Anxiety, stress, and burnout.
Sound familiar? These are three very common feelings that everyone encounters in their career at one point or another. And to thrive, it’s essential to find healthy ways to cope.
In a recent study, 94% of CEOs believe they are providing adequate mental health support, but only 67% of employees agree. What does that tell us?
Now more than ever, there’s an opportunity to include more wellness programs in the workplace. Employers can take additional action to prioritize the well-being of their employees. Because the truth is that wellness activities yield many positive benefits and can even be a deciding factor in attracting the best talent.
Learn how engaging in these practices and investing in them can improve an employee’s work-life balance and overall quality of life.
Why is personal wellness important?
Personal wellness considers your overall well-being, affecting various parts of your life, including your career, relationships, and how you view yourself.
There are numerous benefits to practicing personal wellness regularly. And physical and mental health benefits vary depending on which wellness activities you participate in.
The main point is to get started and stick with it. (Which isn’t easy.)
Practicing personal wellness can positively influence daily challenges. But first, take action, discover the fun, and find a way to integrate some of these activities into your lifestyle.
Stress management
Stress is a negative feeling affecting everyone. Who doesn’t get stressed, right?
You experience stress when you need to interact with others, improve on a skill, or deal with emotionally draining events in life like big changes or loss.
But wellness activities encouraging movement, self-reflection, and connecting with nature are experiences that better equip you to manage stress.
Enhanced mental well-being
Your mental well-being can impact the way you function every day.
How you feel emotionally has a consequence (good or bad) on how you view yourself and your purpose. It also impacts how you view your relationship with others.
Statistics have shown us that if we have a positive view of ourselves and the work we’re engaged in, our relationships will also benefit from our positive mental state.
Greater productivity
When you mentally feel at your best, you also tend to have more energy to accomplish your tasks and longer-term goals.
And for most of us, that’s important when juggling multiple responsibilities requiring constant attention, such as parenting, caregiving for older parents, marriages, and careers. We’re more productive when we’re mentally in a good place.
Increased self-esteem
Engaging in a wellness program also helps promote confidence. It can kickstart finding your independence and feeling more assured in your decisions.
Self-esteem improves when you’re intentional about nourishing your mind and body. Participating in healthy habits (meditation, practicing affirmations, or fitness activities) can strengthen your personal view of yourself.
Encourages positive relationships
Wellness activities also encourage positive relationships and impact your lasting impression on others.
It’s a domino effect.
When you feel good about yourself and start to create a healthy outlook on life, this positivity affects how you communicate with those you love at home and how you begin to look at collaboration with your coworkers. Everyone you meet can be affected in a good way.
Examples of Wellness Activities
There is a wide array of different wellness ideas you can adopt, including:
• Fitness classes
• Meditation classes
• Eating healthy meals
• Taking cooking classes
When you can participate in activities that merge the mind and body in healthy ways, the nervous system takes notice, and positive change follows.
It’s important to discover what appeals to you and protect that time for wellness activities.
How does having company wellness programs improve
employee health?
Wellness programs in the workplace encourage employees to prioritize their overall health. Providing supportive resources for employees to engage in has become increasingly important
to today’s workforce.
When an employer demonstrates a genuine interest and takes action to support employee wellness, this makes a statement about the culture they want to create.
Physical health
A part of whole-body wellness is taking your physical health seriously. Having an active lifestyle is essential.
Physically healthy employees who exercise regularly usually have lower risks of developing illnesses. A positive side effect for the organization is a decrease in the number of sick days needed and a potential rise in productivity.
Some company wellness programs also encourage physical activity in their employees by offering gym memberships or online workouts. This can benefit individuals in the office and
those who are remote workers.
Mental health
Employee wellness activities focused on improving mental health have several positive benefits.
A big benefit is helping reduce stress directly related to job demands.
