Employee wellness programs are growing in popularity nowadays and for a good reason. They have the potential to improve the health of employees while simultaneously boosting morale and facilitating team bonding. This helps employers lower costs on employee healthcare while increasing productivity in the office. Check out our article on the benefits employee wellness programs have for both employers and employees if interested.
In this article, we’re going to give you ten fun and interesting ideas for employee wellness programs to easily implement.
#1: Provide healthy office snacks
Most people need snacks to help them get through the workday. However, these snacks (chips, candy bars and sodas) are often unhealthy, filled with sugar, and loaded with saturated fats. While these may taste good, they will have a negative impact on productivity as they cause energy crashes later on in the day, and they lead to poorer health in the long-term.
So, provide your employees with healthy snacks to encourage them to snack on healthier things. Some examples are apples, grapes and oranges, granola bars, nuts, kale chips, dark chocolate, jerky, and whole-grain crackers. Be sure to always check that they don’t contain saturated fats! Plus, providing these snacks also give your employees the opportunity to chat and get to know one another a little better as they hang out in the office pantry.
#2: Step away from the sedentary office lifestyle
Being sedentary all day long is a huge contributor to lifelong health problems by way of obesity and other conditions. However, it’s often tough to squeeze exercise routines in after a long day of work, especially when all you want to do is chill out on the couch and decompress. Yet the negative health effects of sitting at your desk all day long are well documented and are quite serious.
Introduce standing desks to your office to give your employees a reason to get off their feet. This will help you create a more active office environment and combat the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle.
Another way is to introduce a flexible workplace routine where your coworkers could choose to work from home and/or from a coworking space. Allowing more flexibility in the choice of working hours and locations for employees has a huge impact on their work-life balance and hence productivity and motivation. In Hong Kong, FLYDESK can accompany you on your journey of breaking the office routine with their innovative solutions.
#3: Organize massage sessions in the office
Who doesn’t love a good massage? It’s a great way to destress all the physical knots that build up in your body over time. Massages also have several health benefits, such as reduced muscle tension, improved blood circulation and increased joint mobility and flexibility!
Your employees will definitely thank you for this wellness program idea. Many people often don’t take the time for self-care, and by organizing massage sessions in the office, you will certainly show them that you care about their health – both physical and mental. Plus, more relaxed employees are happy employees, and happy employees are more productive! Schedule your workplace massage session easily here.
#4: Organize fitness classes
Many people don’t exercise not by lack of will, but because they simply don’t have the time. It’s too early to squeeze an exercise routine in before work, and they’re simply too exhausted after work. Organizing workplace fitness classes allow your employees to squeeze in a quick routine in whenever they feel like it.
Yoga and pilates are good examples of classes that are easy to organize and extremely popular these days. All you’ll need is a room with enough space for everyone’s mats.
#5: Incentivize exercise
Lacking the motivation to exercise is another factor in why people lead sedentary lifestyles. Good health is a long-term, partially intangible outcome that won’t motivate people as much as short-term gain. So, provide your employees with incentives so that they will get motivated to exercise.
Steps competitions are a great way to get people walking. You just need to provide your employees with a phone or a specific device to track their steps. Keep in mind that your office will likely consist of employees of varying ages and fitness levels so organizing both individual and team competitions are the best way to go. This will ensure that no one feels left out. Plus, it’s an excellent team bonding exercise!
#6: Hold meditation sessions
Stress is a huge contributor to long-term health issues, and it reduces productivity in the short-term too. Most people don’t know how to appropriately manage their stress, so help your employees with that by introducing meditation sessions in the office.
There are plenty of apps and websites that help with guided meditation sessions, or you can request a professional studio to help organize, in Hong Kong, Balance Health is our favourite. Otherwise, you’ll need is a dimly lit room and space for your employees to sit on the ground or on a chair. As a bonus, light some nice smelling candles as aromatherapy. Even twenty-minute sessions two to three times a week will have great benefits on their mental health.
#7: Host cooking classes
What better way to teach your employees about nutrition than organizing cooking classes. Thanks to that, they can learn how to create delicious and healthy meals all by themselves! After all, takeout tends to be loaded with junk, and it’s a lot easier to understand just what you’re putting into your body when you’re cooking it yourself. ABC Cooking Studio is a great option to start within Hong Kong.
Cooking classes will help your employees learn simple, healthy recipes they can make at home, and it’s a fun activity that takes some of the stress out of work.
#8: Provide gift cards to wellness activities
Not all offices have the space to organize wellness activities within the office itself. If that’s the case for you, not to worry, for you can simply hand out gift cards for your employees to pursue wellness activities of their choice in their free time!
Gift cards also have the added benefit of allowing employees to choose when they would like to participate in these activities instead of constraining them to the schedules of in-office wellness programs. In the case of Lookdiary Gift Cards, they will offer them access to 200+ beauty and hair salons in Hong Kong and thousands of possible treatments.
#9: Make your office more green
Being around nature is soothing, and has been proven to relieve stress, increase sociability and motivate people to be more active. Not all offices have access to a garden – and not everyone has the time or the inclination to go for multiple short walks a day.
So, introduce some plants in your office and make it more green and eco-friendly! This will brighten your workplace up, and improve your employees’ moods. This will have vast benefits on your employees physical and mental health – from lowering blood pressure and stress to boosting job satisfaction.
#10: Organize catered lunches regularly
Employees may skip lunches or opt for unhealthy options due to a lack of time, stress, financial reasons, etc. Organize catered lunches for them at least once a month, and ensure that these lunches are healthy and delicious.
Catered lunches will help your employees realize that healthy food can be delicious, and motivate them to eat healthy more often than not. Plus, it will boost their morale and help them feel like you care about them and their health.
So, there you have it – ten great ideas for employee wellness programs. All of will help improve physical or mental health and boost morale, and most act as excellent team bonding exercises that will help your employees get to know each other better so that they can work side by side in a more productive manner.