Employee wellness is being talked about more and more in offices around the UK and the world. Many businesses are shifting focus from other areas in order to keep their employees happy and healthy. The shift has meant that ‘well-being’ initiatives are in the spotlight. Here are a few of our favourites.
There are many elements covered by the well-being tree, these include: mental health, social connectivity, financial education and most importantly a sense of job fulfilment and satisfaction.
Employee health and well-being programs are proven to have a positive impact on your team’s engagement, cohesiveness and overall productivity.
The benefits don’t stop there. Companies can actually reduce costs by looking after employee well-being. According to research, these health perks can reduce your costs by as much as £1,200 per employee due to reduced sick days and unplanned absence.
Here at PA Life, we have looked into some of the best scheme and initiatives to keep your workforce, happy and healthy.
Get on your bike
Free2Cycle: Free2cycle is a simple and effective health and well-being initiative that takes advantage of technology and is an attractive business model.
How it works: Free2Cycle will give your employee a bike for no upfront cost. The owner of the bike with cycle a minimum predetermined amount of miles, tracked by a mobile app. For every mile covered by the employee, the employer pays 20p to Free2Cycle towards the cost of the bike. The employee (the cyclist) effectively pays for it with pedal power.
The Benefits: Cyclists that sign up to the initiative will receive a free bike and will start to enjoy the health benefits of cycling to work. Employers only pay 20p per mile, the cost of which is tax deductible. Furthermore, the cyclist can now nominate a charity of their choice, which will recieve 2p out of the 20p per mile.
Empower with Yoga
Joyful Living: If you’re looking for ways of rewarding your staff and keeping them engaged with office well-being activities, then office yoga classes are just what you’ve been looking for. With classes that include office yoga, pilates and fitness sessions that are perfect to improve health, relieve tension, recharge batteries and boost employee morale.
How it works: A fully qualified and insured instructor will arrive at your office with everything they need to take the class. They will then lead a one-hour bespoke class that can cover everyone from beginners to the more advanced.
The Benefits: The employees taking part with improve their health, reduce fatigue and stress, feel more energised and receive the added benefit of a greater range of flexibility and body alignment. This can help improve work related back problems that employees suffer with due to being sat at a desk for large periods of time.
Snacks make people happy
Edgar’s Fruit: A Snack Box is a simple and easy way to provide your team with healthy alternatives to satisfy their cravings. Having fresh fruit readily available at work can significantly improve morale and increase the chances of eating healthily as it cuts out the desire for snacking on unhealthy alternatives that are high in sugar and saturated fat.
How it works: Edgar’s Fruit is very fresh maintaining its nutrients, taste and quality – the fruit is sourced direct from the market, packed and delivered direct to you.
With lots of choice, they give you the chance to customise and experiment with what works for you. Choose from fresh fruit boxes, healthy snack boxes or even our smoothie box full of the right ingredients to make nutritious smoothies! They also offer a tailored fresh fruit boxes to meet your needs; which can include vegetables, salad items, exotic fruits, coconuts and a variety of different fruit and vegetables… the choice is yours (subject to seasonal availability)!
The Benefits The benefits of fruit and veg have been proven many times over. Your employees will feel more energised as well as feeling all the extra health kicks of eating well.
Mindfullness and meditation
GoMammoth: GO Mammoth Corporate Mindfulness programmes include a range of proven mental health initiatives for workplaces of all shapes and sizes- from introductory eight week mindfulness courses to weekly onsite meditation classes.
How it works:
Mindfulness course: An eight-week foundation course that has a mix of MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) and MBCT (Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy). Breathing training, proven to help stabilise and improve the employee motivation and work flow.
Meditation course: It allows our minds to be prepared for any issues in our working and daily life, it can lead to a calm, stable mind, increases concentration and mental focus and Increases happiness.
The Benefits: There are multiple benefits of mindfulness and meditation for your employees, these include: Increased levels of attention & focus, alleviates work-related stress and anxiety and it can improve communication and relationships around the office.
For many of us, the office is where we spend the majority of our adult life. Therefore, wouldn’t a few workplace initiatives that improve our health and happiness make being at work a much more pleasant experience?
Have your say. If your company, or a company you know of, has an even better – and more out-of-the-box – workplace initiative, get in touch at v.ferrara@Forumevents.co.uk.
