As the awareness around mental health increases, wellness in the workplace should be a priority for every business.
In the United States alone, around 200 million workdays are lost annually to mental health issues. In the United Kingdom, mental health issues account for more than half of the 130 million annual sick days. And, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI): “Across the U.S. economy, serious mental illness causes $193.2 billion in lost earnings each year.” These stats should make even the most hardened leaders sit up and take notice. And, for the most part, companies are doing their part to improve wellness in the workplace. In the early 2000s, tech companies like Google and Facebook famously designed their workplaces and benefits around employee wellness. A trend that’s since been adopted globally across all industries. We don’t all have budgets like Google and Facebook, but wellness in the workplace doesn’t have to cost lots of money. It starts with assessing your work environment more consciously and identifying areas to improve wellness and morale. So, how can you improve wellness in the workplace in 2021 for both stay-at-home and office employees?
- Encourage Movement: Sitting or long periods of inactivity is extremely detrimental to our health. Inactivity has been linked to cancer, heart disease, and obesity. Conversely, exercise improves mental health and gets you in shape. This doesn’t mean you need to get employees doing laps around the building, but perhaps consider encouraging standing desks, walking meetings, or use the stairs instead of the lifts. If your employees work from home, offer them time during the day to go out and walk. You could also encourage employees who live near one another to arrange walks together during office hours.
- Step Counting: One way to get the ball rolling is to start a step count competition. You don’t need any fancy equipment; most smartphones have built-in features to track step count.
- Add a Gym: If your company has the financial resources, consider adding a gym or workout space to your office. You don’t even need lots of expensive equipment. A few sets of dumbells, jump ropes, a few pull-up bars, boxes for box jumps, and perhaps some exercise bikes, and you have a functional fitness room. This facility may even save employees time as they won’t have to make an extra stop at the gym. Less time commuting is definitely better for mental health! If you can’t afford a gym or most of your people work remotely, consider subsidising a gym membership for employees.
- Encourage Meditation: Encouraging mindfulness and meditation can be incredibly beneficial for wellness in the workplace. Mindfulness practice doesn’t have to be complicated. To get started, encourage employees to close their eyes and focus on their breathing for several minutes. Simple. You could also create silent rooms with comfortable lounge chairs or bean bags where employees can sit in silence while they meditate. A simple solution could be to offer employees a paid meditation app subscription or mindfulness packs to get them started.
- Gratefulness Workshops & Book Clubs: Part of being mindful is being grateful for life, what you have and where you are. Hosting gratitude or gratefulness workshops allow employees to share ideas, books or experiences that have helped them. A book club is another way for employees to exercise the mind and interact with each other. You could encourage books about productivity, business topics, and self-help, which might uncover new strategies and ideas for the company.
- Encourage Better Eating Has your office got a vending machine or snack tray filled with biscuits, chocolates, crisps, and other sugary or salty snacks? According to the UK-based Mental Health Foundation, what we eat may affect both mental and physical health. “One 2014 study found high levels of wellbeing were reported by individuals who ate more fruit and vegetables.” With that in mind, why not ditch the unhealthy snacks and offer your employees healthier options. You don’t want to be a complete killjoy, so perhaps have Friday as a cheat day ;). If your company has a wellness budget, consider subsidising your employees’ groceries for items like fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts, and other organic produce.
- Afterhours Cooking Classes: Another way to build morale and get people eating better is to arrange a cooking class. These classes are a great way to have fun while learning to cook simple, nutritious meals, which benefit employees and their families.
- Remind People to Drink Water: In addition to better eating, you should encourage employees to drink more water during the day. Dehydration causes unclear thinking and mood changes, things you want to avoid in a productive workplace! According to the NHS, we should be drinking between 6-8 glasses of water per day.
- A Pet-Friendly Office: The benefits of interacting with animals are proven to reduce stress and anxiety. A study by the University of Southern California found that “pets in the workplace reduce stress and nurture productivity.” Designing a pet-friendly office can be challenging, especially for employees who either don’t like animals or are allergic. For this reason, you might want to consider designated office space for employees who wish to bring their pets. The added benefit of bringing a dog is that dogs need to be walked. Regular dog walks will encourage exercise, which goes back to our first recommendation: getting employees to move more during work hours. If you can’t have animals in the office, consider a volunteer program at your local pet shelter as part of your company’s corporate social responsibility. Employees will get the mental health benefits of interacting with animals and physical exercise.
- Add Plants to the Office: Nature has a profound effect on mental health. Adding plants to the office could be another way to improve wellness in the workplace. Plants or a live wall are also great ways to break up an office to create different spaces or departments without separating people with glass or walls.
- Add a Yoga Studio: Like a gym, a yoga studio would be a fantastic way to incorporate exercise and wellness in your workplace. A yoga studio could double as your meditation room. The beauty of yoga is that employees can do it anywhere, even from home. If most employees work-from-home, you could host daily or weekly virtual yoga classes.
- Join a Corporate Sports League: Another way to encourage exercise is to join a corporate sports league. These leagues are in most major cities worldwide and include sports like cricket, indoor football, five-a-side football, softball, netball, volleyball, and more. If you can’t find a corporate league in your area, invite clients, competitors, and suppliers to start your own. Corporate sports leagues allow employees and management to interact in a “relaxed” environment outside of work, ultimately building camaraderie within the office.
- Make the Office Fun: Sterile office environments kill creativity and can be depressing places to work. Some offices have foosball, mini basketball hoops, table tennis, a pool table, hula hoops and other activities to keep employees entertained. These sorts of activities also encourage mingling between departments which could help share ideas and boost overall morale.
- Conclusion: Many of these suggestions might seem like distractions from work, but humans must be healthy and happy to be productive. We spend so much of our waking hours at work; making it a place people want to be is essential not only for wellness but for attracting and retaining the best people for your organisation.We have to consider a holistic approach to wellness in the workplace—mind, body, and soul. Wellness in the work place encourage movement
