The organizers can make virtual house calls, via Zoom consultations and advise employees on how to best optimize their space. While nearly all organizations (92%) communicated with their employees about well-being more in 2020 than in 2019, many employees still dont know about the programs that their organizations offer. Establish a baseline by surveying employees before you launch new programs, and be sure to implement tools for measuring progress, such as further employee surveys and focus groups. Workplace Wellness Activities: 16 Ways to Support Employee - Terryberry In fact, despite the fact that most organizations implemented cost-saving measures last year, the same survey revealed that 46% of organizations increased their 2020 well-being budgets relative to 2019, while 64% of organizations introduced a new well-being offering in 2020. Some of the factors that contribute to poor workplace mental health include: The above factors contribute to poor negative health in the workplace, compounding the effects of stress on employees. Words matter. At the same time, the stigma associated with mental illness may act as a barrier for adults to start a conversation with someone theyre concerned about or seek help. Given the impact the pandemic has had on employees, many organizations were prompted to examine the support they provide to them. You can include the puzzles in team emails and Slack threads, or pose problems as an icebreaker in virtual meetings. Its easy for students to play, and just as easy for teachers or parents to join in! Virtual yoga classes. 15 Best Employee Wellness Activities Workers Must Practice - Vantage Fit Increase employee understanding of well-being needs and offerings. To run your program, first ask for mentor volunteers, and then accept sign-ups from mentees. Examples might include gourmet marshmallows, an hour at the batting cage, or a set of fake moustaches. This includes our employee application and employer portal. Online buddies can send each other inspiring quotes, funny gifs, online game challenges, interesting articles, and can meet up for casual conversation or virtual bonding time. Workplace Wellbeing: 50 Ideas for Healthier and Happier Employees One analysis revealed that MHFA increases mental health knowledge, decreases negative attitudes, and increases supportive behaviors toward individuals with mental health problems. New research identifies 3 strategies organizations can take to engage employees. First, you're removing the hurdle of scheduling doctor's appointments and taking time off work for a physical exam. Creating a mental health program at work can be challenging and should be guided by, include workplace mental well-being as one of the core, Employee Wellness Programs for Workplace Mental Health, Invest in workplace mental well-being with a. Emily Rodgers is a professional content writer and editor specializing in health and wellness products and services. Many enterprises, SMEs and startups have taken steps to curate better mental health wellbeing for their employees. 12 Employee Wellness Initiatives That Actually Help - Forbes These sessions can fill in the gap between virtual one on one meetings. Simply make a Slack channel or an always-on video meeting room where remote employees can go to play games with colleagues. Offering small rewards like digital Starbucks cards or virtual high fives from the boss encourages participation. Emotional Wellness Toolkit. Another way to improve remote employee wellness is through virtual yoga sessions. Managers can spur conversation by occasionally commenting within the feed. For suggestions, check out our list of Slack games or ideas for virtual game night. Emotional Wellness Toolkit | National Institutes of Health (NIH) Every month, give participants a reading assignment. When youre off the clock, lead by example. For example, one study examining a British anti-stigma campaign found that people who were more familiar with the campaign were more likely to feel comfortable disclosing mental health issues to family, friends, or an employer, and were also more likely to seek professional help (Henderson et al., 2017). For extra fun, award prizes for certain amounts of steps. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(25331198, 'f7ec87a3-e1d6-490b-9b96-890616f9fa3a', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"eu1"}); There are many known ways to engage employees, including through various wellness activities for mental health that are both mood-boosting and stress-reducing. 12 Wellbeing Activities for Team Meetings | Perkbox Do you know someone who is? Learn more about creating friendships at the office. You can offer a more significant reward to the teammate with the most impressive results. 