Workplaces that don’t contribute to wellness reduce productivity by 17.5%.
Healthy employees means fewer employees taking sick leaves which means increased business for the company. And in covid times employee health and wellness has never been more important.
Regular stress, plus higher chances of illness due to coronavirus, plus people isolated at home equals to greater challenges for companies and an urgent necessity to innovate and provide employees with wellness, health and fitness solutions.
67% of companies with workplace wellness programs reported that employees are more satisfied. Offering wellness programs shows that a company cares for its staff. And who wouldn’t want to work in a place that cares for them!
Here are some things corporates should do in 2021 in order to take care of employee wellness -
1. Empower with Knowledge -Wellness Webinars
The best way to start is to educate employees on the different ways they can take care of their mental and physical health. And the best way to do that is to invite well known fitness experts, health professionals, dietitians and counselors to hold wellness webinars on pertinent topics that employees can be a part of from the comfort of their homes.
2. Get them moving as teams- Virtual fitness challenge classes
Virtual fitness challenges add some fun and games and healthy competitive spirit into an otherwise stressful workday. Grouping employees for the challenge makes it an enjoyable yet team building effort and pushes employees to connect with each other for things other than work and motivate each other. Zumba classes are a fun group activity to stay fit and easy to conduct virtually. And maybe even a yoga challenge to collectively clock in 100 suranamaskars a week would do the trick.
3. Get them talking-Counseling services
Living through a pandemic has taken a toll on our lives and being isolated and away from society, friends and family makes our already stressful lives even more difficult. Focusing on mental fitness and health has never been more important. The best thing companies could provide their employees with is virtual access to counselors they can connect with whenever the need arises.
And lastly employers can go that extra mile. Working from home has done away with boundaries between our personal and professional lives. Now we are answering work calls while looking after our children or preparing food while completing reports. Work that normally took an hour now takes two hours due to constant disturbances and interruptions. As a result our work hours are longer and quality free time is shorter. Hence companies should be understanding of this fact and provide flexibility with work timings and allow employees to work according to their schedule as long as the output is not affected.