How To Promote Mental Wellness In Your Workplace
We live in a society where working 60+ hours a week is considered something "impressive." We strive to be the first ones in the office or on our laptops to answer emails before the crack of dawn. We come back after dinner and continue to work into the night. But is this actually productive or just leading us to burnout?
"Burnout is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions: feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from one's job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job." ~ World Health Organization
It's easy to spend all our time focusing on our neverending to-do lists, the hours we've worked, and conform to the rat race of being on our laptops answering emails from dawn till dusk. However, using all this energy towards being the first and best makes it easy to forget what's really meaningful: our families, friends, health, and mental wellness.
"We are what we repeatedly do." ~ Aristotle
Over the past year, I have spent time educating myself and my team about health and wellness in the workplace, implementing healthy habits, and spinning the wheel in a different direction. There are so many ways to practice workplace wellness and create these long-lasting, healthy habits that you and your team can carry with you on a day-to-day basis, in the office and at home.
But first, why is this so important?
Creating a mentally healthy workplace has plenty of benefits for your employees and your organization as a whole.
For the organization:
- Higher employee engagement
- More efficient employees
- Positive workplace culture
- Drive to succeed—individually and as a team
For the employees:
- Improved well-being
- Better coping skills with stress
- Improved working relationships
- Healthier mind, body, and soul
"Wellness is the complete integration of body, mind, and spirit – the realization that everything we do, think, feel, and believe has an effect on our state of well-being." ~ Greg Anderson
Workplace Wellness Ideas for Your Business
One: Calm for Business
Join Universal, Kraft, and Gofundme in introducing your employees to Calm for Business—one of the leading health and wellness apps. Those who have used Calm have seen a 23% increase in employee engagement.
Two: Educate Your Teams
Bring in an expert on mental health and wellness to educate your teams. Yaymaker offers an experience in partnership with Lisa Zarcone, who teaches stress coping mechanisms and ways to combat burnout.
Get in touch to book Lisa for your corporate event.
Three: Creating Healthy Habits
Embrace healthy habits, and model this behavior. For example, taking an actual lunch break and leaving work when you're supposed to—not staying through the night!
Go for walks or get moving during your morning stand-up to get the endorphins pumping and bring positivity to the start of the day.
You could even implement a wellness challenge within your organization or book a Chair Yoga class.
By implementing a workplace wellness program, you will have more productive and engaged employees who are happy, healthy and promote a positive workplace culture.
Start working on your workplace wellness program. Ask about our Preferred Partner Program to build a calendar of events for your team.
