Boost Team Morale in the Workplace Through Wellness Programs

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A healthy, wholesome environment is conducive to growth and excellence. Aside from promoting individual wellness, taking care of employees’ holistic well-being can boost team morale. When the company provides an inclusive space that supports employees’ work-life balance and professional growth, they tend to become more productive members of the team. Ultimately, when there is a culture of wellness in the workplace, everyone gains.

Working hard and accomplishing success at work should not be at the expense of health and wellness. Companies are responsible for ensuring that their employees experience a balanced and beneficial work culture. As such, they should develop wellness programs geared towards helping employees live and work the best way they can.

Working hard and accomplishing success at work should not be at the expense of health and wellness.

Having good physical, mental, and emotional health conditions enables an individual to function optimally. When every member of the team’s wellness goes well, the positive effects multiply, and the whole company is carried forward by a strong force: your workforce.

How to Use Wellness Programs to Boost Team Morale

One happy employee’s energy can stir others and when wellness is spread through mutual support, work becomes less strenuous and more satisfying. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the ways wellness programs boost team morale.

Employees Are Healthier and Happier With Support From Others

Positive well-being is easier to achieve in a caring environment. A good flow of top-down support from the bosses to the staff can strongly encourage employees to live well and be well. Ensuring support from all levels of management is vital to the success of your wellness programs. Without it, there will be a disconnect that could undermine the goals of the program.

Everyone should take part to make the programs more collaborative and effective. When everyone is involved, from the CEO to the newest hire, each activity can boost team morale with a more meaningful and lasting impact.

How Support From the Management Can Boost Team Morale

Knowing that the CEO or top executives care about the health condition of the employees can boost team morale. How? When managers actively support wellness programs, it shows that the management values the employees beyond just lip service. When employees see that their bosses are concerned about their well-being, they feel a sense of belonging and they are more motivated to do their work well.

To ensure engagement of the top executives, it is important to ask them to participate early on so they can squeeze activities into their busy schedules. Additionally, program creators must clearly communicate the goals and expected benefits of the program for the employees and the company as a whole with the bosses.

Here are some of the practical ways managers can show how much they care about their employees.

Send personalized invitations to participate in wellness programs

This shows that each employee matters to the company and that the wellness program is made especially for their benefit. Handwritten signatures would lend a more personalized touch to it.

Sharing actual stories of how certain employees have benefited from the program can inspire others to stay engaged and give them something to look forward to, as they will know that the program works. These testimonials will add more weight to the value of the program and attract more employees to join.

customer stories and experiences, Boost Team Morale

Lead a “Wellness Minute” in meetings

Infuse and reinforce the program’s message during meetings to sustain interest and participation. Make it a normal part of conversations to strengthen its systemic nature as part of your company culture.

Send postcards to employees with words of encouragement or support to boost team morale

Imagery captioned with supportive words are like pep talks made more intimate and personalized. Make them inspiring, fun, and meaningful to boost team morale in a creative way.

The management team cheering the employees as a group encourages and fosters a unified spirit within the company.

Add wellness phrases to your mission statement

Promoting your employees’ well-being must be an integral part of the company’s mission to serve, not simply a sideshow or secondary pursuit.

Visibly participate in the wellness meetings via webinar or on location

Even in work from home settings, wellness program engagement must be promoted and sustained with the managers setting an example. This will help boost team morale even when some employees are working remotely.

Actively participate in the wellness program activities

Attendance must be emphasized, and managers can set a good example by regularly participating in wellness programs. Moreover, active participants must enjoy the rewards and benefits of joining activities. They should be allowed to have enough time after work and during extended breaks to join in activities.

group team activities to boost team morale

Allow flexible break times to allow for moderate physical activity like walking or stretching

Managers should allow short breaks throughout the day and encourage employees to use the time to integrate some fitness movements into their routine. These short breaks break up the monotony and make the workplace more dynamic, not more rigid and stationary.

Create walkways and move the parking space further away

This will force employees to take walks across the parking lot to get to the office and get more movement into their day. If some find this inconvenient, educate them about the benefits of daily walks.

Provide fresh fruits or vegetables to boost team morale

Give access to healthy snacks in the office to promote healthy eating. You can also give them as rewards for a job well done.

You may also give away health drinks, organic snacks, exercise materials, free massages, fitness gadgets, or health supplements as holiday gifts. This will psyche them up and equip them to start having a healthy lifestyle.

Have a weekly “Walk with the CEO at lunch”

Make it less formal but more engaging and enjoyable in order to make meaningful connections and successfully send encouraging messages. Being able to have direct access to the big boss and receiving support from the leader will help boost team morale and drive performance.

