Assuming you have passed Blue Monday without your good intentions being derailed, you’ve probably already been considering your own health and fitness this January. But have you thought about 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, we explore your options:
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? Or invest in a juicer & let people create their own unique blends?? 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. Daily stand ups are common in tech teams, but try extending them for all meetings? Not just to give people’s circulation a boost but also would likely cut down the amount of unnecessary time in them. Or how about introducing standup desks? 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 (steps can be tracked by numerous apps: Steps, FitBit, Runkeeper), pounds lost, or something entirely different.
Think about the common goals of your staff, and how you can incorporate that. At first thought, 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. Also, the business benefits can be plentiful when you get it right.
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