How you can take care of the emotional health of your team (even if it is small)

April
23, 2021

4 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Workplace well-being or well-being in the workplace #workplacewellness, arises from the need for companies to counteract the health challenges faced by contemporary professionals such as: chronic diseases (such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, etc.) bad eating habits, stress, fatigue, lack of energy, lack of focus due to so many technological distractions, time management, among others.

For a few years and with more emphasis from the pandemic , workplace wellness programs are no longer exclusive for multinational companies with large budgets and today they have also become a need for local companies with smaller teams.

Its main objective is to provide employees with tools that allow them to improve their health and work productivity, as well as reduce absenteeism, avoid staff turnover and minimize the expenses made by employers related to health insurance. It seeks to encourage healthy behaviors and positive changes in your lifestyle.

According to a Gallup Research study, wellness plans can: increase productivity by up to 21%, reduce absenteeism by up to 37%, and decrease turnover by up to 65 percent.
The budget should not be a limitation to implement these plans, for this I list five actions with which you can start if your budget is low:

1. Create a digital newsletter with information that inspires them to lead a healthy lifestyle. For example, in the first newsletter you could invite employees to create a morning self-care routine that includes at least 30 minutes of physical activity (show them YouTube channels with physical activity programs), a nutritious breakfast (you can share some recipes) and a meditation to encourage focus during the day (send them a meditation podcast).

2. Offer flexible hours. One strategy you can start implementing is the opportunity to log out earlier one day a week. You will see how your collaborators take advantage of the morning, finish tasks and enjoy rest, which is key to clearing the mind, getting creativity and recharging energy.

3. Put ergonomics and eye care tips at your fingertips. Especially being in the home office where the collaborators had to adapt a space in their home. Allow them to pick up their chairs to the office to take home and use while they work.

4. Offers online sessions to create community and belonging by recreating dynamics such as playing enough , meme competition, introducing your pets, sharing musical tastes, etc. the only rule is not to talk about work or a pandemic.

5. Give them information about free resources with daily inspiration for healthy and fun habits, such as Take It Light or Home Office And Chill , so that collaborators get established guides created by experts.

If you want to create a comprehensive and effective wellness plan, my best recommendation is that you approach an expert in Workplace Wellness to help you design, implement, measure results and monitor the program according to the needs and goals that you want to achieve with your team.

I invite you to inspire your work teams to adopt better habits.