Every business is unique, and every company will have a distinctive employee wellness program. However, if you’re setting up an employee wellness program for your company, you’ll want to have the basics in place first. There are certain elements that every employee wellness program needs from its inception. This blog will outline the essential components of employee wellness programs.
Depending on your business type, you may or may not currently operate with a mainly remote team. If you still have people coming into the office, this is where the development of your employee wellness program should start. A good office environment should be conducive to physical and mental health. This means plenty of natural light, good air circulation, and appropriate temperature control for your area or floor.
Bonuses include easy access to spaces such as co-working areas, yoga studios or, gyms. Of course, if your employees are working remotely, providing these special benefits could be somewhat difficult. But you can still help to make a remote workplace comfortable for your remote workers. Try to limit contacts after work hours, encourage employees to step away from their computers during their lunch break, and avoid unnecessary video meetings to cut down on the dreaded Zoom fatigue.
What does integration mean in the concept of employee wellness programs? Essentially, it entails that your employee wellness program needs to be an actual consideration of your daily planning and workflow. No employee will be happy if the components of their employee wellness program involve adding even more work to their plate. A good employee wellness program should be built seamlessly into your organization’s structure, with time set aside for events and personal development. Whether this is a lunch and learn session or booking time during working hours. Be attuned with your team and listen to what would suit their schedules best.
A good employee wellness program will understand that even if your employees work independently or work remotely they shouldn’t feel alone. Developing good team-building skills and communication should be a vital part of any employee wellness program. Not only does this help your employees to see themselves as a team, but it helps foster trust and a more mentally healthy working environment. In a time where our social interactions have been significantly reduced, creating a work setting of collaboration and communication (even virtually) is extremely important.
No one wants an employee wellness program to feel like a chore. If you feel overwhelmed by setting one up from scratch, that’s totally understandable. An easy place to start would be to ensure that it’s a fun and engaging experience for everyone. Once this is at the forefront of your program planning, you can start working on personal development and daily mental wellness practices.
This is the best time to flex those creativity muscles! Employ games, activities, and rewards to boost motivation for individuals to participate. A nice incentive is to end the week with a virtual escape room or a team Zoom where everyone can feature their highlight of the week (work and non-work related). Then perhaps encourage everyone to log off 30 minutes early. Most times it’s the small gestures that matter the most to your employees.
Providing access to a fitness facility or gym in your workspace is one option. But emphasizing the overall physical health of your employees is another concept altogether. Providing your employees with seminars and information on proper nutrition and healthy physical habits may seem like a small offering, but it’s a big part of any good employee wellness program.
After sitting in front of the computer for 7+ hours a day, the thought of walking into the gym after the workday is daunting. Instead, start a step challenge with your team to encourage gentle and low-impact movement that is inclusive to employees of all ages. Or even a hydration challenge, where participants hold each other accountable for their daily water intake and compete for who hits their daily 2-liter goal first. These are activities that are easily woven into the workday, fostering healthy competition and your team’s overall physical health.
No employee wants to feel that the wellness program that is supposed to be designed for them is in fact cookie cutter. One of the most critical components of employee wellness programs is customization. This means that every employee should feel like the programming is providing them with the skills, tactics, and tangible tools they require to meet their personal wellness goals.
Also as an employer, keeping up with your employees on a personal level is important to a certain degree. Are your employees taking an evening course, do they have to pick up a child from daycare, or do they play on a recreational sports team? Asking questions about their lives, likes and dislikes can help you immensely when tailoring your employee wellness program. This will help fill in the blanks of when to host your wellness program, topics and, activities.
With Liberate, we provide you with everything you and your employees could possibly need in our employee wellness package. Get started with our corporate wellness program to start improving personal development in your workspace with mindful daily practices today.
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