Do you want to improve employee experience in your organization? Are you planning to hire and retain top talents for a long time? If so, you must implement employee wellbeing initiatives.
With perfectly executed wellness initiatives, you can make your workplace healthier and more motivating. Your employees will feel much more enthusiastic about completing their tasks, and they will suffer from fewer physical and mental health issues.
In this article, we will discuss the ten best employee wellbeing initiatives for your business, what employee wellbeing is, and the importance of the initiatives.
What is employee wellbeing?
Employee well-being dictates an employee's overall health and describes how a job impacts health and happiness. When a business focuses on well-being, the teams stay more productive and experience less stress.
Moreover, a healthier workplace will make employees less prone to burnout. Here are the factors that play a vital role in an employee’s wellbeing:
- Mental health
- Physical health
- Psychological wellbeing
- Financial health
- Social wellbeing
Remember that employee well-being impacts every aspect of professional or corporate life. It’s also connected to employee engagement, retention, and success.
Why is Employee Wellbeing Initiatives important?
Employees who feel mentally and physically fit are more productive and capable of completing their tasks on time. Employers can boost their teams ' strength and reduce absenteeism with various employee fitness programs
Moreover, implementing employee wellbeing initiatives such as stress management and counseling services will create a healthier work environment. This will lead to lower turnover rates and higher job satisfaction.
Furthermore, focusing on employee workplace wellbeing at work will also showcase commitment to social responsibility. This way, employers can attract and retain the right talents.
Read: Top 12 Corporate Wellbeing Platforms [2024 Buyer's Guide with Pricing]
Top Employers Wellbeing Initiatives
Knowing the importance of employee wellbeing programs is not enough. You must also know the different types of initiatives that you can implement in your workplace. This will ensure that your employees remain happy and productive.
1. Offer healthy snacks
One of the most important employee wellbeing initiatives is following a healthy diet. The diet employees follow will have a massive effect on their health and wellbeing. However, many employees face problems maintaining a healthy diet, especially due to busy schedules.
Thus, healthy foods like smoothies, nuts, fruits, yogurts, and vegetables should be provided in the staff room. This will showcase your care for the employees, who will feel more energetic when they eat nutritious snacks.
Even if you have remote employees, you still need to encourage them to follow a healthy diet. Organize a healthy lunch or dinner delivery system once or twice a week. You can also provide them with food vouchers from a healthy food retailer.
2. Discuss the importance of time off
Workplace burnout is more common than ever. While various factors are responsible for burnout, excess stress is common. Moreover, many employees struggle to work continuously as they don’t take any time off.
Many businesses are asking their employees to return to the office. This pressure makes them more prone to physical sickness. The symptoms of various diseases are making them less competent.
So, how to fight these situations? This is where the importance of taking sick leaves and time off comes into play. This is an important employee wellbeing initiative one should keep in mind.
Make sure you discuss the importance and benefits of taking sick leave. Make sure they understand this is not an exception but a rule. Your employees shouldn’t feel forced to come to work if they feel unwell.
3. Set up emotional health resources
Many employees suffer from poor mental health. As per Healthline, more than 20 million adults in the USA have symptoms of depression and frustration. To combat this, introducing employee wellness programs is essential.
Help your teams take proper care of their emotional and mental health. This is one of the most effective ways to boost their productivity and reduce burnout and fatigue.
Your employees should be comfortable with their managers and know that they are open to discussing anything that’s been bothering them for a while. You can also encourage employees to speak with a trained psychologist who can better assist them.
Read: Decoding Employee Well-being in 2024
4. Introduce fitness workout challenges
This is another effective employee wellness initiative you must remember. Make sure you introduce fun and casual fitness workout challenges in your workspace.
These challenges will prove highly effective in motivating employees to adopt healthier habits, which will lead to better productivity, morale, and happiness. You can organize such challenges once or twice monthly and ask employees to participate.
Once they complete a challenge, reward them with prizes, food vouchers, trophies, etc. This will create a competitive environment, and your employees will focus more on winning the challenge.