10 Examples of Emotional Wellness Activities at Work. You can start by using inclusive terminology. Digital coworking hours helps to eliminate remote work-induced isolation. Or, you could make your own company meditation portal and have folks upload calming pictures, music, and audio meditations. To keep remote employees skills sharp and careers thriving, provide coaching as part of the wellness program. Battle of the Elements is one of the most fun remote wellness games. This Daily Mood Tracker was developed for people dealing with anger management issues but can be helpful for anyone who wants to track their mood. Employee resource groups (ERG) create a space for underrepresented employees to find one another, share common experiences, and seek advice. Remote workers often report feeling lonely, and so do members of underrepresented groups. To attain this objective, mental wellness activities can be conducted. Examining the effects of thought records and behavioral experiments in instigating belief change. Check out our list of positive quotes for work. The object should not serve a practical purpose. This includes evaluating your EAP providers to verify they follow best practices and draw on current research. Leveling up: Supporting employees' psychological well-being for maximum Represented as a colorful pie, it can be an excellent tool for psychotherapy clients who have difficulty articulating or expressing their feelings. To host a health fair virtually, plan a series of web sessions and virtual activities related to health and medical topics. Here is a list of the best office pets, and this one has ideas for bring your dog to work day. 11. At the end of each workday or workweek, ask participants to upload photos or video clips of clean desks to a channel or form. AI-driven survey tools can guide your employees to appropriate resources for their unique scenarios. 67% of employees who work for organizations with wellness programs like their jobs more and this same percentage is extremely or very likely to recommend their employer to others. Leading organizations are personalizing well-being programs to make the relevance of well-being offerings clear to employees. Written by a mental health associate and a social worker, this book aims to help people recognize mental health crises in the people around them. At the end of the challenge, you can award a larger prize to the teammate with the most clean desk pictures. Despite this, increasing mental health awareness is crucial as it can have many positive outcomes. Yoga has known benefits for mental well-being by combining mindfulness and, Gratitude is an instant mood-booster and can help create a better team atmosphere. Mental Illness First Aid Certification. Or, you can ask for pictures of clean desks at random intervals, which incentivizes employees to keep desks clean consistently. Why Do We Need Mental Health Awareness in the Workplace? Hagen, I., & Nayar, U. S. (2014). Productivity is more complex than logging as many hours as possible. We have 30+ experiences to choose from, and thousands of five star reviews. These science-based exercises will explore fundamental aspects of positive psychology including strengths, values and self-compassion and will give you the tools to enhance the mental health of your clients, students or employees. Nurturing an understanding of mental health from a young age can be done with these great reads. Wellness Incentives: How to Create Impactful Programs - AIHR 1. One of the easiest free virtual wellness activities is to share motivational quotes with employees. As a result, remote workers tend to clock less steps than their in-office counterparts. 13 Top Mental Wellness Activities for the Workplace Or, you could create a channel where employees can post and react to quotes. Many employers host health fairs for staff, and virtual offices can join this tradition. Taking a break to stretch or perform yoga helps encourage remote employees to move and refocus throughout the day. Virtual Buddy Systems are a sort of online pen pal program. this was fantastic, it was great reading what people thought and getting new ideas. Additionally, employee apathystymies participation by reducing motivation to act. Having health insurance plans that cover counseling, lifestyle coaching, and other self-management programs can also contribute to better overall mental well-being in the workplace. 10 Wellness Ideas and Activities for Remote Employees 6. Mashreq, one of the United Arab Emirates best performing banks and a leading financial institution in the Middle East, encourages employees to self-assess their well-being across six dimensions, such as family well-being and financial well-being, and to make their goals explicit. In theory, the absence of a commute gives employees more time to cook healthy meals. Once a month, hold traveling meetings. achieving employee wellbeing employee wellness fun wellness activities team wellness activities wellness activities. Therefore, the first step is foundational HR must increase employees awareness and knowledge of employer-provided well-being efforts. 3. Some experts say that sharing messaging that explains we all have unconscious biases helps learners to avoid becoming defensive and rejecting the training. Remote employees do not have to worry about the temptations of cake in the breakroom or impromptu lunches out. Offer your team information, resources, and tips on how to manage and optimize mental health, including providing advice from trained experts. Stress reduction workshops: Stress management is a critical skill for workers to have today. Have you thought about integrating tapping to your clinical toolbox? Sleep is vital to our physical, mental, and emotional well-being. This way, it is more likely that someone will find a group full of people who only want to help. These costs build upon the effects of unaddressed mental health challenges on employee productivity and performance. 