Employee Wellness Blog

Life is hard.

And, sometimes, employees bring life’s stressors with them to work.

Over the last several decades, studies show job stress is a major source of concern for American workers, according to The American Institute of Stress.

There’s no faster way to deplete your workforce than to watch them burnout from stress while you ideally stand by.

Creating stress coping strategies for your employees can help prevent burnout. This applies to businesses of all sizes and industries as the way employees manage their stress daily has a huge impact on production and overall organization performance.

There’s nothing beneficial about toxic behaviors in the workplace.

Whether it’s office drama or constant negativity, the weight of a toxic environment is apparent to everyone who walks in the door — from the CEO to the customer.

It takes consistent policies, proper management, and open communication to keep destructive behaviors to a minimum. Otherwise, bad business practices get out of hand fast.

With preventative measures in place, it’s easier to keep a healthy work environment employees will thrive in and love.

Below, we share insights to what exactly a toxic work environment is and four easy ways to prevent it in your workplace.

Most employees spend a good amount of time at work — about a third of their day, according to the CDC. While every employer wants productive employees, there’s no reason health and wellness initiatives need to be placed on the back burner at the cost of getting work done.

Effective health and wellness initiatives can improve employees’ quality of life along with reducing health risks like depression or diabetes.

Plus, the reward of taking care of employees can directly impact the bottom line — including reductions in workers’ comp claims and insurance costs.

While not all companies can afford to send employees on yoga retreats or set-up personalized coaching for everyone, there are plenty of other affordable options.

Here are five easy ways to set up successful wellness initiatives in-office on any budget:

With a fresh new year ahead, there’s no better time to discuss health at work with your employees.

It should come as no surprise that a recent survey found the number one resolution for 2019 is losing weight and exercising more.

With that in mind, seize the opportunity to have your employees embrace healthy living at the start of the year when they’re feeling inspired.

When you promote healthy living practices at work, employees are also less likely to have sick days and work-related accidents.

Unsure of where to start?

Here’s 10 ways to set your employees up for a healthy year:

Looking for an easy way to improve morale, reduce stress, and boost your employees’ health? 

Adding a gym at work is one way to do it.

One study showed that offering a gym at work actually has positive impacts on employees and employers.

With plenty of research that exercise reduces stress and lowers disease risk, why not consider a gym at work?

Here are 5 reasons to add an onsite work gym:

Let’s face it: meetings can be lame — especially early morning ones that go on for way too long.

If you can’t explain what your meeting is about in 20 seconds or less, you probably need to rethink why it’s needed in the first place. By only calling relevant meetings with clear agenda topics, you’ll waste less of everyone’s time.

Meetings can be time suckers or time savers, depending on how each one is run. With a bit of tweaking, though, meetings can still be productive and fun.

Ready to get employees excited about coming to meetings? 

Try these five tips at your next meeting:

Keeping your employees engaged in overall wellness during the year is tough, but during the holidays it can seem nearly impossible.

With all the vacations and holiday parties, it’s sometimes difficult to get the message of health out loud and clear.

A new study by Integrated Benefits Institute shows poor health costs employers nearly $880 billion in health care benefits for employees and dependents. That means decreased productivity and profitability for companies.

It’s easy to forget about health with holiday season madness, but there’s ways to keep wellness at the forefront of employees’ minds so they go into the new year happy and healthy.

Help your employees move into the holiday season with a healthy mindset with these seven tips:

What if you put a different spin on your annual holiday party?

Office holiday parties are a great way to connect and show appreciation to staff for their hard work all year long. Instead of making it a dreaded annual event with minimal participation, have a bit of fun by thinking outside-the-box. 

Company Christmas party ideas can extend beyond the traditional food and drink spreads. No need for booze-filled events or fried food extravaganzas this holiday season.  

Unique, healthy holiday parties don’t have to be time-consuming to plan, either. In fact, most can be organized with a few days of advanced planning, depending on the size of your office staff. 

Not sure what to do?

Here’s a list of 25 company Christmas party ideas employees will love: 

Today, it isn’t uncommon to see millennials and baby boomers sitting side by side in workplaces.

And while both generations couldn’t be more different, a recent FlexJobs survey showed both hold similar beliefs on workplace flexibility.

Without a doubt, one of the best ways to increase employee satisfaction for both groups is to offer work flexibility. The study showed less than 10% would choose an office as their preferred work environment.

But that’s where most of the similarities end.

Millennials, the generation born between 1981-1996, focuses on finding satisfaction in personal and professional pursuits. In fact, the study shows 83% rank work-life balance as the most important factor in taking a job. Only 62% of baby boomers felt that way.

What else is different? We share the findings below.

Monday mornings can be a blur.

Blinking voicemail messages. A full email inbox. To-do lists a mile long. Chat messages.

What if you could start off your week in peace?

If you sing the lyrics to “Manic Monday” as you race through your morning routine, it may be time to slow down. 

Better yet, have employees join you.

With so many work tasks demanding attention, it can feel challenging to get focused — and that’s on top of all the daily life demands, too.

Ready to help your employees welcome Monday mornings with a smile instead of a sigh?

Read on.