Gone are the days of treating employees like cogs in the wheel; today’s leading corporations know that creating a healthy and balanced environment for employees is the most direct way to attain increases in productivity and encourage employee loyalty. The following are 7 principles to consider when looking to achieve a healthy workplace for you and your employees.
1. Get employees moving – Encourage your employees to use their regular breaks to get up, stretch and even walk around. Organizing lunchtime walking groups can be a very effective idea; small meetings can also be held as peripatetics (walking conversations), when possible. If you have employees who spend a large part of the day at the computer, let them know that they should take a moment once every hour to stand up, stretch, rotate their wrists and orient their eyes on something other than the computer screen.
2. Be vocal about supporting a healthy environment – Your employees model off management behavior and look to you for cues; make sure that you are letting them know that you encourage and support active breaks and welcome suggestions about improving the health of your collective workspace.
3. Make sure that workspaces are ergonomic – Working at a desk on a computer for at least 8 hours a day can be extremely stressful on the body. Invest in ergonomic chairs, desks, and computer accessories. An upfront investment in these tools will save your organization in the long run by preventing injuries and stress and encouraging productivity.
4. provide or subsidize gym memberships – Many organizations either provide employees with memberships at a local gym or partner with a gym to provide discounted memberships to their workout facilities.
5. Offer wellness services – Depending on your company makeup and needs, you can consider either weekly, monthly or ‘special occasion’ wellness services for your employees, or even have DASHA® host an entire Wellness Day for your employees with workshops on a wide range of subjects from Cardiovascular Awareness to Alternative Medicine.
6. provide healthy, whole food choices – Whether you have an in-house kitchen or regularly cater meetings and events, make sure that you are providing employees with healthy whole food alternatives. Always have fresh, potable water available, as well, preferably through a cooler or filter system to avoid bottle waste.
7. promote a psychologically healthy workspace – Maintaining a healthy workplace also involves ensuring that employees are psychologically well-adjusted and comfortable. Clear communication up and down the in-house chain of command is an important element in this, as well as directly and openly addressing pain points as they arise.
A healthy workplace is an achievable goal for any company and its employees. For more information on DASHA®’s Corporate Wellness Programs, please click here.
