Both employers and workers benefit significantly from an inclusive workplace. Diversity and inclusion contribute to organisational performance. Acknowledging and valuing employees from diverse backgrounds allows you to attract and retain the best talent. It increases employee satisfaction and helps improve their productivity, leading to improved output and a higher-quality performance overall.
Effective leadership for diversity and inclusion involves demonstrating empathy for each employee by welcoming their concerns. This lets you gain unique perspectives on their hopes and ideas. Ultimately, empathy is the cornerstone of a successful inclusion strategy. Among the employees who can benefit most from leadership approaches like these are workers with chronic illnesses. As long-term health conditions must be approached according to the individual’s needs, employees must be innovative in offering solutions.
Here are some ways your business can support employees with chronic illnesses.
Listen to what your employees have to say
Employees who need to watch their health will naturally have unique needs that may require a more flexible schedule than their coworkers. Workers with cancer and long-term health conditions have their lives impacted in many different ways, resulting in unique needs. As a result, no one-size-fits-all answer can solve every employee’s condition. It’s thus important to foster dialogue with the individual in question. Doing so will help you understand the type of help and support they require. Manage your emotions and remember to put your employee's needs above yours. Ask questions and dismantle your expectations about what they would or would not be able to do. Above all, teach yourself to adapt. If you have to, find workarounds to accommodate employee needs to the best of your ability.
Promote work-life balance
One of the most significant challenges that those with chronic illness encounter at work is a lack of work-life balance. People with long-term health conditions are often pressured to meet quality and performance expectations, causing them to work harder when they should be resting. As an employer, you should be able to think outside the box to provide greater flexibility for employees who need it. Try to create more unique work arrangements, like part-time or flexible hours. You can even provide them with the tools to work remotely. Establish firm boundaries that encourage employees to ask for time off or accommodations. You can also collaborate with your employee to find more fitting schedules so they can attend their health check-ups. Investing in these efforts will help these employees feel more satisfied with their work while also improving their productivity.
Help employees stay connected
Managing a long-term health condition can be isolating for an individual. This is why you should consider cultivating an environment that helps them feel supported. Try to form healthy and positive language around your employee’s condition. Educate others on the team about how impairments can fluctuate and be invisible. You can also offer the same flexibility to the rest of your team to fine-tune the process and increase employee satisfaction. Supply everyone with collaborative tools like cloud storage, project management software, and messaging programs. These can help employees with chronic illnesses stay productive and in the loop. Of course, throughout all these efforts, you should ensure that your employees' privacy wishes are respected. Only disclose what they are willing to share.
Managing chronic illnesses can be difficult. As an employer, fostering inclusion by offering support helps every individual employee and nurtures a healthier, more productive, and more community-oriented working environment.