Stress is a big factor in the workplace when collaborating with different teams and executing various projects across the organization. Utilizing meditation and breath techniques through wellness programs can mentally put you in a better place to deal with those unavoidable stressors at work.
Social well-being
Wellness activities that take a holistic approach consider physical and mental health as well as the emotional aspect of a person. Growing in our ability to work with strong emotions can further improve our social well-being.
Because, as with any job or career, it’s important to be able to regulate your emotions and reactions with others.
If you can interact well with others and develop a support system in the workplace, this encourages employees to feel safe and appreciated. And when employees feel this type of connection, it makes them feel more fulfilled where they work.
How do workplace wellness programs improve company
culture?
Company culture is a factor more and more employees are considering before accepting various positions. It’s not just about money or a job title. They want to work where employee health is a priority and not an afterthought.
Encourages team participation
Workplace wellness activities encourage employees by getting them actively engaged.
Especially when employees can see other leaders in their organizations participating and encouraging intentional wellness, they feel more empowered to participate and prioritize it.
This further sets the stage for increased collaboration across departments and builds relationships, encouraging more idea-sharing across leadership levels.
Promotes a positive work environment
Organizations that promote employee wellness cultivate a more welcoming and growth-focused environment.
Incorporating wellness activities into the work schedule shows employees and fellow team members that a positive work culture matters to their employers.
It’s more than ok to purposely set aside 30 minutes in the day to do a meditation or step outside to get some fresh air. In fact, companies embracing wellness expect it.
Boosts employee satisfaction
When employees have improved mental health, their overall satisfaction also improves. Their attitude becomes more positive, and employees become more engaged in driving the organization’s goals and mission forward.
Common Issues Work Wellness Activities Can Improve
Employee wellness programs can help improve many different common issues experienced in the workplace and even have a positive effect on decreasing employee turnover.
Low energy and fatigue
As a result of that sedentary behavior, so many get stuck feeling tired and less energized (especially in an office job).
Workplace wellness activities can help break up that unenergized mentality.
Some activities centered on meditation and mindfulness focus on simple stretching to get the mind in a good place to be connected with the body. Intentionally setting aside time in the day to focus on small movements and breathing rejuvenates those energy levels.
Lack of team collaboration
Wellness programs can also encourage team members to collaborate more regularly together.
Engaging in group activities results in opportunities for connection or a better understanding of the point of view others are coming from.
And from those realizations, stronger teamwork is often the result.
Work-life balance issues
Employers who see the value of wellness programs and build them into their work culture help employees feel a better work-life balance. 87% of employees expect employers to help them achieve a work-life balance between work demands and personal commitments outside work.
Making time to check in mentally is crucial, and wellness programs aid in making this happen.
High healthcare costs
Employees who do not take short breaks and prioritize whole-body health become more at risk for needing regular medical care.
What may start as a minor health issue in the beginning can result in high healthcare costs when ignored. Wellness activities promote being proactive about overall health, which benefits the individual and business bottom line long-term.
The WorkWell Approach
We’ve combined our science knowledge with a healthy dose of fun to craft wellness and meditation classes that provide long-term support.
We know consistent and long-term engagement is tough with everyone being pressed for time, but our approach makes building wellness into everyday life easy and exciting.
Neuroscience
Neuroscience is at the foundation of our practice.
With a focus on the nervous system and connecting your brain with your body, you can be empowered to help regulate emotions and be better equipped to deal with stressful and difficult life moments.
Tracking employee engagement
At WorkWell, we have processes in place to track engagement.
We know what an ongoing challenge it is to encourage active participation from employees. We take on that responsibility to partner with employers and HR to ensure ongoing communication occurs between our facilitators and participants.
Utilizing surveys and addressing challenges
We also actively stay open to wishlist topics and feedback forums. It’s always our goal to provide the most engaging sessions packed with takeaways our participants can use in the future.
Our sessions address challenges, and with some of our live in-person options, that one-to-one connection is crucial for continuing to strengthen our offerings with clients.
