When it comes to conversations around employee health & wellbeing, we tend to focus on the workforce as a whole. But employers, are you taking the time to look at the nucleus making these decisions about employee health & wellbeing benefits? And simply put, when was the last time you checked in on your HR teams?
Especially considering the minefield of issues HR professionals need to help staff navigate – exacerbated further by the tricky job market and an uptick in layoffs and restructuring — HR pros are rightfully stressed out. According to SHRM’s Employee Mental Health 2024 report, 47% of HR professionals say working in HR has hurt their mental health and wellbeing.
Health coaches provide necessary support to help HR professionals cope with the many stressors of their role so they can prioritize their mental and physical health & wellbeing and show up healthier and more productive. In today’s blog, we delve into a few of the many ways real health coaches support HR professionals in a way that’s very needed.
Real health coaches help prevent stress & burnout.
It’s no great secret HR professionals are situated in incredibly stressful environments, especially considering the many tough conversations and decisions they have to make every day. In fact, some studies have shown over 90% of HR professionals are burnt out. This calls into question how we can expect our dedicated, hardworking HR teams to combat burnout within their organizations when they’re burnt out themselves.
This is precisely why every HR professional deserves access to a health coach. YourCoach health coaches work one-on-one with HR pros to identify areas of persistent stress. They teach techniques that help reduce stress in real time and help implement lifestyle modifications that are statistically more likely to prevent burnout.
Real health coaches help enforce work-life-boundaries.
One of the biggest contributors to burnout is a persistent lack of work-life balance and setting proper boundaries between work and home life. We’ve especially seen these lines become blurred as many workplaces moved to fully remote or hybrid work models. For people working with people, creating separation within these ecosystems is especially hard.
Health coaches play a pivotal role in supporting work-life balance by helping to define what work-life balance means at the individual level, guiding in setting realistic and tailored goals that might include managing stress, incorporating regular breaks, reconfiguring schedules, or finding resources to spend more quality time on personal interests and family. They can also help improve time management skills by helping prioritize tasks, set boundaries, and avoid overcommitment, all of which are essential for maintaining balance (and are opportunities recent studies have shown remain a priority for HR pros with increasing workloads).
Real health coaches help cultivate long standing resilience.
HR professionals have tough conversations regularly. Their jobs are mentally and often emotionally taxing and require huge amounts of resilience in order to persist with their important work. Health coaches help cultivate resilience so it’s sustainable. Health coaches teach mindfulness techniques and stress-reduction practices, which enable HR pros to stay grounded during difficult times. They also encourage self-care practices like regular exercise, healthy nutrition, and sleep hygiene, which contribute to physical resilience (which in turn, has a profound impact on mental and emotional resilience).
Real health coaches help build confidence.
Relatedly, building self-confidence supports long-term resilience and helps HR professionals continue to derive satisfaction from their jobs. Real health coaching provides both regular accountability and also regular reinforcement and support. By working with a health coach, HR professionals can set a wide range of individualized goals that address their overall health & wellbeing. With a health coach by their side, they’re more likely to achieve these goals, which reminds them of their unique and powerful strengths.
What’s more, health coaches help with overall mindset shifts, helping HR professionals replace self-doubt or negative thoughts with affirmations and positive thinking. They empower them to reframe setbacks as learning opportunities, fostering resilience and a belief in their ability to overcome obstacles.
Real health coaches help enhance self-compassion around difficult decisions.
One of the most brilliant benefits to working with a health coach is helping to recognize your own self worth. When working with a health coach, HR professionals are reminded of the distinct strengths that make their goals more achievable and make them successful. They encourage HR professionals to approach themselves with kindness, rather than self-criticism, understanding that tough choices are part of their leadership responsibilities. Through mindfulness practices, reframing techniques, and fostering self-acceptance, health coaches help HR professionals not only make sound decisions but also nurture a sense of compassion for themselves in the process.
Employers, HR professionals spend so much of their time supporting your people. It’s time to take this critical step to support your people AND your HR pros. Every one of your employees can benefit from working with a health coach, especially those facing extreme stress and pressure like your HR leaders. Send us a note to team@yourcoach.health to learn how we partner with organizations just like yours to bring REAL, impactful health coaching, by expertly trained, compassionate, empathetic humans – to your employees.