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Employee Wellness Month Activities
It's always a great time to show your employees that your company cares about their well-being! A workplace that emphasizes healthy living creates happier and more productive employees. It can also lower healthcare costs and improve business outcomes. Supporting employee wellness doesn’t have to be hard or cost a lot of money. Here are a few ideas and activities for Employee Wellness Month or any day of the year, that can easily be implemented at your place of business.
Brown Bag It
Encourage employees to bring their lunches to work, instead of eating at fast-food restaurants. Then, use the lunch hour to help employees learn more about healthy habits.
- Invite speakers from local health-food stores or a dietician from your local health department to lead sessions on eating right and cooking healthy meals. Pass out food containers to remind employees to enjoy healthy meals and snacks.
- Consider bringing in yoga, fitness, or aerobics instructors for lunchtime classes. Make the classes entertaining and informative, and offer incentives for employees who attend, such as mason jar kits.
- Encourage your employees to use part of their lunch break to get some physical activity, such as taking a brisk walk outside. It’s a great way to recharge the body’s batteries for the remainder of the day. Offer pedometers to walkers so they can track their steps.
- Have employees exchange healthy recipes for easy “brown bag” lunches. Then, give them reusable lunch bags to put their lunches in, rather than disposal bags.
Stress Some Stress-Free Activities
Take time to help your employees manage stress. Here are a few ideas to lighten the mood in your workplace:
- Offer chair massages and other items to help them pamper themselves, such as emery boards.
- Allow employees to take simple stress-relief breaks throughout the day, such as short walks and time to converse with coworkers. Provide water bottles for those who go on walks.
- Instead of a “Secret Santa,” have a “Secret Coworker” activity. During the month, ask each employee to do something nice for his or her secret coworker, such as leaving a special note or a small gift on that employee’s chair. Provide gifts to pass out, such as travel mugs.
Let’s Get Physical
Being active at work is not always easy, but there are a few things you can do to help your employees get moving.
- Suggest five minutes of stretching at the beginning of every work day. Hand out clocks to help employees keep track of their stretching time.
- Rather than sitting in an office or conference room, encourage managers and company heads to hold walking meetings instead. Give everyone clipboards to take along on the walking meetings.
- Offer incentives to employees who walk or bicycle to work, such as healthy snack or treat packs.
- Keep a chart of employees’ weekly or monthly exercise goals in the office. Then, hand out gifts such as lapel pins or pens to those who meet their goals.
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