, flexible, and being laser-focused on employee wellbeing,” said Ostach, a keynote speaker who inspires organizations to reconnect in the hybrid workplace. “Employees are critical to an organization’s success and the top priority needs to instill a strong culture where they feel valued with compassion for their wellbeing.”
The rapid spread of the omicron surge last month led companies to reverse the scale back requirements that were in place for employees working in the office. Many businesses operating under a hybrid workplace, have abruptly stopped requiring workers to come into the office.
“Corporate culture needs to adapt regardless of where people are working. We proved the hybrid model in 2021, now we need to continue to adapt what corporate culture looks like in 2022. To me, companies that flex with purpose and provide ways for employees to be autonomous about their work responsibilities wherever they are working, are creating a winning environment. Additionally, companies who implement ways for employees to connect in remote team building and encourage wellness practices in the workplace are satisfying core aspects to a connected culture.”
As corporate America closely watches daily reports on how dangerous this new variant that causes the COVID-19 infection may be, Ostach offers the following three strategies for employers to cope with the ambiguous covid situation:
- Providing support for managers so they can spend less time worried about people working and more time keeping them connected through creative measures like virtual team building and thoughtful icebreaker activities to help break up the transactional nature of daily meetings
- Check-in with employees on a regular basis to see how they are feeling and how you can support them. People who feel supported are less likely to feel overwhelmed. Oftentimes, just letting them know you are here for support, removes obstacles that they are working all alone.
- Encourage wellness practices by modeling them yourself. It’s one thing to point to wellness policies and another thing to practice them during the workday. If you can show your staff how to live out wellness practices, they have more permission to do them as well.
About Mark Ostach
Ostach’s goal is to restore energy and focus to organizations battling modern life’s non-stop pace and growing sense of disconnection. He’s done this with organizations that include Universal Studios, Detroit Pistons, Rocket Mortgage, Comerica, Detroit Regional Partnership, DTE, Consumers, Michigan Economic Development Corp (MEDC), & Honigman, LLP, Thermo Fisher Scientific, BASF, Allstate, HItachi, and others.
Mark Ostach Background:
Mark Ostach is on a mission to help professionals, teams, and leaders connect with themselves, each other, and their collective purpose. A wellspring of energy and born empath, Ostach holds degrees in business, psychology, and technology with an interest in behavioural neuroscience.
A recipient of Crain’s Detroit Business 20 in Their 20s and Oakland County’s 40 Under 40 awards, he’s an experienced leader who’s helped create strong cultures for associations, businesses, and non-profits. Clients have shared that Ostach is insightful, engaging, creative, motivating, and empathetic. He works from a leadership model that supports people to become more present and engaged. Mark works to raise his clients’ levels of self-awareness and identify strengths to support movement towards personal & professional goals.
As a member of the Digital Wellness Collective, a global trade organization for digital wellness experts and organizations, Ostach is determined to remind the world that human connection is the most powerful connection we have. A nationally recognized speaker on digital wellness, Ostach has presented two TED talks and spoken to thousands of people all over the country, encouraging them to embrace a culture of digital wellbeing.
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