Wellness in the workplace can benefit employees and the overall workplace culture. Some of these benefits can include lowered employee stress, better work-life balance, employee retention, improved productivity, and a more positive work environment and culture. Along with these benefits, it can also lead to fewer medical costs because employees are happier and healthier.
Providing employees with fun ways to participate in wellness initiatives can help them feel included and increase participation. Here are a few examples of ways to get employees involved in fun wellness offerings.
Physical Activity:
- Allow employees to use their breaks for a walk, whether that be with a group or individually. Create a simple walking challenge to increase competitive spirit and participation.
- Provide onsite or virtual fitness class options. Offer options for different fitness levels (beginner or intermediate) so the program can be tailored to the participants.
- Provide additional information about free fitness offerings in your area that employees may participate in outside of work hours.
- Offer other physical activity challenges that include a variety of activities, such as a 30-day squat or plank challenge. These could be simple challenges to get people more active throughout the day.
Nutrition:
- Provide healthy options in vending machines and at company luncheons. If possible, provide free fruit or vegetables for employees if your company can do so. This makes the healthy choice an easy choice!
- Offer a variety of in-person or virtual nutrition-related seminars. When creating these offerings, try to make the topic very specific so participants know what to expect when participating. For example, instead of offering a seminar about healthy eating, choose a topic that is more specific, such as ways to increase your daily fruit and vegetable intake. Also, encourage participants to be involved in group discussions or chats throughout the process to keep them engaged.
- Offer hands-on classes that may be of interest – freezer meal prep, overall meal prepping, or a group grocery store tour could be a few fun ideas.
Mental Well-Being
- Provide a quiet space for employees to do mindfulness practices such as deep breathing, yoga, or meditation during the workday. Suggest that they use break times for these practices.
- Encourage employees to take a walking break to help improve mood and increase productivity.
- Provide tips or seminars on creating or maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
- Provide ongoing marketing of the company’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
With any wellness initiative, it’s important to learn more about what participants want to see offered. A quick needs and interest survey can help you evaluate what to offer next to drive your participation. Also, ask how they prefer to receive this information, such as via email, bulletin boards, newsletters, or staff meetings, to name a few. This can help spread the word about all the fun workplace wellness offerings available to them.
By, Coach Sarah