The year 2020 was a doozy, wasn’t it? All year long, it felt like a barrage of challenges was coming at us in all directions—the COVID-19 pandemic, of course, but also civil unrest, wildfires, and a hurricane season that devastated coastlines around the country. Whether you’re in the United States or elsewhere in the world, the global feeling was one of unease, on a good day, or downright despair, on a bad day.
With all that in mind, if you’re the administrator or manager of a company, you might be looking for some ways to improve employee wellness and morale. After all, spending most of our lives in front of a screen, terrified of contracting a deadly virus if we go the gym, doesn’t exactly spell “wellness program,” does it? When people don’t (or can’t) invest in wellness, they miss out on all the health benefits that come along with it, and as a large employer, you’ve no doubt seen the impact. Absenteeism, mental health challenges cropping up, and more were common in 2020. Well, it’s time to put all of that aside and look at some ways to create incentives for wellness and provide other morale-boosting opportunities at the same time.
Pioneer a wellness program for employees, even if they aren’t at the worksite.
One way to start the year off right is to introduce a wellness program, with incentives for employees who participate in physical activity and invest in a healthier lifestyle. This may seem impossible in this day and age, with everyone working far from the worksite, but it’s actually pretty simple. Wellness programs for employees can be streamlined in no time by developing a health plan and using a fitness app to keep track of the behaviors and health outcomes your employees are taking part in. Keeping tabs on how many steps your employees take may sound a little creepy, but it’s actually a great way to invest in employee health.
Think about it, a little friendly competition, like a step challenge with a prize at the end, can lead to employees participating in more physical activity, which is a good thing. As a large employer with many employees working far from your regular worksite, you would never be able to manage a wellness program from afar without the help of an app. Employee wellness programs can help team members with everything from lowering blood pressure to helping with mental health challenges, and with an app keeping to this health plan is easy to do.
Get some fun promotional items, like custom flash drives.
Everyone loves free stuff, and your employees are certainly no different. One easy way to start the new year off on the right foot is by giving out free promotional products, like company t-shirts, mugs, and flash drives. Especially with so much of our lives happening online these days (that is, if you’re keeping to the CDC guidelines, which you should), flash drives are very useful to everyone. You may be thinking that in this financial climate you don’t exactly have a financial incentive to hand out free flash drives, but you’d be surprised to discover how affordable this option can be. Wholesale custom USB drives actually present a great way to raise morale without breaking the bank, if you source them from a vendor who can do it for an inexpensive price while maintaining high-quality USB drives.
Financial incentives make everyone happy.
Similar to free goodies, no one ever says no to a great financial incentive. Even if it’s just a gift card or an additional $50 added to the employee’s paycheck at the end of the month, you won’t find a lot of people who reject a financial incentive. Even if it does mean that they have to participate in wellness activities they’d rather ignore. Consider providing a small incentive for your wellness program, and see if you don’t get more respondents who are suddenly very interested in wellness.
Running a wellness program to improve your employees’ physical health or boosting morale with promotional products can seem almost impossible while also adhering to federal laws and CDC guidelines, but it can be both easy and fun. Consider these options, you may find that a fitness challenge and some USB drives make all the difference to your human services.
