Employee Wellness Programs at Low-Cost

The whole world is going through the worst of times right now. The pandemic has shown us that the most important thing is good health. The impact of Coronavirus has bought us down to our knees. Whether we talk about small business owners or well-settled companies, every day we are trying to get back up on our feet. An employee cannot keep on working until and unless he/she is fit and healthy. So, to keep the workforce healthy there are several low-cost employee wellness program ideas apart from the group health insurance policies that can help the employers.

You can put together a wellness program for your employees at a low-cost. Here is a list of those 10 wellness programs for your workplace to keep your company running.

Encourage Plantation at Workstation

Plants are life. Keeping plants at your workstation can contribute to wellness and create a positive environment. Everybody knows that plants produce oxygen and eliminate toxic air as well as boost our mood just by looking at them. Their greenery refreshes our minds and increases the positive energy. Also, plants help reduce stress at an enormous level and lower blood pressure.

Encouraging plantation at the workstation can contribute to the wellbeing of the employees. Employers can also give plants as a gift to the employees on their birthdays and the managers can help their subordinates to take care of those plants by watering them or at least motivate them now and then. You can always check online for some of the low-maintenance plants for indoor environments. Also, plants can make your workstation look cooler than ever.

Organize Sporting Events

A human body is made for constant movement but the daily work regime makes employees keep sitting more than usual and that have a negative effect on their health. Employers should encourage their employees to keep having breaks during their work. They should encourage employees to have small walks after every half an hour of constant sitting.

Apart from this, organizing sporting events like cricket, football matches, organizing biking group events, organizing 5k, 10k or half marathon as well as health habit-building challenges like drinking more water, eat healthy meals and quit smoking, etc. Instead of just providing group health insurance policies employers can involve their employees at these kinds of sporting and health habit-building events can create a healthy and positive working environment.

Group Therapy Sessions

Group therapy sessions are one of the most effective ways to support the mental health of the employees. According to some researches, having group therapy sessions about mental health can really help employees be free in their minds. We usually don’t know what is going on in a person’s life until and unless that person talks about it. He/she just keeps on thinking about it and stays in some kind of dilemma that affects their mental health negatively.

Having a weekly or monthly session where employees can talk about how they are feeling and how are they dealing with something stressful for them can improve their mental health and wellbeing. Talking is an effective way and it can release a whole lot of tension and stress out of one’s brain. Because we are humans and we do need at least one person to listen and take all the toxicity out of our brain. Although it might not solve the whole problem but can be a great first step to help people get better and feel less alone.

Create Book Club

There are many benefits of reading. Every time we read a book we learn something new. It increases our knowledge, creativity, enhances brain activity and expands our attention to detail. Creating a book club of employees can help their overall well-being. Usually, not everyone likes to read but there is no harm in listening to the ones who like to read.

So what managers and team leaders can do is that they can create a book club with the people who like to read and then decide to read one book related to healthy-lifestyle at a time and then organize a monthly meet where every one can join. Now in that meeting, readers can talk and share the things that they got to learn from reading that book and discuss over important points and the people who do not like to read can at least listen to them. This is how everyone can gain knowledge related to a healthy lifestyle.

Conclusion

There are plenty of ways that would not cost much to keep your employees well-being as a priority. Employers can organize these kinds of healthy practices that can help their employees beyond imagination. These kinds of activities help an employee focus more and make them realize that their employer not only expects them to work hard but also think about taking care of their mental health as well as physical well-being. Offering group health insurance is one thing but putting in regular efforts to make your employee’s life better every day is something that counts.