Wellness in the Workplace

Apr 12

Cator Sparks, Boon Coach

While tech firms have long been known for their ping-pong tables, Starbucks stations, and in house massage therapists as perks for employees, today many companies are seeing the value in true wellness benefits. Ping pong is fun, but digging deeper into mental health, as well as physical health can really benefit employees in the long term. Wellness in the workplace has become a buzzy term for good reason, it helps keep employees healthier which means less sick days. It also leads to a sense of community and results in happier and more productive employees. Here are three ways to fold wellness into your workplace.

Physical Health
From standing desks to work place yoga, and even paid gym memberships, companies are seeing the benefits of providing opportunities for movement in the workplace. Many people grumble when thinking of a typical ‘desk job’, so offering ways to keep moving during the day has been correlated to higher levels of concentration and mental stamina. Organizing company wide marathons or wellness retreats can be a great way to build community as well as fostering a healthy environment.

Remote Worker Wellness
This is a big component in our post Covid working world. Many employees have a hard time creating structure and routine while working from home. While offering them Zoom yoga or exercise classes is one way to promote wellness, be sure to convey to them that keeping the same hours they may keep in the office is a great way to create a work/life balance. They don’t need to keep checking email into the evening if they don’t do this at the office. Also, creating a separate working environment if possible (i.e. not the bedroom), and finding routines like morning meditation, dressing for the work day, lunch break, and shutting down at a reasonable hour will benefit them immensely.

Emotional Health
Of course having someone to speak to has been a huge boon for many companies to keep employees engaged and retained. Coaching is invaluable as an outlet for employees to dive deeper into their goals, values, life purpose and any issues they may seem stuck in from work to family.