However, remember that workout challenges aren’t one-size-fits-all approaches. Your company is likely to have employees of different gender, ages, fitness levels, and physical activities. So, make sure the fitness programs have a higher flexibility.
5. Promote meditation
Meditation can undoubtedly promote employee wellbeing. WebMD Health Services stated that proper meditation techniques can help your employees can improve mindfulness and reduce stress. You can either create a meditation program or join a guided meditation club.
Additionally, make sure your employees aren’t following only one meditation technique. This will become repetitive and monotonous, and your employees may lose their spark. Introducing various meditation styles will prove much more beneficial.
For example, you can introduce breathwork, mindfulness, or visualization. These meditation techniques will cater to different employees with different goals. You can also design meditation strategies around specific themes or topics.
6. Develop an ergonomic workplace
When making your workspace more productive, you cannot overlook the importance of ergonomic workstations. These will ensure employees perform their tasks in a calm and comfortable environment.
Moreover, these workstations make employees feel less stressed and burned out. For example, ergonomic chairs can reduce neck pain, back pain, spine issues, etc. When employees are sitting comfortably, they can focus on their work properly.
Also, place the monitor strategically. Your employees will be looking at the monitor for an extended period. With proper lighting and viewing angle, their eyes won’t feel the stain.
7. Initiate flexible work hours
Flexible working hours are one of the best employee well-being initiatives to implement. This is primarily because they contribute to a healthy work-life balance.
Nothing will make your employees happier if you introduce this initiative. They will feel less stressed and burned out. Moreover, the rise of the remote work culture makes implementing this easier than ever.
However, make sure you create a detailed policy that works for your company and your employees. Highlight every term and condition to prevent future mishaps.
Read: Why Workplace Wellbeing Programs Must Be The Top Corporate Resolution for 2024
8. Plan team building activities
Planning frequent team-building exercises is excellent for workers' well-being. Despite the image, these activities can improve teamwork, lower stress, foster trust, and resolve conflict.
If executed successfully, they will motivate employees to break up their usual work weeks and get to know one another personally. There are a ton of alternatives for team-building activities, whether you want to plan an online activity, go on a day trip, or play a game in the office.
9. Give raise to deserving candidates
In simple words, companies should consistently reward employees who they respect and hope to have on staff for the long haul. While it's not necessary to pay raises to every person at your company, consistent raises positively impact staff retention and employee happiness.
Create a clear bonus program in your business to implement an effective employee wellbeing initiative. Inform your team members about salary reviews and the factors you consider before considering a rise. Giving workers a clear route to increased pay and responsibilities will increase their motivation and trust.
10. Conduct employee performance reviews
Many factors influence workplace satisfaction among employees. It also heavily depends on employees discovering their mission and pursuing their career objectives. According to Harvard Business Review, performance reviews are still important.
Truthfully, many employees don’t like performance. It is terrifying to many, and it has undoubtedly caused severe panic attacks, especially among employees failing to perform up to the mark.
However, you can turn performance reviews into enjoyable experiences. This way, your employees can focus on career development and professional purposes. Healthy and non-intimidating performance reviews will boost the morale of the employees.
Ready to implement best employee wellbeing initiatives?
Remember that employee wellbeing initiatives will help employees improve their work performance. Your company culture will become more understanding and less toxic, and employees will be encouraged to complete their tasks without any problems.
With Wellics, you can boost your business’s growth through employee wellbeing. You can create a workplace focused on a wellness culture, making your employees stay more productive.
Our digital platform is designed to enhance organizational performance by prioritizing employee wellbeing. Our proven strategies lead to noticeable improvements in just six months, with the benefits of a wellbeing-focused culture becoming evident as early as three months.
Thanks to machine learning algorithms on data from wearables and employee performance, the platform creates the Wellics™ Index (WIN)—a detailed metric that assesses key aspects of individuals' lifestyles, including sleep, mental health, nutrition, and physical activity.
So, schedule a demo with Wellics today and let the experts help you.
