We all have a busy life but beware that this hectic life does not have a negative effect on your physical and mental health!
Work tasks often mean long working sitting hours. But make no mistake, I am not saying that work is bad for your health. On the contrary, it is healthy but what is not is poor work conditions.
The sad reality is that too few workplaces are equipped to promote a healthy lifestyle. On top of that, stress and a too busy schedule can disturb your sleep thus leading to health issues.
Some companies have understood that health was as important as productivity, and business wellness programs are growing and are increasingly in tune with our modern lives. We are even talking culture of happiness as a form of daily working tool!
Indeed, healthier employees are happier, and happier employees are more productive, have a better team spirit, in short, they are more successful. ☺
Should you not be totally convinced, here are a few advantages to have serene employees:
- Reduced health costs.
- Lower absenteeism.
- Lower stress level.
- Better morale.
- Greater employee involvement.
- Easier recruitment even for hard-to-fill positions.
- Better staff retention.
Here are a few ideas (gleaned from readings on the subject) to improve work daily-life for everyone:
- Subscription to a gym (at a preferential rate),
- Outing outside the office among workmates, or a meal outside
- Garden office: some companies have a rooftop garden (with adjacent picnic tables) that provide fruit and veggies.
- A nap room.
- A wellness wall (billboard where anyone can pin a recipe, a gym club address, info on an upcoming show or just about anything that you can share to make people feel better).
- Telemedicine service: available 24/7 with health professionals. It provides easy and safe access to talk about mental health issues, and we all know that with the pandemic, these kinds of problems have increased.
Telemedicine can help people to be more proactive with their health issues, and can help them to answer questions about nutrition, and healthy-life habits.
In conclusion, improving the well-being within the workplace costs money (for sure), but consider it as an investment (for sure), and that this will lead to a return-on-investment just like any other. You invest on machinery maintenance, so it is time to invest in the human workforce!
You will be proud to contribute to a better, healthier, and definitely more productive workplace.
Oh, and last thing, what is good for them, is good for you too!