June welcomes many things each year. School is out, summer officially starts in June, pool weather arrives, and vacation bags are packed. June is also Professional Wellness Month. We are all painfully aware that the state of our nation’s physical and mental wellness is not trending in a good direction.
Now more than ever, it’s important for all workplace leaders to seriously ask the question,“What does professional wellness mean to me and my organization’s team members?” How can we as business leaders ask and answer this question in an intentional and actionable way that allows each one of us to do our part in making a positive impact in the “Professional Wellness” of our workplace? Let’s not let the recognition of “Professional Wellness Month” be an afterthought or a box we simply check off.
Business organizations that place a large emphasis on employee wellness maintain a higher retention rate among team members and have overall happier employees who feel valued by their employer. Additionally, the positive effects of intentionally prioritizing employee wellness are not isolated to the workplace. The benefits of employee wellness programs can trickle down into our homes and communities. For example, we all expect that giving Fridays off in July will make employees happy and help protect them from burnout and fatigue. Perhaps even more important are the effects of those Fridays spent outside of the workplace, like creating space and time for a teenager to open up to a parent about a problem, time to volunteer in the community, or time to visit an elderly friend or loved one. The return of investment in workplace wellness is multiplied by its positive influence in our families and communities.
Here are a few ideas towards taking a step in the right direction this month to adapt professional wellness in the workplace:
Encourage remote workers to take a break from work. Remote workers are efficient and often don’t stop for personal chit chat or even lunch. Plan a monthly group remote lunch hour for employees to simply enjoy some food and fellowship together. Loneliness and a loss of a feeling of connection is often a downside to remote work. Be intentional about creating connection opportunities that don’t involve a meeting agenda or actions items. If you need help planning remote events at your workplace let us know. Many Peachtree Versatile Assistants have extensive event planning experience.
Encourage and promote fitness in your workplace. Can any of your regular 1:1 meetings happen by phone instead of Zoom? Maybe encourage “walking” meetings. Could you hold various monthly fitness challenges in the workplace, ie most steps, longest exercise streak, etc? You could also investigate if there’s a way to leverage a fitness community membership like Beach Body on Demand or Peloton to encourage wellness.
Consider gifting employees with meditation apps like Calm or Headspace.
Consider giving employees a reimbursable “Health Care” budget to spend on approved wellness related activities.
Consider expanding PTO time in the summer months to allow for families to spend time together.
Consider adding a PTO day to the workplace calendar specifically for volunteering in the community.
Hire a Peachtree VA to help relieve you and your team from administrative burdens so everyone can work “smarter, not longer.”
However you choose to recognize Professional Wellness Month within your workplace, remember that this can be recognized and celebrated all year long – and your employees will thank you! To find out more on how a Virtual Assistant can help impact your business in a positive way and take some admin tasks off your place, contact us today for a complimentary consultation.
