What is one simple way for you to support your employees' health and well-being?
To help you best support the health and well-being of your employees, we asked HR managers and business leaders this question for their best ideas. From making PTO mandatory to creating employee assistance programs, there are several simple ways to ensure effective support for the health and well-being of your employees.
Here are 12 simple ways to support your employees’ health and well-being:
Make Paid Time Off Mandatory and Cover Gym Expenses
Allow for a Flexible Work Schedule
Launch an Employee Wellness Program
Cultivate a Safe Workplace Void of Fear
Make Sure Employees Take Their Break
Put Psychological Safety of Employees Above Everything
Provide Access to Wellness Resources
Start a Conversation
Watch Out for Work Overload
Provide Regular Listening Ear to Your Employees
Provide Healthy Food Options
Create Employee Assistance Programs
Make Paid Time Off Mandatory and Cover Gym Expenses
Two easy ways to support an employee's health and well-being: cover the employee's gym membership dues, and mandate that the employee use their paid time off (PTO) in any given year. To incentivize employees to use their PTO time in the year granted, the company can eliminate any PTO roll over and adopt a policy that PTO has no value and the employee will not receive any compensation for unused days. Of course, make sure these policy changes satisfy any applicable federal or state law.
Robert Reder, Blythe Grace PLLC
Allow for a Flexible Work Schedule
I have been running my own company for 15 years now, and have 22 employees. I have had very few employees quit for a different job (maybe 2). In my opinion, a flexible work schedule is the most important factor in creating a happy employee. Life can be really hard if you need to be at work 8 - 5 with no exceptions. Most of my employees have children and you never know when you’re going to move around your schedule for a sick kid or an early sports game you would like to be at. I think this is super important.
We have a flexible work schedule if you put in your work hours, I am fine with employees coming in earlier to be able to live early or working late four days to not have to use a vacation day. It’s a great option to have and I understand not all businesses can do this, but it works great for my business.
Evan McCarthy, SportingSmiles
Launch an Employee Wellness Program
Launch a wellness program that encourages employees to make healthy choices. You can offer rewards (monetary or otherwise) as employees participate in qualifying healthy activities - like tracking their daily steps or participating in a community 5k run. Employee wellness programs are a great way for businesses to show they care about fostering a culture of wellness in the workplace.
Jae Pak, Jae Pak MD Medical
Cultivate a Safe Workplace Void of Fear
Simple, effective, and practically effortless. Make sure your employees know they can reach out to you when necessary. Do so by informing and giving them the tools and space when it comes to your timeframe.
Don't stop there. For employees to feel like they can voice their concerns, requests, and feelings regarding work and the workplace, you need to let them know that their voice is important. This combats the enemy of workplace wellbeing - fear. They should be able to have alternative ways of being heard: either directly to you or through HR, with ensured discretion or anonymity, in person or through a communication channel.
To take it a step further, use body language or positive reinforcement when employees come forward with issues they'd like to discuss. Focus on developing the art of giving positive feedback and constructive criticism. This will ensure an open environment that automatically supports your employees' health and wellbeing in multiple facets. A spillover effect.
Nicole Ostrowska, Zety
Make Sure Employees Take Their Break
Don't let employees work more than they need to. Make sure employees take their breaks during the day so that they can have a chance to recharge and refocus. You can even do an office lunch once or twice a week as an incentive for workers to take a break. While missing a few lunch breaks might not be the worst thing, it's important to enforce good health habits, if you want your employees to work at their best. If someone is skipping too many lunch breaks, it's a good idea to remind them to take them properly, even if you need to shoo them out of the office. Proper rest is a big part of physical and mental health. Making sure your employees take their breaks helps keep your office working at peak efficiency.
Caleb Ulffers, Haven Athletic
Put Psychological Safety of Employees Above Everything
Our startup is implementing several measures to support employee health and well-being in our remote workplace. Both of our female founders refer to themselves as “recovering corporate slaves,” having endured varied forms of corporate abuse in their former careers.
For that reason, we are building a different kind of organization with an employee-first approach where psychological safety comes first. This includes collaborative educational onboarding–engaging new employees to question and improve the training modules as they progress through them; creative cultural development – game nights and open ideation sessions; employee development–hosting mindfulness, meditation, dispute-resolution, and mediation training; professional development – performance coach available for one-to-one coaching and team training; and community engagement opportunities - PTO for quarterly volunteer work. We are building a healthy work culture by investing in every step of the long-term employee journey.
Lindsay Hischebett, Flaus
Provide Access to Wellness Resources
Building a culture of good health really comes down to creating awareness and equipping your employees with everything they need to take matters into their own hands. Simple gestures like providing access to wellness seminars, yoga sessions, additional days off and corporate health insurance, push your employees towards becoming more mindful of their well-being and encourage them to make the most out of the benefits available to them.
Marc Roca, 4WD Life
Start a Conversation
Work anxiety and stress can lead to burnout and impact the employee outside of the workplace, so it’s critical for companies to invest monthly in open communication and resources for mental health and employee well-being. Businesses can best start a conversation by holding mental health seminars, spreading awareness through internal platforms, and offering additional support in their employee benefits package. Something as simple as a mental health day can be extremely beneficial for employees, and companies should encourage staff to take them.
Christy Pyrz, Paradigm Peptides
Watch Out for Work Overload
There is no use talking about health and wellbeing, promoting healthy habits, or even offering wellness benefits if you don't manage your employees' workload in the first place. If you care about the health and wellbeing of your staff, recognize the mental health implications related to overload and try to prevent it. Having too much to do in insufficient time makes employees feel stressed and frustrated. They don't consider enjoying work culture or mental health apps and courses in such an anxious state.
So, the best thing you can do to support your employees is to assign a realistic amount of work to be done and adjust it on an ongoing basis. Don't put pressure on them. Instead, ask how you can help, and for sure and extend deadlines. Taking care of a reasonable workload will provide far better results than providing and encouraging employees to use other health and wellbeing programs. In fact, it is the workload that provides the basis for enjoying additional benefits.
Nina Paczka, Resume Now
Provide Regular Listening Ear to Your Employees
Have a quick chat with your employee and ask how life has been. As simple as listening to employees' rants go a long mile as it helps them vent out their baggage and, in turn, ease their mental load. Through this, employees would know that someone still has the heart to listen to them and someone cares enough to know what's going on in their life which, in turn, helps them cope up. While being a listener doesn't necessarily provide answers to their problems, employees sometimes just want to feel listened to. Being a listener speaks a thousand words.
Sam Browne, HARO SEO
Provide Healthy Food Options
Provide healthy food options! If you eat better you feel better, simple as that. Ensure that your employees have access to healthy snacks and meals. While many employees may turn to fast food because it's cheaper and easier to get, in the long run it's detrimental for their overall health. Make sure that the company's culture encourages a balanced diet and emphasizes the importance of eating food filled with nutrients.
Soji James, 1AND1 Life
Create Employee Assistance Programs
Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) are designed to help employees deal with personal issues that may impact their work performance. These programs can provide confidential counseling, support groups, and referral services.
Many employers offer EAPs as part of their benefits package, and they can be a valuable resource for employees. However, it is important to remember that EAPs are not a substitute for professional mental health care. If an employee is dealing with a serious mental health issue, they should be encouraged to seek help from a qualified mental health provider. EAPs can be a helpful tool for supporting employee wellbeing, but they should not be relied upon as the sole source of support.
Divya Karthik, Plumbers Nearby
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