Creating a Culture of Wellness for Your Team


Maybe you’ve offered wellness services for your team before and you’re looking to expand your offerings. It could be that you haven’t yet figured out how to best incorporate a culture of wellness into your company and team. Luckily, there are many practical suggestions to do so. Having a healthy workforce can benefit your team immensely so it’s a worthy goal.

How to create a culture of of wellness for your team? Making positive changes that show you care about the total wellbeing of your employees can go a long way in helping the job satisfaction of your team. Focus on total wellbeing, physical wellbeing, emotional wellbeing and financial wellbeing.  Creating a culture of wellness is a great way to ensure you have both happy and healthy employees and great business results.

Having great programs and plans in place to promote wellness will make your team healthier and happier as well as more productive. When you truly value your employee’s well-being it will show in everything your company’s culture stands for.

Total Wellness 

There’s no magic solution to keep every employee and team member healthy and happy. What is important is offering a variety of services and making it easy for your employees to use the services that will benefit them the most. Having total wellness means that you will need to have programs for their physical, emotional, financial wellness built into the company cultureOpens in a new tab..

One way that wellness can be improved within your company is by using employee benefits softwareOpens in a new tab., thereby ensuring that each employee is well taken care of.

In addition to this, helping your team make healthier choices will not only have a large impact on their personal wellbeing but can help your team work better together as well. When employees are generally in good spirits, they can focus on their work better. Wellness will ultimately mean that their work/life balance is in check.

When you ensure that every element of your company is pointed in the direction of supporting a healthy lifestyle, everyone wins. With a goal of total wellness, you can be certain that your employees will come to appreciate your company more. Having a healthy and productive workforce helps you in many ways.

You’ll likely have less turnover and staffing changes because your team will want to continue to work for you. Healthy employees will also be more competitive and focused, which can help you better achieve your company’s business objectives as well.

Physical Wellbeing

When it comes to taking care of your employee’s physical needs, you will want to encourage their health while not making anything a requirement of course. Wellness programs need not be mandatory since that can be alienating to certain demographics. Having a wide variety of offerings that benefit physical wellness is a great start. You may want to consider offering free wellness screenings and health risk assessments annually as part of your wellness programsOpens in a new tab.. When employees are cognizant of any potential health concerns they are more likely to get on track to help themselves or continue bettering their lifestyle. One way you can make it easy for your team to stay healthy is to offer onsite flu shots. Not only could this help prevent a mass flu outbreak among your team, but the convenience of not having to make an appointment or take time out of their busy lives to be vaccinated on their own time shows you care about their health.

Other options to promote physical wellness include hosting speakers onsite or via video call. Having lunch-and-learn programs can keep your employees aware of new trends and how they can benefit their wellness, but also promote a sense of unity for those who attend. Give your team chances to learn and grow together.

Consider if an onsite health fair with benefits vendors is right for your organization. The chance to speak to representatives in person can be advantageous, especially around the annual open enrollment period. Having a great understanding of their medical benefit programs can help your team use them to their fullest extent.

Another great option is to make 24/7 nurse advice lines/telemedicine part of the company’s medical plan. This way your employees can check in with a professional to determine whether to seek care. Having a health representative constantly available protects the physical wellbeing of your team and lets them know you care about their health.

You don’t always need to host others in your office to promote physical wellness. Having flyers, posters, TV monitor announcements, intranet articles about seasonal wellness topics can inspire and remind your team to stay active and safe. Possible topics could include heart health month in February, summer safety, holiday stress, tobacco cessation, and injury prevention.

If your company doesn’t offer an onsite gym facility can you negotiate a discount at local fitness centers, Weight Watchers, or even for your employees to purchase their own fitness equipment. Making these discounts available gives your team the best chance possible to make positive physical choices in their day to day lives. A smaller change you can make to help promote physical wellness is by ensuring there are heart-healthy food options in the cafeteria and vending machines. Since wellness can depend on the food consumed having healthy recipes, healthy cooking demonstrations available can be fun ways to engage your employees in their health.

Creating incentives for completing healthy goals or getting an annual physical is an easy way to inspire people to stay on top of their physical well-being. Incentives can be things like gift cards, water bottles, company-branded resistance bands, or health-related books among others. Who doesn’t like to earn a prize for a job well done?