18 Virtual Team Stress Relief Ideas & Activities for Work Offering MHFA training to all employees equips your entire organization with mental health knowledge and fosters empathy and understanding. Progressive organizations are tapping senior leaders to share their own experiences with personal well-being and how the organizations offerings have helped them. Home office work does not involve commuting, conference rooms, lunch runs, or trips to officemates cubicles. Virtual offices can achieve the same results by building an online game lounge. Further, at organizations that provide holistic well-being programs employees physical, financial and mental wellness improves, on average, by 7-percentage points. Some employees may be reluctant to use this resource due to fear of stigma, shame, and lack of understanding about how these . Sometimes, the best thing for someone struggling with mental health issues is the ability to reach out to someone who will understand them. It is critical that managers feel empowered to discuss personal well-being topics with their team to let employees know that it is okay to not be okay. This book is an excellent way to gain some insight into the world of Aspergers syndrome and may help the reader better understand someone in their life who deals with Aspergers syndrome. Next, check out our guide to employee benefits software, this one on 4-day workweeks and this one with HR management books. Survival skills and first aid Zoom classes, Information sessions about employee benefits, Online company store with healthy products. Teammates do not need to be silent for the full time, and can exchange banter and ask each other questions. For extra incentive, award victorious participants with a prize such as a complimentary meal, virtual party, or a digital badge. 5. Scan the final product and send all participants a digital copy. To help your remote team get their animal fixes, schedule recurring digital pet therapy. We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Be aware of unconscious bias in your organization and educate your entire team in the importance of EDI initiatives. This content is disabled due to your privacy settings. Mental wellness is about balancing work and personal life. The author suggests three strategies to boost employee participation in these programs and maximize their investment in employee well-being: 1) Increase employee understanding of well-being needs and offerings, 2) Reduce well-being stigma and apathy, and 3) Reduce the time and effort needed to participate in well-being programs. In the long-term these programs can result in improved employee morale, lower absenteeism and employee turnover, greater productivity, and decreased insurance and liability costs. Here are ideas for online lunch and learns. Here are five steps you can take to improve employee mental health beyond table stakesor the minimum offeringfor the good of your people and your organization. Beginning or end of day self-care rituals. You can negotiate a discounted rate for employees, or offer every teammate a complimentary introductory session. Sending out a regular bulletin is one of the top. Exercise is great for physical and mental health, and can also help reduce stress. Mental health tips bulletin: Sending out a regular bulletin is one of the top mental health awareness activities at work. Recognizing that employees were either not taking vacation days or working while on vacation, AMD created a new kind of benefit: global recharge days. Then, coordinate a day to make complete activities together. Find out more about the revolutionary technology we use to transform businesses around the world. 4. With Zoom happy hours, there is no need to worry about the noise level in the pub or coordinating a ride home afterwards. This is a great book for someone who wants to understand more about mental health issues in themselves or others. Here is a list of ways to motivate remote workers. Occupational health and safety You could provide a stipend for employees to put towards the philanthropy of their choosing, or offer to match any charitable donations up to a certain amount. If one half of the pair leaves the company or opts out of the activity, then be sure to re-match the remaining participant. Virtual wellness retreats consist of online workshops, webinars, and classes. We recommend setting the app on one week intervals, but you could assign matches more or less frequently. 