With burnout and turnover on the rise during the Great Resignation, it’s never been more important to prioritize health and wellness and check in with each other to make sure we’re all taking care of our minds and bodies at home and in the office.
While it may seem like diet, exercise, and other health factors are more pertinent to home life than the office, there’s a lot that can be done during the workday to encourage healthy habits all day long. Here are 7 ideas for promoting health and wellness in your workplace.
Support a range of fitness options
Before we get into all the ways you can promote mental wellness, we should recognize that physical wellness is also an important part of the total package that keeps stress at bay. While not everyone is comfortable in a gym setting, that doesn’t mean that you can’t find a way to incentivize or reward physical fitness for your whole office. Whether it’s a discount at a local gym or a stipend for yoga classes or at-home workout equipment, helping employees develop an exercise routine will reduce stress and promote health in the workplace.
Stock healthy snacks and drinks
It’s natural to crave comforting snacks during a stressful project. That’s why it’s important to stock your office with snacks that will keep employees healthy and full. On the food side, this means ditching candy and chips and replacing them with food groups like fruits, vegetables, and nuts that will boost energy without resulting in a sugar crash.
On the beverage side, this means avoiding sugary drinks like juice and soda and giving your employees all the healthy variety and customization of a standup water dispenser. Not only is water the base of every beverage created on a Bevi machine, but all of our flavors are made from natural ingredients. If you’re looking for even more health benefits in your glass, you can also add a boost of electrolytes or our immunity enhancement that’s made of vitamin C, zinc, elderberry, echinacea, and more.
Take time off
For three years running, a poll by Human Resource Executive found that the most sought-after employee benefit is paid time off. The rise of remote work has allowed many employees the time and space to reevaluate their relationship to work, and most have found that the key to remaining in one job for a long time and continuing to perform at a high level is adequate time off to recharge.
One option for retaining long-tenured employees as well as incentivizing newer recruits to stay with you is by offering sabbatical leave. While you should develop a sabbatical leave policy that works for you, one framework is to reward employees of five years with at least four weeks of bonus leave.
It’s also important to think outside the box when incorporating proactive mental health activities into your company culture. Consider organizing quarterly off-site activities, like volunteering at a charity, to give employees a refreshing break from the daily grind.
Meditate on the job
The Harvard Business Review recommends meditation for CEOs because it builds resilience, boosts emotional intelligence, enhances creativity, and improves relationships. We say that if it’s good enough for the CEO, it’s good enough for the whole organization!
You can make meditation accessible to everyone in your workplace by sponsoring memberships to meditation apps like Calm and Headspace. Employees can then choose to practice before or after work or even during a break in the workday. Just a few minutes per day adds up to better resilience, creativity, and focus.
Make time for fun
Ping pong tables have taken a lot of heat for being unnecessary distractions in serious offices, but everyone could use a little fun in the middle of a busy day. If ping pong or other games don’t fit into your office culture, think of offsite activities that would be good team bonding experiences. Something like a cooking class or a motivational speaker from your industry can break up the work and help employees discover new interests.
Encourage access to mental health resources
We’ve all tried to work through a cold and found even the most routine tasks to be difficult. Mental ailments can have a similar effect on work. Making coaching, counseling, and other resources available and encouraging employees to seek them out is a great way to counteract the stigma around mental health and make sure everyone is taking care of their whole selves.
Relax with a massage
According to the Mayo Clinic, massage therapy has countless benefits including stress reduction, improvement of circulation and energy, lowering of heart rate and blood pressure, and improvement of immune function. While massage is often seen as a luxury treatment, when you take into account all of the benefits that directly address factors that lead to stress and burnout, it’s a worthwhile investment for your team.
The return to office is the perfect time to reset
Remote work has allowed more and more people to find the time to exercise and care for their bodies and brains, and as they return to the office, they’ll be looking for ways to maintain these good habits. By making it clear that health and wellness are top priorities for your organization, employees will have one less thing to worry about as they transition back to the office, and the results should last far into the future as well.
How are you thinking about promoting health and wellness more in your company? Share your thoughts with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn!
Bevi staff
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