An Employee Wellbeing Month is a great initiative. Here’s some inspiration!

 

Employee Wellbeing Month: 11 Easy Ideas

 

Wanna promote wellbeing during COVID?

There are tons of fun events you can organize to promote healthy habits and behaviours among your employees.

Here are 11 quick ideas for your Employee Wellbeing Month!

 

1. Free Fruit in the kitchen

How about leaving fresh fruit in the break room when your shift workers are on their break?

You could use post-it notes to leave fun messages.

Or write messages directly on the bananas.

Shop locally for seasonal fruit.

 

 

2. CEO to serve Healthy Pancakes

Get the CEO to make wholewheat pancakes (yummy recipe here!) for your factory workers when the morning shift starts.

Sends a positive message that I bet will get your workers talking.

Divide into small groups and keep your distances, etc.

 

3. Pilates class

Stuck to an assembly line all day? High stress levels?

Bring a Pilates instructor to help employees get the basics and then do pilates on their own. Or meditation?

Or organize walks during lunch where you mix people from different departments? If you’ve got budget, Fitbits is an easy way to lure people into starting new healthy habits

 

 

4. Financial wellbeing

A lot of teammates find it stressful to deal with personal finances and plan ahead.

Bring an advisor on-site (uh, rebrand it to sound more fun!) that can give tips for financial wellness.

 

5. Vegan Food Day

More and more employees are switching to a plant-based diet. Save the planet! Surprise your people with a lovely meal.

You’ll get benefits such as “better mood, lowered blood pressure, and a boost in productivity”, according to Veg News.

You could also offer vegan cooking classes during your employee wellbeing month.

Perhaps you even have some people on your team who are vegan and would love to volunteer.

 

 

6. Mental Health

Yes, mental health in the workplace is finally getting the spotlight it deserves. More so after Covid-19 turning things upside down.

How about a workplace mental health day?

What are your employees struggling most with right now?

50 practical ideas for public servants here.

PS. June is National Employee Wellness Month.

 

7. Plants rock

Who says only office environments should have fancy green plants to improve employee mood and air quality?

Plants get rid of carbon dioxide from our air and produce oxygen.

Are you a leader in manufacturing? Surprise your blue-collar workers with 20 big green plants.

Or go for a modern look with hanging gardens (where it makes sense).

Or get some volunteers to put some seeds into the soil and turn into a fun team-building event.

Use mirrors to reflect if you don’t have enough natural light.

 

 

 

8. Wellbeing Focus Groups

What is in your workplace that makes people thrive and want to come to work to do their shift?

How do people feel they can get more control over their work-life?

Use your employee wellbeing month to get people to open up.

Create small mixed groups and get people to converse about how to boost employee engagement. Together.

 

9. Recognition Day

Idea number 9 for your employee wellbeing month is related to recognition at work.

Getting appreciation from your manager, or your manager’s manager, is a cheap, simple and effective way to create a better work culture.

That need is also bigger during hard times, like a pandemic.

How about a hand-written note?

Or organize peer-to-peer recognition, a wall of gratitude, etc. More Employee Appreciation Day ideas.

 

10. Health & Safety Training

Health & Safety Training is not only important in manufacturing or blue-collar environments - in the office too!

And we’re not just talking Covid-19 health and safety. Make the Fire and emergency drill fun.

Use positive consequences to reinforce good behavior.

That is a lot more effective.

How about a Jeopardy format for the Motor vehicle collisions course?

Or include funny videos?

Or throw in some healthy snacks to get the spirits up? Gamify as much as possible.

 

11. Volunteer Days

I bet a lot of your employees volunteer already. Perhaps they’re a swim coach or read to old people at the nursing home across the street.

Ask around to see what type of projects your employees would like to support, and pick one or two.

It could be that teams go to volunteer at a local soup kitchen, or help paint at an animal rescue centre. Or simply the nearest one to your workplace.

Need a study to convince someone further up?

United Healthcare and Volunteer Match demonstrated the upside of volunteering. We’re talking mental, emotional and physical benefits.

Of those who had volunteered, 76% felt healthier.

94% felt it improved their moods, and 78% reported lowered stress levels. Source.

 

 

What’s the Return on Investment on an Employee Wellbeing Month?

 

If you’re interested in verifying the impact of your wellbeing events, that is quite easy.

If you have a baseline of how your employees feel on a “normal” day, it’s easy to compare to how they feel on a day with an event.

More info on how to measure the impact of a workplace wellness program.

 

Hope you liked some of our ideas for your employee wellbeing month!

And remember, happier workers are 13% more productive.

That is the finding in a recent research study from Oxford University.

Will you try some of the activities? Let us know if it helped your business.

Best of luck, keep a healthy distance due to COVID… and have fun!

 

 

 

Hej! I’m Rebecca, co-founder at Celpax. We use simple tech tools to create better work environments. And build a better society while at it! Got more tips for an Employee wellbeing month? Find us on Twitter or follow us on Linkedin.