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20+ Wellness Tips for the Workplace That Rejuvenate Employees and Boost Productivity in 2024

By September 7, 2023 December 15th, 2023

 

Wellness Tips for Work

Staying healthy on the job is a daily challenge for most people on earth. That’s why wellness tips for the workplace are so important.

Let’s consider the impacts of just one enemy of workplace wellness—stress—to demonstrate just how important it is to take wellness seriously.

Pro-Tip: Consider implementing “Wellness Wednesdays,” where employees are encouraged to take a midweek break to focus on self-care and wellness activities, promoting a balanced work environment.
👉 For more wellness tips for the workplace, subscribe to The Assist, a free 4x weekly email newsletter that makes becoming a better professional actually enjoyable. Every Wednesday, you’ll receive our Wellness newsletter packed with tips for developing wellness programs at work and ideas for adding more self-care into your daily routine.

Get Your Free Workplace Wellness Ideas Blueprint

According to a Towers Watson survey, stress is the largest threat to worker health, ranking above even physiological issues such as obesity. Other surveys suggest most (83%) of workers in the United States suffer from stress, which can add up to billions in lost productivity.  

Stress can manifest as back pain, headaches, defensiveness, fatigue, and indecisiveness.

Fear not! Focusing on wellness could be the antidote to workplace stress. Here are some curated wellness tips for the workplace to help you take control.  

Wellness Tips for the Workplace

Wellness comes in many forms. Here are some workplace wellness tips for employees that cover all the different ways you may want to boost your workplace health and happiness.  

Individual Wellness Tips

Start here if you’re looking for wellness tips for yourself and maybe a few co-workers.

 

⭐️ Organize your desk

Declutter your desk to boost your physical and mental feelings of wellness.

Focus on easy and accessible storage solutions and remember, as Marie Kondō says in The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, “Clutter is caused by a failure to return things to where they belong. Therefore, storage should reduce the effort needed to put things away, not the effort needed to get them out.”

Resources:

⭐️ Take hourly stretch breaks

Set a timer for 60 minutes; when it goes off, get up and stretch.

Resources:

⭐️ Listen to calming music

Studies show music can have a measurable effect on stress.

Resources:

journal for workplace wellness

⭐️ Start a journal

Use your journal to write down things you’re grateful for, or simply do stream-of-consciousness reflections about thoughts that may be driving you crazy. Writing about your gratitude may help you feel happier, and stream-of-consciousness writing may help you process thoughts more effectively.

How-to:

Dedicate the first 5 minutes of every morning to journaling. You can do this longhand or on your computer, whatever is most convenient. A few minutes a day is practically nothing, especially when you consider the potential benefits of this practice. Keep up the journaling for a few weeks, and it will become a habit before you know it.

⭐️ Stand up

Bring in a standing desk so you can spend at least part of your day on your feet. Standing may reduce back pain, improve energy levels, and offer a host of other benefits.

Resources:


Office-wide Wellness Tips

Start here if you’re looking for wellness ideas for the entire office.

⭐️ Organize a walking group

Get moving to feel better! A walking group is perfect for the entire office because it accommodates all fitness—and motivation—levels.

How to:

  • Pick a daily or weekly time, timeframe, and location. Choose something easy to boost participation. For example, Wednesday lunch walks—that last only 20 minutes and happen at the park right across the street—present an easy target.
  • Spread the word! Tell everyone who is interested to spread the word. Send an entire company email. Make some fliers. Do whatever you need to do to get a healthy group of interested walkers.
  • Add the recurring activity to the calendar and invite everyone.
  • Start walking. Reference your list and walk around the office to pick people up as you lead the walk.
  • Repeat.

⭐️ Nature Walk

Walking in nature can be a healthy mindful activity to start off your week on the right foot. Rather than walking near your office, finding an area closer to nature can have a tremendous impact on your approach to the work week.

⭐️ Start a meditation group

Meditation offers tons of wellness benefits. It may help lower blood pressure, ease anxiety, and fight depression.

How to:

  • Pick a daily or weekly time, duration, and location. (For example: Monday, in conference room 1, from 1 to 1:15 PM.)
  • Spread the word.
  • Add the recurring activity to the calendar and invite everyone.
  • Show up and play turnkey guided meditations.
  • Repeat.

⭐️ Create quiet spaces

Create pockets of calm around the office to give stressed workers somewhere to go when they need to reset.

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⭐️ Provide healthy snacks

Healthy snacks may boost productivity and happiness at work. Plus, they just make everyone feel good.

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⭐️ Form a sports team

Get moving and boost teamwork and team connectivity at the same time.

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⭐️ Organize a weekly Farmers’ Market excursion

Do some socializing while encouraging everyone to enjoy more fresh local produce.

How to:

  • Find a Farmers’ Market near you.
  • Coordinate transportation to and from, if the market is not within walking distance of your office.
  • Invite co-workers by setting up a recurring calendar event.

Variation: If you don’t think you can stick to an excursion, sign up for a produce subscription or community supported agriculture box. Have the box delivered to your office, or pick it up and bring it in to share nature’s bounty.

 

laughter for workplace wellness

⭐️ Laugh together

Laughter can be the best medicine. Plus, it’s free and relatively easy to cultivate.

