There’s long been a link between employee happiness and well-being. Each year, employers lose more than $225 billion in productivity stemming from employee health problems alone. (Centers for Disease Control) Therefore, it only makes sense that a company that would like to boost employee morale may choose to integrate a wellness program into the regular corporate culture. Fortunately, there are multiple ways to do this.
In this article, we will talk about ways to bring wellness into the workplace to create a more harmonious and engaged employee population.
Understand the connection between happiness and health
Human Resources should begin taking steps now to cut down on health-altering problems that plague many workplaces. Ongoing stress, lack of enough fresh air and exercise, poor personal habits, the pressure to work longer hours – all of these contribute to poor employee health and morale. Prevention is the key to a more engaged and happy workforce that can meet the challenges of the daily grind head on.
Create wellness programs that matter the most to employees
Simply adding a set of gym equipment to an empty office space isn’t going to be a long range solution to employee wellness. Take the effort to your employees by asking them what would be most beneficial to their needs? Find out if employees are looking for support with quitting smoking, reducing stress through better time management, or hoping to start squeezing more fitness into each day.
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Encourage participation in wellness with incentives
You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot change him simply by going through the motions of creating a wellness program. Employees need a boost and this comes in the form of incentives for participating in wellness initiatives. How about a free healthy lunch after completing a short walk around the campus once a month? Employees may also enjoy earning points for prizes, or they may like a wearable fitness device to help them track their progress.
Make it a group effort and provide plenty of praise
Along with meaningful incentives, you also want to regularly recognize the efforts of your employees who are participating in your wellness program. This can be as simple as providing certificates of completing specific achievements. Having a quarterly award ceremony and publicly recognizing employees who have achieved fitness goals or kicked negative habits for good. Also, take the time to set up group activities where everybody gets to win in front of peers.
About Staffing Resources
Staffing Resources, established in 1985, is a privately held Atlanta-based corporation and a certified Female Business Enterprise. We provide a wide range of full- and part-time employees to businesses, associations, government and non-profit organizations in the metro Atlanta area.