2, 2016). This book is an excellent resource for children with ADHD to learn more about themselves and strategies they can use every day to focus. Make a team scrapbook by asking each teammate to create a page and mail it to the manager. Here are examples of what the program might cover: The logic behind this approach is to offer a generous sum for a significant purchase. Midday self-care time 8. It can be painting, music, writing, etc. 3.11 Health Cooking Club. Keep channels of both bottom-up and top-down communication open, whether via email, Slack, or Microsoft Teams, ongoing staff conversations with leadership, and/or an employee intranet, and create channels for your managers to regularly share feedback. Over time, these practices can result in higher productivity, employee engagement, and retention rates and lower absenteeism, turnover, and insurance costs. Making it easy to access mental health resources is another. One of the best virtual employee wellness program ideas is to give staff access to online employee resource groups. With structures and support networks already in place, many mental health experts view the workplace as the optimal setting for building a culture of mental wellness. Office field trip: Employees love to get out of the office every once in a while. This could be a valuable supplement to a psychotherapist-led CBT treatment, but could also help people teach themselves about CBT. Even if you don't think you have the resources to address mental health now, you may be dealing with mental health-related absenteeism in the meantime. This book illustrates how horribly mental health patients were treated in the late 1800s, but can also cause the reader to think about how society treats mental health issues today. Among them is the improvement of employee social well-being. By addressing mental health in the workplace, organizations can help curb harmful levels of stress and create a positive and supportive work environment. Many employees dont seek well-being support due to fear of being stigmatized, particularly when it comes to mental and emotional health. Once you set a time for the meeting, send invitations with the virtual meeting link. If you would rather not assemble and mail the packages by hand, then you can order an assortment online, like this vegan snack box from Amazon. However, while research shows EAP services can successfully improve a range of employee issues associated with lower productivity, a low percentage of employees use them. This resource is available publicly to all organizations. Yoga is a form of exercise that also doubles as stress relief and meditation. Team building content expert. Unused EAP services can be costly to both workers and organizations. Mobile massage day: What better way to release mental tension than with a relaxing massage? Track your employees' progress and discover how mental wellness exercises can lead to improvements in custom metrics, like productivity, engagement, retention, and more. The Feeling Wheel is a simple printout with 72 feelings sorted into 6 groups: angry, sad, scared, joyful, peaceful, and powerful. At the end of the challenge, give a prize to the employees who complete the full run. With any occupational health intervention, good evaluation design is as important as the right strategies. Fortunately, there are all sorts of ways to learn about mental health issues, whether one is an introvert, an extrovert, or somewhere in between. 13 Fun Workplace Wellness Challenge Ideas Your Employees Will Enjoy Dr. Steve Aldana Last updated Jan 24, 2023 2435 Views 3 1 Comment Many of us are familiar with how a wellness program works. download our three Positive Psychology Exercises for free, 5 Mental Health Worksheets & Awareness Activities (PDF), 5 Most Popular Childrens Books About Mental Health, World Mental Health Day Ideas for Schools and Workplaces, 18 Mindfulness Games, Worksheets and Activities for Kids. Start a 30-day office gratitude, What better way to release mental tension than with a relaxing massage? Next, establish a budget and speak to your executives and HR department about instituting the program. Someone looking for a Facebook group to discuss mental health should try joining one of these: This is a support group for adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or attention deficit disorder (ADD). Overall, the day represents a valuable opportunity to start a dialog about mental health with others in your life. You can start by using inclusive terminology. Wellness items giveaway contest: Run a 30-day office challenge and reward the winners with mental wellness prizes. Members can read recent bestsellers or personal favorites instead. The results inform a personal well-being action plan that employees are asked to hold themselves accountable to by using the organizations well-being resources. 6 Key elements in creating successful wellness incentives What is a wellness incentive? Emotional Freedom Techniques, or EFT tapping, uses the self-stimulation of acupuncture points through tapping to [], Mental health is an integral component of maintaining good overall health. Mental health is just as important as physical health. Not only will the organizers help clean up the clutter, they will also teach staff skills and develop systems to maintain order. Taking a multifaceted approach that engages employees across your organization reaffirms your organizations commitment to EDI while supporting employee well-being. According to Harvard Health, volunteering can boost both mental and physical health. By offering a robust virtual employee wellness program, you communicate that you care about your remote staff and give your workers the tools and resources to live a more well-balanced and