It's cold. It's dark.

And you really don't want to get out of bed.

Chances are your employees feel the exact same way. Unfortunately, the winter months often lead to lower morale and less workplace productivity.

Sound familiar?

Read on to learn how seasonal weather impacts your employees and how to keep your employees motivated during the dreariest time of year.

As an employer, you want to see your staff as healthy as possible.

With the constant rise of healthcare costs, employers are learning that adding preventive measures for chronic health issues makes sense to maintain a healthy workforce.  

Studies show wellness coaching programs boost quality of life in several areas, which could explain why more companies are bringing corporate wellness coaches into the workplace. By working with a wellness coach, employees have a better chance of reducing the risk of developing chronic diseases like diabetes.

As you plan out your year, you may be thinking about which conferences to attend for professional development and inspiration.

If you’re feeling uninspired to promote wellness initiatives, a conference may rejuvenate your planning process.

Throughout the year, the top industry experts gather at these events to share resources and network with management, wellness coordinators, and HR specialists looking to bring change back to their companies.

There’s no better place to find motivation and new ideas than a conference where you can discover industry trends and learn about what your peers are doing to make their own wellness programs work. 

Plus, workshops dive deeper into topics you may need a little extra training in.

Since it can be exhausting trying to find the right conference, we’ve rounded up the top health and wellness conferences and summits of 2019.

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:

The final month of the year is here. We hope you’re feeling happier and healthier than when 2018 started, especially if you read our blog.

It’s our goal to spread well-researched health information and wellness tips. So far, we’ve got blog subscribers in all 50 states and across the globe.

Our readers are dedicated to learning more about healthy living in countries like France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay, Kenya, Italy, Chile, Brazil, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, and beyond.

In 2019, we look forward to inspiring even more readers.

Until then, we’ve collected your favorite blogs this year and put them in one spot.

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:

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.

Work flexibility is quickly becoming a must-have in the U.S. as work-life balance becomes a central focus for job seekers.

From freelancers to caretakers, employees have different reasons for wanting to work outside the traditional office environment.

And, it’s actually surprisingly more productive for employees, too.

At least that’s the way the 3,000 respondents who took FlexJobs’ annual survey feel — 65% of workers believe they would be more productive working at home than in a traditional office setting.

Some of the reasons:

• Fewer distractions (75%)
• Fewer interruptions from colleagues (74%)
• Reduced stress from commuting (71%)
• Minimal office politics (65%)

There’s no “I” in team, right?

As cheesy as that cliche is, it’s also true.

Teamwork is part of what makes companies successful. If your team isn’t getting along and feels disjointed, morale goes down, quick.

According to one Gallup study, 87% of employees are not engaged at work. As we know, disengaged employees are also less satisfied, less productive, and more likely to leave a company.

If there’s a lack of camaraderie in your office, it might be time for some team building work. 

One of the most common excuses for skipping the gym is, “I don’t have the time.” We know how crazy busy most full-time employees are. And we’ll admit, finding time to exercise during the workday can be difficult! One of the ways we help our employees here at TotalWellness find more time for exercise is by offering free, on-site fitness classes.

Our Wellness Specialist, Crysta, started teaching fitness classes to her colleagues this July (2018), and we’ve seen some major positive impacts since then! We would like to share our experience – along with some tips – about our on-site fitness classes. We hope our interview with Crysta inspires some other employers to try out on-site fitness classes of their own!