National Workplace Wellbeing Day #WorkWell21 is a day employers should use to reflect on 2020 and the sacrifices their staff may have made to help their businesses throughout the year. It’s likely staff are feeling stressed from the upheaval of Covid 19 on their working and personal lives.
With little investment the wellness of your employees can have significant results. Wellness doesn’t need to be expensive to be effective. The benefits far exceed the cost. For example:
Motivation and Production Increases
A healthy employee can perform better physically with higher energy levels. They are also more efficient and focused.
Wellness of your employees can have significant results, it doesn’t need to be expensive to be effective
Brings teams together and builds morale
A team that builds camaraderie by engaging in wellness actives both inside and outside the work place are more likely to have better project engagement and common goals. In this current climate this may mean steps challenges or virtual 10Ks to incentivise team to get fresh air and create a team like environment. A prize or charity donation could be offered to the winning team.
Decreases work-related stress
A happier employee enjoying increased fitness and healthy eating can reduce stress, if possible a company can implement mindfulness and meditation, this will also help people with focusing on tasks.
With the implementation of the above points your company should see noticeable jumps in staff retention, productivity and employees who enjoy the work they do in the environment they are in.
How to get started with workplace wellness goals
Getting staff on-board can be the biggest barrier, that’s why it is so important to explain the benefits that they themselves will get out of wellness initiatives. If staff don’t engage with wellness programmes then they just won’t work. We suggest slowly introducing wellness initiatives into their work day. This could be something as simple as introducing free fresh fruit to all staff in the canteen or a slightly more drastic approach of eliminating/reducing vending machines or sugary content in vending machines.
Research shows that when people are constantly interrupted by phone calls, checking their emails and jumping from task to task they become less productive. Single-Task Focus instead of Multitasking has been proven to be a more productive manner to get jobs done. Also, encouraging people to get away from their desks every now and then will ensure that they come back refreshed and refocused. This means introducing sit/stand desks so that staff are not sitting all day and taking regular breaks.
For a sustainable and balanced initiative its best to start small, why not try the following:
Walking Meetings:
A healthy alternative to being stuck in a boardroom is to allocate time and people to walking meetings. Getting outside and discussing weekly sales projections, marketing strategies and production meetings is a fantastic way to get some fresh air into your system while also getting exercise. Taking staff out of a typical meeting room can also help the flow of ideas as we step away from what is seen as a conventional meeting area and are in a less formal setting where people can be more open.
Walking to work and bike to work schemes:
Do you live in a walkable distance to work? Try mixing public transport and walking as a means to getting to work instead of sitting in endless ques of traffic. The Bike to Work Scheme is a tax incentive scheme to encourage employees to cycle to work. Employees repay the cost in regular instalments from their gross salary.
You are not liable for tax, PRSI or the Universal Social Charge on your repayments. In short, it means you can get a mid to high end bike for a lot less.
On-site yoga classes for stress relief
This is an option for larger companies. But the benefits can be incredible for fitness and mindfulness.
After you have a number of functioning wellness initiatives, survey your employees to find out what is and isn’t working. Different initiatives will work for different company sizes and abilities so it’s best to try multiple approaches and not to expect everything to work. The feedback will be beneficial for adapting your wellbeing programme in the future.
Achieve workplace wellness through ergonomics
Stop putting your health at risk, get off the kitchen table and surround yourself with ergonomic solutions. Your back will thank us for it.
Lower your risk of heart disease weight gain and obesity
Weight gain is ultimately caused by taking in more calories than you burn, exercise is the most effective way to burn calories quickly, but simply choosing to stand instead of sitting can also be beneficial.
In fact, when compared to an afternoon of sedentary (sitting) work, an equal amount of time spent standing has been shown to burn over 170 additional calories. That’s almost 1000 extra calories burned each week from simply changing your work style and standing for portions of the work day.
This caloric difference could be one of the reasons why sitting longer is so strongly linked to obesity and metabolic disease.
Scientists have developed a much greater understanding of the effects of sitting on heart health, with prolonged sedentary time thought to increase the risk of heart disease by up to 147%. Undoing the damage of a sedentary workday would require over an hour of intense gym work in order to see benefits.
There is no doubt that spending more time on your feet is beneficial for heart health.
Wellness Rooms
A great example of workplace wellness is the Engine Lease Finance Wellness Room at their Shannon, Co. Clare headquarters.
The client wanted to utilize this bright airy space for employees’ wellbeing activities. M2 Office Interiors were tasked with creating meditation booths, yoga practice area and a relaxation zone. Furniture type & colour was chosen for comfort and in bright colours to create a fun environment. The whole focus of this area was to create a space where staff can destress and refocus in order to maximise their potential while giving them the health and wellbeing support they need.
Ergonomic Chairs
The Diffrient World chair has just two manual settings—one each for seat height and seat depth. All other fittings and adjustments are automatic. We highly recommend seeing the chair in action for yourself as text simply doesn’t do the mechanical achievement justice.
With its weight-sensitive recline, the Diffrient World chair automatically supports every user at every recline position. And its Form-Sensing Mesh Technology provides tailor-made lumbar support without the need for external devices or manual controls. In short, the chair will use your own body to achieve effortless ergonomic comfort every time you sit down.
Monitor Arms
Monitor arms and mounts clear up clutter on the workspace to improve comfort, health, and productivity. Stop straining your body to adapt to your screen position, have it be flexible and move to its best possible ergonomic status.
The M2 Monitor arms design team’s award-winning innovations are backed by their thorough research into workplace trends and by working closely with Humanscale’s inhouse team of ergonomics consultants.
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