New year, new initiatives. January is often a time to start over. A chance to start something new. The month that you set goals to kick-start your year, or at least the month, full of good intentions to do so.
As you start to think of your personal wellness, take a pause and think about your workplace wellness as well.
Is employee health a priority for your company? Are there programs and resources in place that set employees up for wellness success?
It’s important to have a focus on wellness in the workplace because it has a direct correlation with employee engagement and performance. Higher performance is often related to higher employee engagement and higher employee engagement is linked to wellness. It comes full circle.
Employee wellness encompasses physical, mental, and emotional well-being. There are many initiatives and efforts that can be put in place during the workday to help keep employees feeling good! Forbes has 10 wellness ideas for the office, including guided meditation, something we’ve done here in the Baudville office! Here’s a list of 15 other employee wellness ideas you can promote at your company.
15 Employee Workplace Wellness Ideas
1. Offer healthier options in your vending machines and cafeteria to help make healthy choices easier and more accessible.
BONUS WELLNESS TIP: During one of our wellness challenges here at BV, we worked with our food provider to offer healthy food options at a discounted price to incentivize eating healthy even more!
2. Bring in a health professional each month to educate employees on different facets of health, like stress management or nutrition, as a lunch and learn series.
3. Encourage breaks throughout the day for employees to focus on themselves and de-stress. Researchers have found that coloring reduces anxiety, so pass out this mindful coloring page to help your employees.
4. Breakfast is a crucial meal of the day, but is often missed. Surprise employees every once in a while with a hearty breakfast – strawberry banana power smoothies included!
5. Prompt employees to take a good mid-day stretch! Schedule five minutes of desk yoga on everyone’s calendars each day or hold stretching sessions in your common area.
6. Be aware of your team members’ workloads. Be sure to check in often and adjust timelines accordingly. It’s important to give manageable deadlines.
7. Put on a corporate fitness challenge once a year – this will give your employees a chance to push themselves and work towards a shared goal.
8. Keep employees hydrated (while doing good for the planet) by getting them a reusable water bottle they can keep in the office.
9. Consistently have a gratitude attitude. Give daily recognition and encourage peer-to-peer shout outs.
10. Motivate employees by handing out these vision board cards. They’ll always be reminded that they’re doing a great job!
11. Create a team of volunteer employees who work year-round on corporate wellness initiatives. Our in-house team is called the Bod Squad!
12. Make employee health benefits easily accessible. Minimize the hoops they must go through to get the care they need!
13. Practice positive affirmations. In your team meetings, get in the habit of pointing out the good in your team members and encourage them to do the same. If you see something good in someone, speak up and share it!
14. Provide a safe place for employees with an open-door policy. Whether this is a manager, HR team member, or on-site therapist, employees should be able to feel comfortable to come forward with issues.
15. Plants make people happy. Fill your space, corners, and desks with greenery to help lower employee’s blood pressure and clean the air!
BONUS WELLNESS TIP: Double-dip and gift your team members an encouraging plant that’s good for their heart and soul!
Follow our blog for more #makingworkhappy ideas and inspiration!