Physical wellbeing goes far beyond diet or weight, however. Physical activity gets more blood moving to the brain, which in turn allows your employees to be more alert and gives them the ability to concentrate better. A physically healthy team is a team that will work smarter for you! A win-win for everyone involved. 

Even simple changes like encouraging your team to move throughout their day can make a big impact on their physical well-being and give them the brain boost they need throughout their day.

Don’t underestimate what caring about the physical wellbeing of your team can do to change the positive culture of your work environment.

Emotional Wellbeing

Wellness doesn’t always mean physical, however. Even if your team has healthy bodies, their minds could be suffering and you want your team to be at peak performance. Caring for the emotional needs of your team is just as vital to the success of your company. It’s important to put work-life balance programs into place.

It is important to know, however, your employees’ personalities and needs in order to ensure that they are emotionally well on the job. One excellent method to assess the personalities of your employees is by using this Assessment Tool. The information this would provide would be invaluable!

Another strategy involves considering whether you can offer flexible work hours or even work from home opportunities. There may be occasions where your employees have other life events that conflict with their ability to be in the office. Having a plan in place prior to their need can help them be less stressed by unexpected situations.

If your team doesn’t have eldercare and parental leave policies in place, it’s not too late to include them. The care for others is covered under FMLA, but that may not always be the best solution for every employee. Creating company-specific leave options can help take the emotional burden off of your employees.

Do you have an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) available? EAPs provide voluntary, work-based programs to help employees who may encounter work or personal problems in their lives that could impact their job performance. From stress management to alcohol dependency issues, offering a measure of support to your employees is a great idea.  End mental health stigmas in your workplace and offer emotional wellness tips about stress reduction on a regular basis to your whole team. You may never realize who is struggling. So, you want your office to be supportive and understanding of any mental health concerns that may come up.

The negative impact of work stress can spill over into every facet of your team’s performance. Create a culture that doesn’t demand overtime work in a high-pressure environment. This can help your team recharge in their time away from the office. Having emotionally stable employees will likely lead to effective and productive work results.

Financial Wellbeing

Many teams are inclined to focus on the emotional and physical wellbeing of their workforce. However, you should also not forget to offer your team opportunities to help their financial well-being. By providing resources for your employees to make strong financial choices you’re likely to retain them for longer.

A great way to do that is to host speakers and training opportunities for employees and their spouses on some of the major financial considerations that they may be facing. Having plans in place for budgeting, tax considerations, saving for your child’s education, saving for a new home/retirement, etc. can be helpful for financial goal setting.

Offer solutions to ease your employee’s financial stress. These can include helping them understand and explaining their financial/tax benefits. Employee newsletters and intranet sites are helpful to outline benefits such as 401(k) plan, flexible spending accounts (FSAs), and health savings accounts (HSAs).

Finances are the biggest source of stress for U.S. adults. That stress can distract your employees from doing the best work possible. Try to meet the needs of your employees with financial literacy classes either online or onsite. You can help resolve that stress creating a happier and healthier work environment.

Offering annual workshops for retirement planning help and considerations can be a great way to not only engage your employees but keep them financially secure and setting long-term financial goals. When you can put programs in place, you are showing your team that you care about their financial needs and wellbeing.

To Sum Up

Seasoned employees are extremely beneficial to the client experience.

Go beyond free coffee in the break room and offer your employees perks, programs, and benefits. You should strive to actually help reduce their stress and improve their lives. Caring for the emotional, financial, and physical wellbeing of your team are great ways to stand out from your competitors and create a supportive work environment that will attract the best talent.

As you begin to roll out new options, you could perhaps conduct a survey to see which area of wellness your team is most interested in. Creating your complete culture of wellness will take time, but it will certainly be worth it.

Steve Todd

Steve Todd, founder of Open Sourced Workplace and is a recognized thought leader in workplace strategy and the future of work. With a passion for work from anywhere, Steve has successfully implemented transformative strategies that enhance productivity and employee satisfaction. Through Open Sourced Workplace, he fosters collaboration among HR, facilities management, technology, and real estate professionals, providing valuable insights and resources. As a speaker and contributor to various publications, Steve remains dedicated to staying at the forefront of workplace innovation, helping organizations thrive in today's dynamic work environment.

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