Employers who intentionally care for the well-being of their employees have a special place in my heart!

I’ve had the distinct honor of sharing big heaping helpings of well-being with a variety of workforces – big and small – and I have to say it’s one of my very favorite ways to spread wellness far and wide! I have a very special place in my heart for any employer who invests the money, effort, and care into helping their employees focus on their own health and wellness on the job. After all, most of us spend the majority of our waking hours focused on our jobs, so it just makes sense (and the data clearly shows) that if an employer wants a productive, successful workforce, they must create a healthy work environment that encourages and enables employees to practice healthy habits.

This looks different for every workforce, or course. And factors such as physical space, nature of the work, number of employees, workforce demographics, and many more are all considerations. But the one important myth I want to dispel is that it has to cost a lot of money. That is so not true! There are lots of ways to enhance workplace wellness without needing to break the budget in the process. It may just take a little creativity – or a little help from your friendly health coach.

Here’s a list of ideas to get the creative juices flowing. For starters, let’s break it down into healthy body and healthy mind. First let’s take a look at some Healthy BODY ideas:

Fitness:

• Organize a 6-week walking challenge. Some options to consider include beginners vs advanced tracks, logging minutes and intensity daily, participating as teams and reporting team averages weekly, and providing links to supportive educational pieces/videos/podcasts to participants weekly.
• Promote a strength challenge with progressive increases toward personal goals over a chosen period of time. Choose an exercise that can be done anytime, anywhere and without any special equipment, such as planks or squats.

Nutrition:

• Collaborate on a digital healthy cookbook, inviting staff to contribute their own recipes that fall within some list of healthy parameters such as low-carb, high-protein, healthy fats, low-sodium, low-sugar, gluten-free, etc. Consider providing a basic submission template for easy assembly of the finished product. Save it as a PDF when it’s ready, and voila, healthy cookbook complete!
• Invite staff to video-record themselves making their favorite healthy recipe at home and sharing it with the rest of the team.
• Conduct live healthy cooking demos onsite or via Zoom during lunchtime.
• Organize a hydration challenge that motivates staff to focus on their water intake over a period of time. Provide links to the wide variety of benefits of staying properly hydrated as well as creative ways to increase water intake for those who struggle with it.

Preventive Care:

• Promote the various national health awareness months/weeks/days throughout the year and encourage and organize health check-ups, screenings, etc. Bring health professionals onsite for a day, or organize group rides to a nearby clinic or medical facility.

Next, let’s take a look at some Healthy MIND ideas:

Mindfulness:

• Promote a commitment to daily mindful moments, such as breathing exercises, meditation, and yoga. Encourage staff to complete at least one activity daily, mark their progress, and report positive benefits/feelings weekly.

Gratitude:

• Organize a Gratitude Chain that passes from person to person one by one. Map where it bounces around the organization throughout offices or departments with visual representation including personal quotes and photos.

Self-Care:

• Invite staff to help each own build their own self-care toolkit by sharing their ideas or personal favorites and encouraging them to try out a new idea daily. Note how the exercise helps expand everyone’s view of what self-care looks like while also developing a habit of practicing it regularly.

Recognition:

• Highlight employee recognition as an important part of workplace well-being with intentional efforts and activities appropriate to your workforce. Focus on the positive impact recognition has on mental health and camaraderie.

That’s just a few ideas to get you started. By now, I hope you’re saying, “wow, I love these ideas!” But you also might be wondering, “who the heck has time to organize all of this at my office?” Well first, I’d recommend assembling your own group of Well-being Ambassadors at work. Who better than the people being served to join in the effort? This can be as official or unofficial as you want (maybe everyone gets a little Ambassador badge to display at their workspace or other place of recognition). And it can be just a few people or a whole crew who are interested in helping to implement some of their favorite ideas.

Also keep in mind that no matter what your role is in your organization, you likely have more power to get the ball rolling on this than you think. If you worry that the decision-makers with a higher pay grade than yours will shut you down, trying teaming up with a couple coworkers and start with small informal efforts that don’t even interfere with the workday. Then, as word spreads and more people want to join in, pull together some simple yet concrete ideas that won’t cost a thing to present to management. Who knows…it may be just a matter to time before your workplace has an award-winning employee well-being program that got started all because YOU took the first tiny steps!

On the other hand, if you ARE a decision-maker who worries you’ll waste lots of time and money on efforts that nobody appreciates or joins in on, a little preparation and consultation with an expert can go a long way toward ensuring you build the healthy work environment you so desire for your workforce. If you have questions or want to explore some ideas, reach out any time – that’s what I’m here for!