Did you know that only 37% of employees say their company cares about their personal well-being? Employee wellness programs are no longer a “perk” but an essential part of today’s work environment. However, the inaccurate notion that successful corporate wellness programs cost a lot of time, money, and resources still prevents many companies from implementing initiatives that can result in a healthier workforce.
While a generous budget and a dedicated wellness HR staff certainly make things easier, there are many quick and easy ways to boost employee well-being. One of them being Global Wellness Day: a day dedicated to raising awareness about eating, living, and feeling healthy. Global Wellness Day was first celebrated in Turkey in 2012 as the first day dedicated to living well. Since then, it has been celebrated across 130 countries in over 5,000 different locations with events aimed at adopting simple steps to incorporate into your daily life. This year, we celebrate Global Wellness Day on June 8th.
Known as the Global Wellness Day 7 Step Manifest, here are some simple ways you can encourage your employees to live a healthier lifestyle:
- Walk for an hour: walking encourages our brains to secrete endorphins, which can reduce our stress hormones, boost our mood, and improve our overall cognitive function. The results? We feel happier, more relaxed, and more productive. Hosting a company-wide step challenge is a fun and affordable way to encourage your employees to walk more.
- Drink more water: up to 60% of the human body and 73% of our brains are composed of water. Drinking more water has a significant impact on employees overall health, happiness, motivation, and productivity. For busy employees who are constantly on the go or in back-to-back meetings, installing a water reminder browser extension might be an easy way to help them boost their water intake.
- Ditch plastic bottles: virtually, every piece of plastic that has ever been made still exists in some shape or form. As you might imagine, that has a gargantuan impact on our rivers, oceans, and the environment. Many reusable bottle companies have great corporate custom options and are committed to sustainability.
- Eat healthy food: American journalist Michael Pollan has said it best – “eat [real] food, not too much, mostly plants.” Encourage your employees to consume healthier foods by replacing the highly-processed office snacks with fruits, vegetables, and organic options.
- Do a good deed: doing good deeds break our prejudices, changes people’s lives and makes the world a better place. Even if your company doesn’t have an official corporate volunteer policy, you can still host food and clothing drives or assemble a team to be part of a fundraising walk/race.
- Eat with your loved ones: the amazing power of eating brings everyone together. Eating together is a way to break down barriers, explore new cultures, and build stronger relationships as we socialize. Encourage employees to take lunch or coffee breaks together a few times a week. Another option is to organize summer happy hours.
- Sleep earlier: good days start with good nights. Sleep is a critical process during which our body regulates everything and repairs and heals itself. Our immune system functions best when it gets enough sleep. In other words, we get sick more often when we don’t sleep well or enough.
Although these are easy-to-implement ideas, we know that communicating and planning a wellness journey is no easy task. That’s why we have created a Global Wellness Day Toolkit. You will find tools and ideas to help you empower your employees to take a step towards a healthier lifestyle.
What you will find:
- The Wellbeing Calendar for June: every day a wellness challenge can be accomplished.
- Read our Wellness Champions Whitepaper & create your own wellness champions network.
- Promotional materials: Wellness poster, paddle and photo frame to print!
We encourage you to join us in celebrating Global Wellness Day and take part with over 100 countries, and thousands of companies to show people that one day can change their whole life! Don’t forget to share your stories, activities, and ideas on social media throughout the month of June using the hashtags #GlobalWelnessDay and #FindAnActivityToLove.
