At this time of year, many of us are madly last-minute dieting and boot-camping, in a quest to be beach ready for our Summer hols. The selection boxes have been ditched in favour of kale smoothies, the wine bottles have been drained, and avocado and chia seeds are right back at the top of the shopping list!
You’ve probably already considered your own health and fitness, but have you thought about the health and wellbeing of your employees? If you want your team to be firing on all cylinders, then it makes sense to consider how you’re enabling them to live a healthier and more balanced life. When it comes down to it, encouraging your staff to take care of themselves can have many business benefits. If you want a productive and present workforce, there are several things that you can do.
Here are three quickfire ideas to supercharge your teams:
Rethink workplace traditions
Everyone deserves a little bit of cake on their birthday. Annual treats are unlikely to do anyone any harm. But when your workplace traditions include fried breakfasts on Monday mornings, pizza during Wednesday meetings, and beers on Friday evenings, the impact can quickly mount up.
Rather than taking away existing provisions, think about how you could put a more positive spin on them. Could you encourage staff to bring in their own healthy bakes? Could you reward completed projects with fresh fruit platters? Could you liaise with local juice providers to supply energy-boosting pick-me-ups during busier periods? Creating new traditions could be just what your employees need.
Get people moving
It could be argued that sitting behind a desk all day is a pretty unnatural state for a human being. Of course though, operational constraints often mean that to a certain extent, you’re stuck with more sedentary ways of working. Small changes can make a huge difference, so don’t overlook them.
Encourage staff to walk to their colleagues’ workstations instead of sending emails. Rather than conducting sit-down reviews, go for a stroll outside. Too often, it’s easy to fall into the trap of getting stuck with existing routines, when alternatives are simple, low cost, and highly effective. When’s the last time you considered doing things a little differently?
Create a friendly sense of competition
People often love a challenge at this time of the year. You can use this to your advantage and encourage good behaviours whilst also encouraging individuals to collaborate towards a goal. You could divide your workforce into teams, and set a milestone, with a reward for whichever group gets there first. It could be miles walked, pounds lost, or something entirely different. Think about the common goals of your staff, and how you can incorporate that.
It should go without saying, but you do need to exercise a degree of common sense here, and do all you can to ensure that you aren’t discriminating against any of your staff. Think about how disabled people may be able to get involved, and don’t make participation obligatory.
You may think that the health and wellbeing of your employees isn’t really your responsibility. This isn’t the case though. With workers spending more and more time in the office, many would consider it a moral responsibility for businesses to ensure that some kind of balance is achieved, and the bonus for you is the £££ business benefits can be plentiful when you get it right!
Want some ideas and inspiration? Why not come along to our Employee Wellbeing workshop on 5th July and lets share our ideas!
Lucy Whitehall, Meraki’s employee wellbeing expert and positive psychologist, will be there to explain much more about what we mean by employee wellbeing and be offering her top tips about introducing an employee wellbeing strategy into your business. This is no doubt going to be a popular workshop, so book your place now to save your seat! It might be the best 2 hours you spend this year ?
