Healthy Habits In The Workplace: 4 Ways To Encourage Them

Every experienced business leader will tell you that part of your job is to provide a healthy work environment for your employees. Not because it’s your duty to keep a bunch of grownups healthy, but because the long-term well-being of your employees will have significant implications in the long-term success of your business.

It’s that simple.

Not only will you save money on sick days and employee healthcare expenses in general, but you will also create a more productive and positive workplace that will propel the company forward as a whole. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the most effective ways to encourage your employees to become healthier.

#1 Stock The Kitchen With Healthy Food

In the majority of workplaces around the world, the employees are free to bring whatever they please to the kitchen, and that’s not something you can influence directly. However, what you can do is motivate your team members to slowly exchange some of their unhealthy practices for some healthier eating habits.

Start by offering healthy snacks in the kitchen and the break room. As a manager, you will feel inclined to reward your employees with a snack at the end of the workday in order to congratulate them on a job well done. Let this snack be something truly nutritious and healthy instead of bringing an oversized box of doughnuts covered in sugar and sprinkles. There are plenty of all-natural, sugar-free artisan shops where you can find delicious sweets to satisfy every craving, sans the excess calories.

#2 A Hydrated Employee Is A Productive One

One of the most important elements of a thriving workplace lost on the managers as well as their employees is proper hydration. Providing plenty of fresh, quality aqua throughout the day and reminding people to stay hydrated is a powerful way to keep their energy levels high, and thus elevate their productivity.

If you want to incentivize people to drink office water, though, it needs to provide added benefits than your regular bottled or tap water. Consider installing a reverse osmosis water filter in the kitchen that will eliminate all hazardous particles and pathogens from the system and reduce water waste, and don’t forget to emphasize its benefits to your employees. Couple this healthy novelty with a daily reminder on the importance of hydration, and watch as your employee collective becomes healthier and more productive as a whole.

#3 Motivate People To Get Up & About

The modern work environment is a dynamic place where things are happening quickly and the rush never stops. Or at least it should be. Unfortunately, seeing as how many work processes have nowadays become mundane desk jobs, people are increasingly spending their entire workdays in a slouched position. Needless to say, this is not good for their long-term well-being, or their productivity.

Your task is to inspire and incentivize them to get up every once in a while and move about. The possibilities here are endless, as you can choose to provide them with standing or treadmill desks, enforce exercise hour where everyone needs to stop what they’re doing and hit the gym, or even play games where every successful task yields one healthy action. These types of fun incentives will help your employees enjoy their time at work and associate the feeling with healthy habits.

#4 Organize Friendly Wellness Competitions

Daily, weekly, and monthly challenges can transform a dull office environment into a goal-driven, passionate workplace. You simply need to make the challenge worth their time and offer valuable prizes to all of those who reach these goals.

The goal to maintain a certain weight, beat a track record, or go a full month without eating processed foods are all excellent ways for people to banish unhealthy habits from their lives, but these habits also need to stick. To achieve this, make sure that the individual choices affect the entire collective and inspire everyone to work hard towards a common, healthy goal.

In Closing

The modern workplace is much more than a place of business – it’s a place of wellness and positivity, an inspiring setting that builds success on the foundation of happiness and well-being. Only by encouraging your employees to develop healthy lifestyle habits can you create a truly productive work environment that will push your brand towards a successful future.

 

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