Life is all about balance, and as 62% of the Canadian workforce cite work as their main source of stress it is important as employers to strategize ways to combat this. Employees who are over-stressed at work can suffer reduced mental alertness and motivation, increased irritability, decreased productivity, and fall subject to accident or interpersonal conflict.
Not all stress is a bad thing however, as healthy levels of stress by way of deadlines, meetings and budgets have been shown to keep employees alert, adaptable, and helps with both memory and performance.
So how do we find the “sweet spot” where employees are experiencing enough stress to be productive and adaptable, but not so much that they are losing sleep at night? Many corporate groups are turning towards incentivized wellness programs.
Wellness programs in the workplace can take on many forms, but in rewarding healthy behaviours employees can be motivated to reach their personal goals faster.
Incentivize employees by rewarding them for:
- Reaching their step goals daily
- Attending corporate wellness classes such as yoga, spin, or dance
- Achieving a personal health or fitness goal such as a target BMI or weight loss goal
- Completing a smoking cessation program
- Going to the gym or participating in a meditation or mindfulness practise
You can create a wellness plan this way by first determining which health, wellness, and activity habits are most important to your staff, then by implementing our customizable MyReward platform you can offer a fun and engaging tool to reward your participants efforts.
Participants can support each other using our various tracking tools, view activities and announcements on the MyReward homepage and social feed and cheer each other on by sending an encouraging eCard. Our team is ready to help you with your employee rewards needs!
Looking for some other ideas for improving workplace wellness?
- Hire a masseur for a day to have in-house
- Create a workplace fitness club (running, cycling, yoga, etc.)
- Create a designated quick-nap area for employees if your office is on flexible hours
- Offer health and wellness credits or cash incentives towards things like gym memberships, dietician counselling or fitness classes
- Have healthy in-office snack options on hand for employees
- Organize an art therapy event for employees
Employees who are physically and mentally healthy are more productive, increasingly loyal, and more easily adaptable. Not to mention, by having a wellness focused work environment you can expect to see lower health benefits costs and less sick days. Win, win!