At OH Partners, we realize that mental health and professional success are independent. That is why we emphasize the importance of creating a space for our daytime roommates to feel safe, seen, heard, and supported. Our culture’s goal is to provide a fun, creative, safe, and healthy work-life balance.
This year, we started summer early by implementing Summer Fridays from May to the end of August to help start the weekends early and get our employees away from their computers. We end our Fridays at 3 p.m. each week to ensure a healthy work-life balance. Oftentimes, individuals feel obligated to work outside of office hours since they are confined to their households. Because of this we limit our working hours to 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. with a one hour lunch to rejuvenate during the day. Although these scheduling adjustments are small, they go a long way to help give our employees flexibility.
We feel very lucky to not only be coworkers, but to know our peers as some of our best friends. Since our staff has been separated from seeing one another for over two months, we wanted to implement classes and activities that give us a chance to socialize and improve our lifestyle. We have brought a variety of wellness classes to the office for our staff to choose from. Even prior to COVID-19 we have been offering classes including:
- Meditation
- Vinyasa Yoga
- Comic Relief Laughter Yoga
- Sound Bath (part meditation, part listening, inner journey incorporating the soothing sounds of singing bowls and other instruments fostering relaxation and transformation)
- Trigger Point Self-Massage (learning how to release tension and increase mobility with trigger point self-massage)
- Various workouts such as Kickboxing, HIIT, Pilates, and core conditioning
There is something for everyone to enjoy!
This time has been an opportunity for us to get creative and learn how to have fun while working from the confines of our home. However, working from home can often bring individuals extra stress and anxiety too. Outside of the fun stuff, we make sure that our health benefits provide extra support to our team in times of crisis through our Employee Assistance Program and access to our telehealth program.
- Employee Assistance Program extends to the entire family providing confidential, professional counseling via phone or in person. Counseling sessions can address a wide variety of concerns such as stress, anxiety, depression, marriage and relationship problems, grief and loss, substance abuse, anger management, and work-related pressures.
- Access to our telehealth program connects us with a board-certified doctor via secure video chat or phone—without leaving our home—24/7, 365 days of the year. We can speak with a doctor for help for a wide range of minor conditions including the common cold/flu, headache, sore throat, allergies, rashes, fever, and more.
When it comes to creating work that works, we know that putting our employees first leads to successful projects, a dynamic culture, and a happy community. As these times continue to challenge our office life norm, we make a promise to our employees to continue to provide outlets that put happiness and health above all.
About the Author: Charlene is the VP of Talent Management and Culture at OH Partners. She’s a 30-year HR veteran with experience in both public and private sectors in advertising, digital marketing, PR, insurance, semiconductor, financial services, sports, and real estate. She has proven success in creating cultures of collaboration and implementing change to achieve workforce excellence with a track record of coaching in the areas of transformational leadership, team building, managing change, and recruitment.
