20 March, 2024
Creating True Wellness: 5 Fresh Ideas for Employee Wellbeing Activities
“When employees are happy, they are your very best ambassadors.”
James Sinegal
In today’s day and age, employee wellness initiatives have become an important priority for organizations looking to optimize employee engagement, and in turn, their business results. Beyond just providing for the hygiene factors, many organizations have amped up efforts to ensure their employees feel included, valued and cared for. However, sometimes wellbeing in the workplace ideas don’t gain popularity with employees or are uni-dimensional in nature and hence, ineffective. This article will put forth the argument that work-life harmony is at the crux of employee wellness. In other words, by implementing employee wellness activities that improves employees’ lives both within and outside work, it is possible to create true wellness for them.
Often, organizations focus on improving experiences at work, without acknowledging external factors influencing their work-life. According to this Psychology Today article, there are seven areas of life that affect our overall well-being: family, professional, personal, physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual. While work falls into the ‘professional’ area of our life, it has an impact on all other areas and vice-versa.
In the following sections we will talk about the various aspects related to employee wellness:
- Employee Wellness- The need for Personalized Wellness Programs
- Flexibility- The Key to Employee Wellness
- Corporate Wellness Activities for Employees
Employee Wellness- the need for Personalized Wellness Programs
The best way to ensure the success of wellbeing activities for employees is to build it around their individual needs. Ask questions and listen in carefully to understand the deterrents to a wellness-driven culture. Are your employees burned out due to mismanagement? Do employees feel like victims to office politics, leading to stress and anxiety? Has organizational restructuring led to confusion or disengagement? Have external factors like civil unrest, natural disasters or a health-related crisis impacted employees at scale? Understanding the root cause of unrest can help organizations offer targeted and relevant solutions. For example- providing access to one-on-one counselling to mitigate the impact of personal loss can be more effective than expecting employees to simply ‘get it together’.
There are many ways to engage in employee listening, be it through in-person sessions or employee pulse surveys. Using a platform like Gratifi can help tap into employee pulse through dynamic polls and surveys as well as rich analytics reports for feedback.
Flexibility- The Key to Employee Wellness
Flexibility is one of the key characteristics of a successful employee wellness program. It gives the message of trust in employees’ abilities to handle work priorities while supporting other areas of their life. In other words, flexibility helps employees succeed, their way. It can also be an attractive benefit as part of the organization’s benefit’s package, considering how 20 percent of employees in India are willing to take a pay cut, if that means they get to work remotely. Flexibility is increasingly becoming a pre-requisite for Gen Z employees, who strive to enjoy a healthy work-life balance and meaningful pursuits outside of their day job.
Apart from remote working, flexibility can be offered in work schedules, wellness benefits and perks.
Corporate Wellness Activities for Employees
Now, we will discuss some practical ways in which HR can offer wellness support to their employees, be it their physical fitness, mental health or social and emotional support:
- Promote corporate wellness activities
A healthy mind resides in a healthy body. Promote the value of a healthy lifestyle by encouraging physical fitness among employees. This can range from using signboards to use the stairs, to organizing walkathons, marathons and sports events. However, given the nature of today’s hybrid work structure, encouraging employee wellness with health tech to track and reward fitness activities can be very effective. Using gamification, organizations can reward the fittest individuals and teams through digital badges, public recognition and social mentions. Having senior management take the lead on wellness programs can encourage others to follow suit. It can also give younger employees the message that wellness need not be compromised in the pursuit of professional goals.
- Mental Wellness Activities for Employees
Awareness about various mental health issues can be the first step to their prevention. Organizing educational seminars, setting up a mental health helpline organizing manager training can help to foster an empathetic and inclusive work culture. Ideas for wellness activities at work can be shared regularly with employees through email communication.
Creating walking groups, hiking clubs and cycling groups can be a great way to promote fitness using peer motivation. These groups can be encouraged to share their updates and stories on the organization’s collaboration or internal social wall, encouraging participation in employee wellbeing activities. Having an on-site gym, yoga and dance classes can also help employees socialize with like-minded people while getting fitter.
Employee digital rewards and recognition platforms are becoming increasingly popular, with leading R&R solution providers giving access to hundreds to gift cards and product options. Promoting wellness can mean including reward options that boost well-being. For example, instead of getting pizza coupons to celebrate a project completion, having the option of a healthy snack subscription or herbal tea boxes can subtly promote conscious eating habits.
Employee wellbeing strategies need not be complex, expensive or overly challenging! You can use your creativity to weave wellness into employees’ daily work routine. For example- having a mindfulness ‘bell’ on campus to remind everyone to take a pause and relax their mind, every few hours. Even organizing ‘walking meetings’ or having standing desks, if possible, can encourage more movement at work. Building positive micro-habits can lead to lasting benefits, without involving much effort from HR.
There are many ways in which organizations can implement health and wellness activities for employees. The important thing to remember is to gather employee feedback, devise programs around their needs and promote holistic wellness through a wide-range of wellness initiatives.
Looking to weave wellness into your employee rewards and recognition program? Request a Demo of our product today.