Five Ways to Encourage Employee Wellness in the Fall
Fall means colder weather, flu season, and less time spent outside being active.
The changing season can also have an affect on your business. Making sure your staff is healthy and happy can encourage good teamwork, morale, increased productivity and reduce the amount of sick time taken by employees.
Plus, along with a good spirit around the office, employee wellness programs can also decrease a company’s insurance costs. Here are five ways to help encourage employee wellness during the fall season:
Reward Flu Vaccines
The flu season can take a toll on staff, especially if those who are sick still come to work and infect those around them.
Some ideas to promote staff health include offering a reward such as a rebate for receiving a flu shot. Another option is to arrange an onsite flu shot clinic to make sure your employees get the vaccine at their convenience.
With an onsite clinic your staff doesn’t need to take time off or work it into their busy schedules. Offer healthy snacks or other incentives for those employees that attend the onsite flu clinic. If everyone receives a shot, the likelihood of employees getting sick and needing time off will decrease.
Making Healthy Food Choices
Did you know that eating poorly can actually hurt productivity. According to a study published in the science journal Population Health Management, unhealthy eating can be linked to a “66 percent increased risk of loss of productivity.”
The oncoming cold weather can lead employees to make bad food decisions out of ease and convenience.
Consider holding a healthy food contest. Using the honesty system, have employees keep track of good eating habits. The habits can even be simple things, like including fruits and vegetables with meals and going days without grabbing fast food.
Then offer a reward, such a gift card to the local grocery store, to the employee who had the highest number of good eating habits during the fall months.
Step Challenge
Before the winter weather hits, be sure your employees are getting fresh air and plenty of walking in their everyday lives. Encouraging your staff to exercise, even if it just means keeping track of steps, is an excellent and inexpensive way of promoting employee health.
Wearable trackers are very popular these days and many people in the office may already use one. Even if they don’t want to use a Fitbit or similar tracker, a smartphone can work too. Most people always have the phone on them and the device can easily track steps through different apps.
Utilizing these resources is a great way to get your employees up and moving during the fall season. Set an office goal and if the staff is able to meet it, reward them as a team with a healthy catered lunch or small gift cards to a local coffee shop.
Rethink Your Staff Meetings
Take advantage of the fall season and everything it has to offer.
Take your typical office staff meeting outside. Consider taking your team to a corn maize for building team strength.
Another fun alternative to a typical conference room staff meeting is going hunting for pumpkins in a pumpkin patch or picking apples in an orchard. These are great ways to get your staff up and moving, spending time outside, and enjoying each other’s company in a relaxed setting.
Having fun outings can help manage the stress levels of your staff. This can make a huge difference in staff performance. A happy staff is more productive than a stressed out staff that doesn’t want to be at work.
Fall Recipe Swap
The fifth and final wellness suggestion is to hold a fall food themed recipe swap.
With the holiday season coming up it can be difficult to keep off the potential holiday weight gain. Host an in office recipe swap with a focus on typical fall season foods: pumpkin, squash, sweet potatoes, beans and other delicious options. Encourage your employees to bring in recipes for healthy holiday dishes they can take home and share with their families.
A recipe swap doesn’t just get your employees thinking about healthy eating habits. The foods listed are packed with vitamins and antioxidants to help them stay healthy during the dreaded flu and cold season.
Business owner Richard Branson once stated, “Take care of you employees and they’ll take care of your business.” Making sure your employees are healthy and happy can mean a reduced amount of sick leave and a more motivated and productive staff.
Plus, it shows that you care about your team.
Track any wellness program you’ve implemented and be sure to get feedback from the staff. There’s no point in repeating an activity if no one enjoyed it or if it didn’t have a positive effect on the staff.
Listen to your staff and take their feelings into consideration when planning future wellness programs.
Need more tips to keep your office healthy during fall and winter? Are you trying to keep the flu away from your business? Schedule an appointment with your local Passport Health clinic by calling or fill out a contact form and speak to a representative.
Written for Passport Health by Brianna Malotke. Brianna is a freelance writer and costume designer located in Illinois. She’s an avid coffee drinker and enjoys researching new topics for writing.
