Work stress happens when employees feel frustrated and overwhelmed in the workplace. Be it due to mounting workloads, demanding employer, or aggravating coworkers, this condition could last for months or even years. When left unaddressed, work stress could lead to several damaging consequences such as hampering productivity, performance, as well as wellness and health.
According to American Institute of Stress Report, a staggering 80 percent workers experience stress at work. About half (50 percent) of them would like help in managing their stress, while 42 percent believe their co-workers need help with stress. As a leader, if you care about your employees’ wellness and health, keep on reading these wellness ideas proposed by Snack Nation and adopt some that suit your company’s culture best.
Read also: All By Yourself: How to Combat Loneliness in the Workplace
NUTRITION AND HEALTHY LIVING
01 Offer different desks – chances are, your employees are bored spending most of their time at work sitting on the same desk all day. Therefore, you can offer standing or pedal desk. Adjustable desk that allows users to easily switch between standing and sitting while working is great option, too. The switching part is a key to getting optimal health benefits because healthy people tend to love moving than working in one fixed position for too long.
02 Visit a local farmer’s market for lunch – lunchtime is always fun, isn’t it? You can offer a more fun way of having lunch by offering employees to go for lunch outside in the farmer’s market directly. This way, employees will not only get new refreshing lunch time, but also time to re-energize themselves. Moreover, you can also increase awareness of eating healthy for healthy life.
03 Assess your ergonomics – ergonomics is a science of designing work tasks in a way that limits stress on human body. This will give so much benefits for office workers as things like keyboards designed to minimise the risk of repetitive motion is used and created.
04 Celebrate wellness day – your team office can create your own wellness day. Here, you can hold a campaign to promote eating more vegetables and going meatless for the wellness day. Advice is, you can do the day on Wednesday. Why? Because Wednesday is a great day as it is in the middle of the week when employees usually experience a bit of a lull.
GROUP ACTIVITIES AND FITNESS HACKS
05 Participate or create own sport class – you can invite employee to participate in the nearest yoga class or invite a yoga instructor to your office. You can as well put scooters, hula hoops, rope jumping, or anything that help your employees retain their sport day.
06 Poster everywhere to build awareness –
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ACTIVE REJUVENATION
07 Nap-nap time – napping does not only reduce employees’ burnout and fatigue at work but also improve creativity, productivity, and memory. Therefore, encouraging napping time at office is a good move to promote better wellbeing.
08 Encourage employee to volunteer – volunteering at local food bank or cleaning up a park, beach, or trail will give employees a time to break their routine. Volunteer to social work is also seen as a good and positive acts which gives good impact to employee’s happiness and health.
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09 Don’t let frustrated employee work – If you let them, not only will their work be such a mess, but the employee will likely get sick. NuGo Nutrition recommends when people get frustrated at office, tell them to go for a walk around the block. Fresh air and some sunshine often make people more productive once they get back.
10 Recognition and flexibility – Rewarding your most loyal employees, offering flexible paid time off, or encouraging employees to schedule break time hourly can give them a reason to stay and a day to be happy at work.
COOL PERKS AND JUST FOR FUN
11 Sing me to work – Music can improve moods which help boost productivity and creativity. So, turn on the music and play it through speakers around office. Having a small-radio-station where your employees can express their day around the office is good. It can also be used to announce latest news in office.
12 Incentivize ridesharing – Team One is considered as a Top 100 Place to Work. They have implemented a fantastic rideshare program where employees are rewarded for carpooling. Each employee will get card to mark down days they partake in ridesharing. Each day counts as 1 point. Team One throws in double points for certain days of the week. Once employee hits 30 points, they will be rewarded with a $25 gift card or any other incentives.
13 Theme days of the week – Allowing employee to dress up in a certain theme can build togetherness in workplace. Theme days can also boost employees morale and engagement. Have you done this? So what about Aloha day?
Image credit: https://alohafunwear.com
14 Implement Team Bucks system – Want a fun activity? You can create a team bucks. It is when you make fake currency where employees can reward each other. Then, allow them to collect as many as possible and trade it for real-world prizes.
See also: The Way Millennial & Gen Z Achieve Their Success in the Workplace
PRODUCTIVITY BOOSTERS
15 Mini-park in office – remember the day when you play in the playground? It was fun. You can bring back the memory by building a playground room with swings or other playground activities that sounds fun and can be played by your employees.
16 Offer one remote working each week – Allowing employees to work remotely once per week will likely increase their productivity, eliminate long commutes, and spend more time with loved ones. It also shows that you trust your employees more. Thus, it makes them a more responsible and more reliable team.
17 Shared personal goals whiteboard – Put a whiteboard in your office and let employees write their non-work related wellness goals. As good as possible, make all the wishes happen. Doing so, will create a sense of common cause and accountability, spurring higher goal completion rates.
MENTAL HEALTH AND PERSONAL GROWTH
18 Host lunch and learns – Choose a day of the week or month for company-wide lunch and learn. Let team in turn present topic they’re interested in, be it work related or not. You can as well use it to discuss important company updates.
19 Teach the basic and importance of finance – This will be so useful for survival, especially younger employees. You can get your best finance leader or hire a person who can.
20 Organise a book club and set up a community library – Setup a bookshelf in your office or build a company library instead. Reading interesting books allow employees to share ideas on wide range of topics. Thus, arranging a book club based on interest is good. You can select a book each quarter and allow employee to read and review.
21 Quote of the week – Walking on the hallway and read an inspirational quotes can improve motivation. You can set a big board or electronic board in a hallway. Let your employees write quotes on their own or pick best ones from internet.
Image credit: http://myprimarypassion.blogspot.com
22 Take an emotional intelligence class – The ability to make employee resilient is the ability to manage emotional wellbeing. It also depends on the ability to recognise and process events in healthy ways. Group classes in emotional intelligence can help people process and manage both internal and external emotions. Employees can feel the benefits of each lesson which can also enhance communication, clear thinking, and interpersonal relationships.
Read also: Employee Turnover: Understanding Why Top Talents are Leaving
