Therefore, many offices want to take care of their employees’ health but few have room in the budget to launch a big corporate-style wellness program like onsite gyms, smoothie bars and meditation rooms. However, there are still plenty of less expensive ways to create a thriving culture of wellness which is still on your company’s financially realistic option. Here are our top 4 favorite low-cost, high-reward strategies for creating healthy, active lifestyles for your staff members.
1. Offer a flexible schedule:
Creating flexible schedule does not mean that you allow your employees to choose what time they can get to work or when their deadlines are, but let them make the healthiest possible decisions for their own lives by controlling over their own schedules. It might sound like a big change in your HR strategy but flexible scheduling can result in a positive outcome for individual employees as well as improve your company’s overall productivity. If the office starts to work at 7:30 a.m, they have to wake up early, prepare school bags for their child, make breakfast and rush to work, thus they can’t take time to take a run in the morning. The same scenarios with afternoon, an outdoor excursion is something that they are not familiar with. However, the opportunity to work from home occasionally might be exactly the change they need.
2. Bring in expert
If flexible working hours strategy seems not potential when applied to your workplace, move on plan B – recruit/ hire a meditation leader, yoga instructor, or group fitness instructor to come in your office 3 to 4 days a week to offer professional classes before or after work hours. Those classes will keep your employees feeling fresh, challenged and motivated. Don't be afraid to try something new every month, try out a few different approaches to see what works for your employees. But how you get money to reach your goals? Consider having your company subsidize the activities and the employees pay half so that the classes are more affordable for everyone, then the chance of engagement and success increase as well.
3. Provide healthy snacks at break time
We all know that fast food or empty-calorie snacks loaded with salt and sugar, kinds of soda in vending machines are not healthy options but sometimes suitable when we're busy. In other hands, you can get rid of th at unhealthy food from vending machines and fill them with healthy snacks, instead. Fruit, nuts, veggies, yogurt,… are some examples that you should consider budgeting for and make them available in the break room.
4. Encourage staff to use guided apps
With the development of hi-tech, there are many free apps related to self-exercise for us to choose, which can be named that Calm, The Mindfulness App, … Those apps will guide your employees through different mindfulness and meditation practices.
It's imperative when investing in the health of your employees as even small change in promoting wellness can make a big difference in your staff members' happiness, health, and engagement. Feel free when contacting us if you need a hand on solving your staff' issues.