The advent of coronavirus made employers conscious about the well-being – both mental and physical – of their workers. Since a healthier environment promotes productivity in the workplace and enhances your employees’ efficiency, adopting effective healthcare measures is crucial. Companies have always experimented with different tactics to raise awareness regarding lifestyle diseases among the staff. These strategies include hiring trainers, organizing “group walks,” advocating healthy practices via posters, or demonstrating the importance of quitting adverse habits such as smoking. But even these incentives have failed to promote a healthy approach among workers. That’s why the modern industry implements the following techniques to endorse health in the office:
Ways to promote health in the workplace
1. Get up and move
You can’t promote a healthy attitude among your employees without preventing them from unhealthy habits and harmful practices. A sedentary lifestyle threatens the physical well-being of millions of people in the world. Hence, it is best not to promote long sitting hours on work desks in the company. Instead, motivate them to do desk exercises and simple stretches after every hour. If they find this little exercise embarrassing, just ask them to move around a little and take a short walk from time to time.
2. Educate your employees
Education remains one of the most important methods of convincing your employees to change their inaccurate healthcare assumptions. Some companies organize webinars while others invite a guest speaker to discuss our society’s rising health issues. It often pays to fund an employee’s academic endeavors. Employers can also consider sponsoring workers wishing to join an MPH online program to gain pioneering insights into healthcare.
Since pedagogy provides tools, your employees would need to acquire a better approach toward their nutritional requirements. Experts believe that education eliminates all grains of ignorance, hindering your staff’s overall health. Check out where you can buy corporate prepaid cards that you can give to employees.
3. Look for the signs of burnout
An employee shouldn’t be the only person responsible for his/her healthcare. Employees must also watch out for signs of mental/physical distress in a worker. Since, as a manager, you have to ensure the staff’s well-being. You can’t motivate workers to adopt a health-friendly approach without learning to identify symptoms of burnout. Most employees are often reluctant to admit that they’re on the verge of mental exhaustion. Statistics show that over three-fourths of people have suffered burnouts during their current employment. So, managers should look for the signs, including more errors and absenteeism.
4. Offer on-site workout facilities
Many companies worldwide have begun offering training and exercise programs to promote a healthy lifestyle among their employees. Since these programs directly influence that part of your brain that controls stress and anxiety. Moreover, meditation and mindfulness techniques enable workers to control their emotions and focus on their well-being. Then we have weight-loss courses and nutrition counseling sessions offered by the company. These initiatives facilitate workers in maintaining a work-life balance. Don’t forget that this balance leads to your employees gaining better awareness regarding their healthcare, and it also helps them abandon harmful practices.
5. Make downtime a must
Humans can’t operate like machines and require intervals of relaxation during work hours. People suffering from distress and fatigue are more vulnerable to falling behind everyone when forced to work assiduously. Persistence kills a person’s enthusiasm and decreases motivation to work. So, managers can announce a mandatory downtime for employees to improve and rebuild their stamina. They can refurbish their appetite, pick up on their workout schedules, or enjoy brief power naps during the hiatus. Studies have shown that mandatory downtimes enhance your employees’ productivity and are crucial to positive workplace culture.
6. Improve your “sick day” policy
Remember that employees can’t consider a better approach toward health unless their managers take some initiative. A study conducted in 2019 revealed that 90% of workers came to work when diseased. You can’t expect these bed-ridden employees to display maximum productivity especially when they’re limited to a few sick days. These restrictions bring a toxic culture inside the workplace, thereby compelling workers to disregard their well-being.
You can’t risk your staff showing up while afflicted with a contagious disease. Companies such as Netflix have even offered unlimited vacations to their workers. Such incentives can change your employers’ perspective on health.
7. Offer healthy food options
A typical office cafeteria includes sugary drinks and processed food. You can’t make your workers prioritize their well-being without providing alternatives to an unhealthy diet. Some companies even offer employees gift cards and discount coupons to healthy lunchtime opportunities. These tactics encourage people to prefer the consumption of green, nutritious, and protein-rich food.
You can even motivate them to bring homemade lunch since it tends to be more nutrition-friendly. Encourage employees to take your healthcare recommendations seriously. As a manager, it’s your responsibility to lead by example and not contradict what you preach.
8. Work efficiently, not untiringly
The traditional office settings manipulate people into thinking that productivity arises from working unstintingly without allowing your body even a second’s rest. Don’t let your employers fall victim to such toxic misconceptions. The British have longer working hours but are still less productive than other European nations. Mental health experts believe that longer hours make your employees anxious, depressed, and irritable. So, teach your employees to work efficiently for better quality.
Epilogue
Industries have started addressing mental health issues since the outbreak of COVID-19 via meditation and mindfulness courses. A recent study shows that over 80% of American companies increased their investment in mental health and stress management programs. These programs revolve around the most important factor necessary to change the way your employees approach health, i.e., education.
Just constant learning will encourage the workers to change their lifestyles and make healthier choices. These tactics ensure your staff’s well-being and prevent illnesses from hampering their overall productivity.
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