Guest article provided by: gsdvs.com
As the pandemic drags on, office return dates continue to be pushed. While working from home is embraced by many employees and loathed by others, everyone experiences certain difficulties when working remotely. Blurred lines between our personal and professional lives, isolation, and pressure to balance work and home responsibilities can affect psychological, physical, and emotional health. According to Nick Bravante, a partner at fully remote GSD Venture Studios, it is essential to offer, and encourage your team to engage in various wellness activities.
Find nine ways to promote wellness and make it part of your team’s culture below.
- Gift A Wellness Product like The Moment Pebble
Encouraging employees to practice wellness is crucial, but providing them with a wellness tool shows an added level of care. Moment Company provides both a product and program designed to support mental fitness and wellbeing. The Moment Pebble is used to bring the practice of short, regular breaks, or moments, a few times a day to calm both the mind and the body, reducing stress and improving overall mental wellbeing.
- Provide Useful Wellness Resources
Keep a collection of wellness-oriented information updated and available for employees. Giving your team easy access to helpful pages, blogs, podcasts, videos, or tools for wellness is a great way to remind them you care and to help keep them healthy. These resources should include information on mental health, nutrition, sleep, physical health, interesting online events, and self-care tips.
- Conduct Wellness Checks
Team members need to feel needed and appreciated. Pay special attention to each employee and their mood. If you sense they are stressed, feeling underappreciated, or overworked, take some time to talk. While check-ins are a great idea in times when they are necessary, regular one-on-one talks that don’t solely focus on work are also encouraged. You do not need a psychology degree to check in with your people. A simple chat showing support for your team members and allowing them to speak up about their satisfactions and dissatisfactions will go a long way.
- Offer Stress-Relief Techniques
More than 80% report emotions associated with prolonged stress according to the American Psychological Association. Stress deteriorates physical, mental, and emotional health and certainly has an impact on a person’s ability to perform at work. This alone is a good enough reason to offer your team some stress-relief techniques. Make sure your programs target both the body and mind.
- Offer morning meditation sessions online
- Schedule a weekly exercise hour together online
- Provide links to free yoga programs, stretching videos, or dance sessions
- Make Sure Your Team Is On The Move
Working from home and modern technology makes it all too easy for people to never leave their homes. From their bed to their desk, to the front door to collect a food delivery, lethargy is all too convenient. Inspire the adoption of a lifestyle on the move by offering wellness budgets employees can allocate to an activity of choice. Anything that will get employees out of the house and moving will be appreciated and do wonders for both mental and physical health.
- Encourage Employee Interaction
A Gallup study highlights that around 25% of Americans feel lonely at work. While there is no substitute for authentic in-person interaction, a wellness chat can go a long way. Use however your team communicates (Stack, WhatsApp, etc.) to set up a place for employees. This wellness chat can be used for sharing memes, recipes, daily anecdotes, situations that upset the employees, and so on. Only one rule- no business talk! The purpose of the chat is to bring your team closer together and give them an ever-present sharing outlet.
- Promote Learning with Free Courses
Since remote work cuts down many expenses, invest saved funds on your team’s personal and professional growth. New skills not only keep the mind sharp but boosts confidence as well. Work with your team to offer a selection of useful courses. Ask for their input and select a few yourself. Make the courses diversified and give your people a choice. Do they want to learn about leadership or time management? Do they want to learn how to improve their presentation or writing skills? By selecting a few courses yourself as well as offering those suggested by employees, they will be excited to learn and eager to participate while working on skills you feel necessary.
- Offer Counseling
Counseling support is a robust addition to your wellness package and may not be as expensive as you think. 24-hour online support may be included in your company’s healthcare. If you would like to go further, hire a psychologist who will provide online sessions. Spread out across the team, an hour-long session with an expert every other week can turn someone’s life around.
- Encourage PTO
Most importantly, push your team to use their paid time off. Just like workers in the office, remote workers need to re-energize and rest to remain motivated and productive. All too often remote workers go months without stepping away from their home offices and taking a break. Disconnecting from screens and email for just a day or two does wonder for mental health, wellbeing, and productivity.
Written by Nick Bravante. Nick works for GSD Venture Studios and travels the globe in search of bold teams resilient enough to #GoGlobal.