Every year, Tribe has a fitness competition for employees that’s designed to build healthy habits and grant some serious bragging rights to the overall winner. This year, several employees took on challenges that built healthier habits, and brought up a few key employee wellness themes that you can apply in your organization.
1. Think long term.
Wellness weeks and challenges are impactful for kickstarting the journey for employees, but if you want your employees to truly live well — and if you want your company to benefit from that — it’s important to think longer term. In your employee wellness communications, encourage employees to build healthy habits that can last, not to make unsustainable choices that lead to short-term results.
At Tribe, our annual fitness competition lasts 8-12 weeks, depending on the year. Employees set their own wellness goals that they must meet each week, and the goals have to stretch them in some way beyond their normal routine. This setup makes it more likely for us to build repeatable habits into our lives that actually make us happier and healthier.
2. Let employees choose what matters.
Over the years, we’ve expanded what’s included in our annual fitness competition. While everyone still has to include some sort of cardio, strength training and flexibility, many of us have also integrated elements that impact our overall wellbeing. Some of us prioritized mental wellness with mindfulness and meditation time, others focused on eating healthier and saving money by packing lunches instead of going out.
In your employee wellness communications, bring in a perspective of wellness that’s more than just physical. Your employees are facing different challenges, and it’s important to show them the suite of resources at their disposal to help them with their specific situations. That might mean breaking down your mental wellness resources during Mental Health Awareness Month, emphasizing financial wellness benefits for younger employees, highlighting your gym membership perk in a monthly newsletter, or sending a postcard to employees who might need help switching to Medicare.
3. Use it to bring people together.
Every year, our Fitness Competition concludes with a big tie-breaker event for the people who’ve completed every week’s goals. This year, we had our finalists play trashketball, shooting paper balls into a trash can for a set amount of time. Ultimately, I was cheering along with everyone else as Lilly Adams tied and then outscored me just as time expired.
Employee wellness activities are a great way to build camaraderie within your teams, whether it’s encouraging employees to hit the gym together after work or giving them a space on Yammer to share healthy recipes. You might even be able to lure remote and hybrid employees back to the office for a special wellness event, helping to build connections on your teams. These kinds of small interactions build up goodwill on your teams that will go a long way when you’re all trying to finish a project or meet a deadline.
Investing in employee wellness is a great way to fight burnout, and build the kind of goodwill within the organization that’s just as good for the employee experience as it is for the bottom line. For even more tips on wellness programs, check out this best practices sheet.
Want to engage your employees in a healthier, happier workplace? Tribe can help.
