Employee Wellness Program Ideas for Your Office

Employee wellbeing is a vital element for the success of your business. Happy staff members mean employee engagement will be strong and as a direct consequence productivity will be high. Employee wellbeing programs are also an incentive for people to join your company and a great retention tool.

Wellness is one aspect of wellbeing but another key element is how employees are treated at work. Therefore, it’s vital to have strong policies and procedures in place to guard against issues such as bulling. It’s also important that staff members are recognised for their work and feel they are adequately rewarded, both financially and with direct feedback. The atmosphere within the workplace will also play a part in overall wellbeing with employees needing to feel that the environment is a welcoming and comfortable one.

There are also direct ways to help improve your employees’ health and sense of wellbeing and many of these can be implemented for relatively little cost, when weighed against the rewards they will bring.

Physical Health

One of the most direct ways to improve the health of your employees is to work with a local gym to offer subsidised memberships. Because your company will be bringing many new clients to the gym it will often be willing to work with you on a discounted rate, so the cost to your company can be low. Alternatively, you can block book the services of a personal trainer who will therefore be willing to offer single training sessions and group classes at a lower rate.

Another way to encourage healthy living is to give free access to fresh filtered water so that staff aren’t dehydrated, which can lead to tiredness and lack of concentration. Vending machines with unhealthy snacks can also be swapped out for the option of fresh fruit, nuts, seeds and even juices. 

Smoking Cessation

One of the biggest negative impacts on your employees’ health will be smoking and you will see fewer sick days over the long term if you can help staff to kick the habit.

There are many routes to giving up smoking and it’s important to offer a variety of methods as not everyone will want to approach it in the same way. The NHS offers smoking cessation clinics throughout the country and this can be a good place to start. Vaping is also gaining popularity amongst people who are not quite ready to stop smoking completely, especially from the psychological standpoint, but who do want to lessen their exposure to the detrimental effects of cigarettes. If you want to inform staff about the benefits of e-cigarettes over smoking tobacco, this can be a helpful resource to provide the background.

Emotional Support

There will be times when employees need emotional support because they have personal issues or worries about their home life. If you can provide in-house counselling through the services of an occupational therapist, then this is ideal. Alternatively, if you provide Private Medical Insurance as a staff benefit, this often includes confidential telephone support. 

Complementary Treatments

Many people are now much more open to the benefits of complementary treatments and this is another area to explore to increase wellness levels amongst staff.

You can book local therapists to come in and offer meditation and mindfulness classes or even offer at-desk treatments such as reflexology and shoulder massages.

Whilst these might seem quite small things, and will often cost the business relatively little, they can make a big difference to how your employees view their time at work. Staff members who feel valued and supported by their employer will be far more willing to go that extra mile to ensure the business meets its revenue targets. Plus, they will be your best ambassadors in the wider community.