Ideas:

  • Crowdsource laughter by starting a weekly email chain or Slack channel where people can post anything that recently made them laugh out loud.
  • Schedule a lunch comedy hour and watch your favorite stand-up routines in a conference room during lunch.
  • Go see a live comedy show.
  • Take a group improv class.
  • Play funny games together. Try Poop the game, MadLibs, or FunEmployed.

👉 Looking for more? See our 121 Employee Wellness Program Ideas Your Team Will Love.


Wellness Tools for the Workplace

Need help staying on track and accountable during your wellness journey? These tools should help.

Wellspace: An application and portal that helps manage and even incentivize wellness programs.

WaterMinder: An app that helps people do one of the most simple wellness activities possible: drinking more water.

WoeBot: An app that makes effective cognitive behavioral therapy techniques as convenient and accessible as possible.

Calm: An app for meditation and sleep.

✅ 8fit: An app delivering customized wellness solutions, from workouts to nutrition plans.

FitBit Group Health Solutions: Evidence-based techniques for improving outcomes of wellness goals.

Wellness Council of America: Provides an in-depth website that has training, resources, and helpful step-by-step guides for wellness initiatives.

The Chalkboard Magazine: Health, beauty, and wellness—all in one beautiful web interface.

Elevate: An app that helps you improve and train your brain for optimal wellness.


Incentivize Workplace Wellness 

So you’ve got some great ideas for workplace wellness. Now it’s time for the real challenge: getting everyone else in the office to be as excited about wellness as you are. It’s not that people don’t see the value of making time for wellness, it’s just that they often don’t feel like they can make time for wellness. Here are some ways to incentivize workplace wellness programs and boost engagement.

⭐️ Offer incentives that feed back into your program

Compel employees to participate in wellness programs by offering incentives that also boost wellness. These kinds of incentives include:

  • Discounted gym memberships
  • Healthy snacks
  • Water bottles
  • FitBits
  • Yoga mats
  • Exercise gear  
  • Extra days off
  • Group outings
  • Teamwork retreats
  • Training and continued education

⭐️ Select a wellness program tool that incorporates rewards

Out-of-the-box wellness program management suites often come complete with a research-based incentive or reward capability to boost employee engagement. For example, WellSteps offers a point-based awards capability as part of their solution.

Gamification for wellness programs

⭐️ Gamify your wellness program

Gamification is simply the process of incorporating all the irresistible aspects actual games (video games, sports, etc.) into things that are not games (wellness programs). Gamification involves a reward aspect, but it also brings in popular gaming elements such as competition, time limits, leveling/benchmarks, and achievement metrics.

Here are a few gamification ideas:

  • Add competition by offering prizes for the person who earns the highest wellness scores.
  • Add timeliness by planning limited challenges that people can dive into.
  • Developed ranked titles, linked with rewards or recognition, that people can earn when they complete certain aspects of the program.

You can also leave this aspect of your wellness program to the experts by trying out a paid gamification solution.

⭐️ Design a wellness program people want

A Rand Corporation Research Brief indicates that the best way to boost wellness program participation is to design high-quality initiatives people enjoy. According to the brief,

“Offering a rich, well-designed program is almost as effective at boosting employee participation rates as incentivizing employees to join more-limited ones.”

Do some discovery research as you work on your program to make sure it’s something people actually want to participate in. (Interviews, surveys, and maybe a few pilot programs should do the trick!)

⭐️ Try reverse incentives—penalties

The Rand Corporation also found that penalties, things like higher health insurance premiums, increased program participation.

What are your biggest challenges for workplace wellness? Let us know in the comments below!

 

People Also Ask These Questions About Wellness Tips in the Workplace

Q: What are some effective strategies for reducing stress and promoting mental wellness in the workplace?

  • A: Effective strategies for reducing stress and promoting mental wellness in the workplace include implementing regular mindfulness or meditation sessions, providing stress management workshops, and encouraging open communication about mental health issues among employees. Additionally, offering flexible work arrangements and promoting a healthy work-life balance can significantly contribute to reducing stress levels. Entrepreneur wellness is also a priority, so if you are an entrepreneur or founder read this article.

Q: How can employers create a supportive and inclusive workplace culture that prioritizes employee wellness?

  • A: Employers can create a supportive and inclusive workplace culture by actively listening to employee feedback, fostering open dialogue, and implementing policies that prioritize mental and emotional well-being. Encouraging diversity and inclusion initiatives, offering employee assistance programs, and providing training on mental health awareness for managers can further enhance such a culture.

Q: What role does physical activity play in maintaining wellness at work, and how can it be encouraged?

  • A: Physical activity plays a crucial role in maintaining wellness at work as it can improve physical health, reduce stress, and boost mental well-being. Employers can encourage physical activity by offering on-site fitness facilities or classes, organizing walking meetings, promoting active commuting, and providing incentives for employees to participate in physical wellness programs.

Q: What are the best practices for managing work-life balance and preventing burnout among employees?

  • A: Best practices for managing work-life balance and preventing burnout among employees include setting clear boundaries for work hours, encouraging the use of vacation days, and promoting time management skills. Employers should also foster a culture that values breaks, regular relaxation, and supports employees in managing their workloads effectively.

Q: What resources are available for employees to access mental health support and counseling at work?

  • A: Employees have access to various mental health support resources in the workplace, including Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), which offer confidential counseling services. Many organizations also provide access to mental health hotlines, online self-help resources, and partnerships with external mental health professionals to ensure employees have multiple avenues for seeking help and support.

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