Here’s how the Salta team has been coping in isolation

There’s no doubt we’re living in uncertain times. As our routines have changed and we’re all confined to our homes it’s times like these that can take their toll on everyone’s mental health. As have many other companies around the world, at Salta we’ve been working hard to ensure the health and wellbeing of our employees.

While our gardens have never looked so well kept and some of us have been perfecting our baking skills (one of our team even made croissants from scratch over Easter!) we’ve put together our top tips for ensuring the mental health of our employees is a priority.

Health and Wellbeing Committee

The first step we’ve taken is putting in place a Health and Wellbeing Committee. This team is responsible for sending out tips on maintaining mental health while working from home as well as other initiatives to keep staff connected and in touch. So far, their tips have included:

• Stay active
• Eat healthy food
• Practice mindfulness to help produce a sense of calm
• Pay attention to your feelings
• Help yourself feel less powerless by doing what you can
• Take a break from the news
• Stay connected with friends and family phone, Zoom etc.
• Use the opportunity to grow in some way, learn something new

 

All day hangout

We’ve also created ‘The Kitchen’ which is a video hangout conference that is open all day, with the aim of replicating the office kitchen environment. At any time during the day we can drop in and have a chat with our colleagues. This is as close as we can get during these challenging times and helps to break up our day by catching up with a colleague the way we would if we walked into the work kitchen to make a tea or coffee. We’ve also been continuing to get together at the end of the week with a virtual bring your own Friday drinks hosted in The Kitchen, a perfect way to recognise the hard work we’ve all put in across the week.

Staying connected
Overwhelmingly the feedback from Salta staff is that the hardest part of working from home is the lack of social interaction that you get in the office.

We’re using Teams not only for business connectivity but to give us a place to chat and we use it to call each other too. We’ve been encouraging people to video call each other to give us daily face to face interaction with people other than those we’re living with as well as to check in on each other’s wellbeing,

Maintaining a routine
We all know that staying active is important but during these times we’ve been encouraging staff to stick to their routines and take exercise, even if it’s just a walk around the block, staying active is great for both physical and mental health. Staying physically and mentally healthy is the best thing you can do for your immune system.

We think sticking to a routine is the best way to stay mentally and physically well. Getting dressed for work to put your mind into work mode, it doesn’t have to be full corporate attire, but trying to work in your pyjamas from your bed probably isn’t the most productive idea!  

Living and working in the same space can be tricky which is why we suggest keeping strict work hours, switching your laptop off on time and putting it away so that the lines between work and home don’t get blurred. It’s also a really good idea to separate your work zone and keep the couch for relaxing.

Needless to say, we’re navigating through tricky times, but we hope our tips give you some helpful ideas in this new working from home era.