10 Wellness Ideas For Your Office July 20th, 2017

We want to let you in on a little secret. A way in which you can boost employee productivity and retention, reduce levels of absenteeism, improve team morale and increase your bottom line to three times your industry average. Want to know what it is? Create a healthier and happier working environment with an employee wellness program.

The best companies in the world look after their people because they know that they will, in turn, look after their business. And you don’t have to be Google to create a great place to work; every company, regardless of their size, can introduce initiatives that create a positive buzz.

Here are 10 corporate wellness ideas that any business can introduce right away.

1. Provide your office with healthy snacks and drinks – If you want to drive a high performance car you wouldn’t fill it with the wrong kind of fuel. Similarly, high performance teams cannot perform to their optimum levels when fueled on junk. Why not add a healthy vending machine or healthy snack box to your office? By eating smart (in particular, cutting out high-sugar, high-fat snacks and drinks) and feeling good, we all perform better.

2. Get fresh fruit delivered to the office – Another easy way to make sure your team is fueled up on the good stuff is to get fresh fruit delivered weekly to your office. Companies like The Fruit People provide a convenient and affordable fresh fruit delivery service.

3. Create standing desk areas – One of the single best things you can do for your employees is encourage them to stand more throughout their day. Sitting for 6-8 hours everyday has been proven to lead to all kinds of health problems, including an increased risk of heart disease. Standing, on the other hand, burns more calories, increases energy levels, tones muscles, increases blood flow and ramps up your metabolism. If budgets don’t allow you to give everyone a standing desk, why not create standing desk hubs where people can work for a while everyday? If you wanted to really go mad, add a basic treadmill underneath so they can walk while they work.

4.  Host a ‘lunch-and-learn’ once a month – Why not bring in an expert on various health and wellness topics once a month to talk to your team? Provide them with a light healthy lunch while helping them learn more about things like nutrition, mental health or personal finance.

5. Make every second meeting a ‘walking meeting’ – Well, if it was good enough for the great Steve Jobs there must be something in it! The sedentary lifestyles many office workers have isn’t good for their overall health and well-being; many of us really need to move more. Walking meetings are a great and simple way to introduce more physical activity into our day. The change of scenery is good for the senses and stimulates our mind too.

6. Provide weekly Yoga and/or Pilates lunchtime classes – The benefits of both Yoga and Pilates have been long established; both are great for a healthy body and mind. After spending their lunch break in a Yoga or Pilates class, your employees will face their afternoon fully refreshed and ready to take on the world. And all you need is a room and some floor mats. Couldn’t be easier!

7. Subsidise (or gift) your employees with wearables – A nice gift for your employees could be a wearable like a Fitbit or Samsung Gear. This could encourage everyone to be more conscious of their daily activity as well as creating a positive buzz. You could run fun challenges like the “50,000 steps a week challenge” or the “number of 8 hour sleeps challenge” with small prizes to the winners (either department teams or individuals).

8. Promote a ‘desk-to-5K challenge’ – Raising funds for a charity of your choice, your organisation could promote a desk to 5K challenge. This could be suitable for all fitness and abilities and employees could choose to run or walk. You could put together various training programs, particularly for those who would find a 5k run/walk a challenge.

9. Introduce 20% time –  Allow your employees to work on something else, not related to their job, for 20% of their time. This can rejuvenate their mind and energy levels, as well getting the benefit of their fresh perspective. Google introduced this initiative and found that some of their best solutions (i.e. Gmail, Google News, etc.) came as a result of 20% time.

10.  Create a ‘no work zone’ – Why not turn an unused or spare office space into a relaxation lounge or games room. Some times employees are so involved in certain projects that they can’t see the wood for the trees. Getting their minds to relax or focus on something completely different for 20 minutes can be just what they need to help them find the solution.

At The Healthy Fox we help our clients create, develop and implement wellness at work programs. If you need some help creating a healthier and happier workplace please get in touch, we’d love to help.