beneficial lifestyle. For suggestions, check out our list of online volunteering ideas and these employee volunteer programs. Healthy Living Credits is a program teambuilding.com uses to help remote staff practice self-care. Taking care of our health and wellbeing is more important than ever. To capture employees attention in todays information-rich world, communications must be credible and appealing in order to standout. The purpose of these programs is to decrease absence and liability and increase worker health and happiness. First, choose a cause as a team. Remote employees have less opportunities to mingle and develop natural rapport with colleagues. Before you read on, we thought you might like to download our three Positive Psychology Exercises for free. Celebrate ongoing random acts of kindness at work by posting about them in a staff newsletter or sharing acts of kindness in meetings. During virtual happy hours, colleagues meet up on video conference software, sip drinks, play games, and wind down from the workday or workweek together. Nudges may take the form of an ongoingwell-being competition such as a steps challenge in which employees can see their progress compared to their peers in real time and are rewarded for reaching certain milestones. Use multiple methods to communicate to employees what services the EAP provides, what topics EAP professionals can cover (i.e., stress, mental health, finances, family issues), and that EAP services are available and confidential. How you feel can affect your ability to carry out everyday activities, your relationships, and your overall mental health. Bly spent 10 days in the asylum, during which she uncovered the horrific conditions that patients were subjected to, causing the city and the country to reevaluate how they treated the mentally ill. While it aims to raise awareness about the importance of positive coping strategies, it can also be a great way for students to bond with one another and discover new, healthy ways to look after their mental health.. To play, students require a copy of each sheet and a pencil, and each Bingo square worksheet contains 22 positive coping mechanisms that are related to maintaining good mental health. 101, No. Learn how to boost employee wellness with these top activities for mental health at work. Physical environment contributes to health. Research has proven that being physically fit plays a major role in streamlining mental health, so spur the employee . This is a support group for people with bipolar disorder, people who know someone with bipolar disorder, or people who want to learn more about bipolar disorder. This list includes: virtual stress management group activities for adults; stress management games for online employees To re-enable, please adjust your cookie preferences. Healthy meal subscriptions are a great alternative. When the class begins, staff meet via video call and workout together. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(25331198, '189c6106-ddde-4c7d-bdbf-aa1284c3ff5e', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"eu1"}); hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(25331198, '2d60f445-1d8f-4709-a37a-87dec80fb1e8', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"eu1"}); Originally published August 31, 2022 - 8:28 AM, updated October 16, 2022. Exercise together 4. Whether its a subscription to a mediation app or a day at the spa, give your employees the gift of mental relaxation. Outdoor workspaces: Create dedicated outdoor workspaces that employees can use for creative or collaborative work. If you integrate virtual meeting platforms like Zoom or Google Meet and grant Slack access to virtual calendars, then Donut will propose times and set up the call with the click of a button. Learn how to boost employee wellness with these top activities for mental health at work. A change of setting, along with fresh air, can help ignite new inspiration. For instance, you could meet up on Zoom to write letters to troops, tutor school children, lead a community workshop, or video chat with nursing home residents. This book details investigative reporter Nellie Blys expos of a New York City insane asylum in the late 1800s. Henderson, C., Robinson, E., Evans-Lacko, S., Thornicroft, G. (2017). A healthy workforce is a . One tactic that progressive organizations are employing is empowering trusted employees to communicate the importance and normalcy of seeking support. To reach time- or energy-constrained employees, progressive organizations have adopted default enrollment in certain offerings to prevent inertia. According to Gartners 2020 Well-Being Benchmarking Survey, over three quarters of the 77 U.S. organizations surveyed reported that supporting employee well-being increased in importance in 2020. With the right, Unclear job duties and limited control over ones job role, Impacting teamwork and communication with co-workers, Increasing risks of illness and disability, Workplaces that strive to support and improve employee mental well-being may find they have a more cohesive, creative team, resulting in lower turnover and higher, Encourage employees to schedule short mindfulness breaks throughout the day, in addition to standard.
