It's time to operationalize wellness.

While burnout and productivity have long been concerns in the workplace, the landscape is evolving with more companies offering wellbeing benefits. However, many of these benefits fall short of making meaningful impact.

Consider these examples of wellness benefit shortcomings:

Underutilization of Apps and Wellness Options:

Despite efforts to provide resources for free, like a meditation app for example, engagement with these self-service items remains low. After a demanding workday, employees often lack the motivation to utilize these tools.

Challenges with Access to Resources, including EAP:

Accessing mental health resources through Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) can be cumbersome and time-consuming. Even with benefits in place, individuals may face lengthy wait times or limited availability of services, which can deter them from seeking support, or worse, they don’t get the support they need at the time they need it.

At the end of the day, if you want your employees to thrive and their productivity and engagement to improve, you can’t put the responsibility fully on employees to handle in their free time. It’s time to integrate wellness behaviors into your day-to-day operations.  

Here are three ideas for what that looks like:

1. Breathing

What to do: Start your meetings with one minute of silence, with eyes closed or looking down to notice your breath. One minute is not a long time and this does wonders for nervous system reset! I would recommend off camera for this at first if you are remote.

How it Helps: All feelings trigger a body response through our nervous system. Breathwork helps to calm and reset our nervous system. Improved oxygen levels take us out of fight or flight mode. Oftentimes a minute of quiet breathing relaxes many muscles as well as settles the mind and heart.

2. Gratitude

What to do: Ensure your team has a practice of gratitude built in. This could be an end-of-day share on Slack activity, added to meetings, or a weekly round-up via email kind of thing.

How it Helps: Focusing on the positive helps orient our brains towards positive outcomes and releases oxytocin, which is a feel-good hormone. Also sharing gratitudes within a group amplifies the effects.

3. Conduct walking meetings**

What to do: Take some meeting time, if not the whole meeting, while on a walk. The distance does not have to be far, and this can be done on a remote call as well. Alternatively, you can relocate your meeting to an outside/natural setting.

How it Helps: A change of scene boosts creativity and walking has a multitude of health benefits from improving immunity to reducing sugar cravings. Getting extra sun and fresh air also supports body optimization and improves mood.

Organizations can significantly impact employee wellbeing and productivity by weaving these wellness behaviors into daily workflows. Additionally, modeling these practices sets a positive example for employees, empowering them to adopt similar habits in their personal lives.

Be well humans!

If you're interested in further support or workshops on this topic, feel free to reach out to me.

**Remember, these strategies may not be suitable for every workplace or team, so it's essential to consider your company culture and inclusivity and compliance needs.