While the word “wellness” seems to be everywhere lately, it’s often unclear exactly what the term means. Everyone seems to agree that wellness is important and deserves attention, but how exactly do you know if you’re improving workplace wellness at your company? Since we pride ourselves on being the world’s first ever comprehensive virtual wellness solution for companies, we’ve gone ahead and broken down the distinct key areas of wellness that we currently cover for our partners, so that you can get an idea of what wellness should mean to your team. So, what is wellness? Keep reading to learn more about each of these categories and how you can utilize them to change your company culture, health, and wellness.
1. Physical Wellness
Movement is one of the most basic functions of the human body! By focusing on the goal as “movement” rather than “working out,” you can find ways to incorporate motion into your daily life in a way that feels good. By combining motion and nutrition you’re able to ensure that you’re functioning at your best.
Tips:
- Set alerts to ensure you get up and move around a bit every hour while working.
- Try to balance different types of movements, such as strength, endurance, and flexibility
- Make it a contest! Provide incentives for meeting weekly goals.
- Open a conversation around what works – by sharing a new recipe or a cool virtual class you attended you can get other people excited about physical wellness too.
2. Emotional Wellbeing
Emotional wellbeing plays a major role in overall wellness. This type of wellbeing isn’t about always being happy, but rather having the tools to manage your emotions. The ability to manage our feelings, whether they are positive or negative, allows us to cope with challenges and life changes.
Tips:
- Slow down and become aware of your emotions, as well as how they may affect your interactions with your colleagues throughout the day.
- Examine how your actions will impact others before you act.
- Take responsibility for your actions – if there are unintended consequences, work to rectify them.
- Work on building empathy – learn to recognize and respond to feelings in addition to verbal cues.
3. Occupational Wellness
In order to best support employees at work, we need to recognize that although work is a major part of our everyday lives, it’s not the only part. It’s important to appreciate our team when they’re there and let them unplug when they aren’t. Having a positive workplace culture and wellness opportunities will go a long way to helping you attract and retain top talent.
Tips:
- Learn how to praise your team – show or voice your appreciation and celebrate successes.
- Listen to your employees, whether it’s through surveys, direct conversations, or a combination of techniques.
- Work-life balance is only becoming more important as we go forward, so make sure you and your team know when it’s time to pack up for the day.
- Consider periodic stress check-ins with your team to understand their stressors and help guide them through stressful situations.
4. Environmental Wellness
Many of us have recently experienced a major change in our work environments. While it has certainly taken some getting used to, there are benefits to the new remote work paradigm. It allows for work environments to be more customized, but don’t be afraid to offer some suggestions and provide some resources on optimal home office structures.
Tips:
- Ask your team to create an dedicated workspace – it doesn’t have to be a desk (we don’t all have room for that!), but it should be a space just for work.
- Ensure that your team feels comfortable with taking much needed breaks from staring at screens by establishing moments of wellness throughout the day.
- Have everyone be intentional in creating their workspace – everyone is different but we all need to think about the major things that work or don’t work for us…
- For example, do you work best in silence or with background noise? Facing a wall, away from distractions or facing a window, with plenty of natural light? By addressing these things we can set ourselves up for success.
- Encourage employees to spend some time outdoors every day during the workday to recharge their batteries.
5. Intellectual Wellness
Your mindset affects everything in your daily life, from work to personal relationships. By being aware of and making conscious decisions regarding your mental state, you can develop awareness and be present in each moment. The benefits of mindfulness apply to everyday life, but are particularly useful during challenging or stressful situations.
Tips:
- Recognize that most employees want stimulating work and provide them with challenges and learning opportunities.
- Give growth-oriented feedback to put the focus on effort and work rather than innate ability.
- Welcome changes and new ideas – even if nothing is broken, your team members may have great ideas on how to make things even better.
- Celebrate failures too! Experimenting and failing is perfectly acceptable if you’re able to learn something new and use that knowledge going forward.
- Check out our mindfulness blog post for some more detailed tips!
6. Social Wellbeing
We often end up spending more time with our colleagues than our friends and sometimes even family. It’s important to build social relationships with those around you to facilitate team collaboration and cohesion. These relationships can sometimes become friendships, but even if they don’t, it’s important that your team members respect and appreciate each other.
Tips:
- Build your communication skills by paying attention to nonverbal cues as well as verbal.
- Provide opportunities for team members to socialize both within and outside of the group – it’s still effective virtually!
- Consider providing an employee social network where they can interact across teams and departments more effectively.
- Encourage employee organizations where individuals with common interests and lifestyles can come together for engagement and support.
7. Spiritual Wellness
Spiritual fulfillment is often considered something that should be pursued outside of the workplace, but there’s a space for it at work as well. The desire to feel like part of a greater mission is a strong driver in employee engagement. Those who are spiritually well are often more committed and more satisfied with their work.
Tips:
- Remember that spirituality in the workplace is about living with integrity, finding meaning, and celebrating compassion – not religion.
- Consider starting meetings with a meditation or mindfulness session.
- Communicate often and with transparency across your entire organization so everyone feels that they are adding value to a worthwhile cause.
- Create an environment of inclusion and diversity in thoughts and ideas.
So, there you have it! These are the core areas of workplace wellness that Remote Team Wellness is currently servicing clients with. Comprehensive wellness is all about trying new things as a team, seeing what feels best and has the biggest ROI for your health and overall engagement as a team. For anyone who is unsure about what areas of wellness to prioritize, this is a great place to start. Run through the list with your team during your next stand up meeting, and see what they say. FYI: It’s not an exhaustive list, so if you’ve got more ideas, comments or suggestions please comment below or shout us out on social media to discuss!
To learn more about how Remote Team Wellness works virtually to help teams improve their overall performance, wellness and company culture, visit us at www.remoteteamwellness.com