Participate in pick-up games of basketball, frisbee, soccer, etc.

Get everyone into sports and promote active hobbies. Help them shake off the sluggish feeling and help them develop stronger muscles and stamina.

How One CEO Created a Legacy of Health

Among the company’s executives, the CEO holds the greatest power to boost team morale. The CEO can publish a manifesto that expresses and details the company’s commitment to promoting employee wellness.

An official statement like this anchors all wellness program initiatives and gives them validity and greater force. They can also consider the following:

Delegate wellness coordinators for onsite support. To visibly promote the program, coordinators must be present at the site of activities and enthusiastically motivate employees.
Form wellness committees. Representatives can act as a source of ideas and build a sense of employee ownership of the program. Seeing their colleagues take charge and inspire cooperation can help boost team morale because everyone is deemed important enough to be part of the team.

Support from colleagues and families is critical in sustaining healthy behaviors. Getting help from people we work and live with can make developing healthy lifestyle habits easier and more sustainable. To foster social support, the company can:

Encourage family support by hosting family-friendly wellness events

Invite employees’ families and extend the company’s wellness culture to them to keep work-life balance and wellness a reality for them. Company-sponsored activities like family fun runs, weekend camps, and barbeque picnics can bring everyone closer and build a stronger community in the workplace.

Encourage buddy systems to boost team morale

Supportive social groups can be the backbone of a successful program because each individual is committed to another person or team’s progress. Group-based activities are more fun and engaging for employees who need a good push and some cheer especially when they begin to lose interest or motivation.

Employees Actively Participate in Team Challenges

Lethargy may be caused by tedium, remoteness, and a lack of challenge at work. Introducing wellness activities into the routine of their daily work can stir excitement and get them to join and stay engaged.

Creating team challenges and rewarding the best collaboration with prizes and incentives brings out their competitive spirit, pushing them to achieve wellness goals. Some of the team challenges you can establish are:

Physical Activity Challenges

Sponsor team sports, weight loss programs, team walks, fun runs, and other physical activities where employees can sign up and participate. Everyone must be encouraged to share their progress, wins, experiences, and results to motivate other participants until results are achieved.

Healthy Eating Challenges

Employees seeing their colleagues eat healthy lunches and snacks in the workplace can help shift their eating habits because of positive influence. Encourage them to make a daily diet journal that can be shared with the team, provide healthy recipes that they can make at home, and provide wellness gifts for those who consistently eat healthy and keep to their ideal weight.

Emotional Health and Other Challenges

Keeping emotions in check through group therapy sessions, stress management coaching, support group talks, and mental health exercises can help battle issues like depression, addiction, anxiety, and low morale.

Most employees who suffer from low morale need to have a strong support system from the company’s management and their colleagues. When emotional weariness is left untreated, it can negatively affect an employee’s attitude towards work, motivation, and focus. It could also affect their physical health and mental alertness.

Wellness programs that provide a venue for emotional support and healing can greatly help in turning negative dispositions around. Providing a caring environment in the workplace where everyone’s emotional needs matter can boost team morale.

Humans are social beings that thrive on the support and interest of others. Communal support is a vital part of successful behavior change. Many wellness program activities have a social component where engagement is enhanced in a collective space.

Many wellness program activities have a social component where engagement is enhanced in a collective space.

It is important to cultivate a sense of belonging and team support to steer everyone in the right direction. However, with flexible office and work-from-home setups and varying schedules, keeping employees engaged in wellness activities can be challenging.

To counter this, you can use social platforms like the WellSteps Social where employee-participants can send messages and share media content to learn from each other, support each other, as well as share successes, setbacks, and ideas on how to press on and nurture well-being as a lifestyle.

Leveraging Team Leader Boards

Why does healthy competition work? A group of team leaders allows exchanges of ideas, immediate feedback from participants about activities, and suggestions on how to improve where needed. It helps foster a balance of camaraderie and healthy competition among different teams.

Team leaders can learn from each other, share best practices, and apply them in managing their respective teams.

Nurturing Wellness Committee Meetings To Boost Team Morale

The main purpose of wellness committees is to lead employees to participate in activities. Committee meetings must be held to track the status of the wellness programs and steer them towards achieving goals. These meetings should also have an agenda to remind committee members of their important role in spurring their colleagues to actively participate in the activities.

Each wellness committee member must understand their role and perform certain responsibilities like:

Participate in all wellness committee meetings. Get updates and provide helpful feedback and information to ensure the program’s success.
Vote on Behavior Campaigns for the year. Help assess and reward changed behaviors.
Decide what incentives to offer with each campaign. Share ideas about the best incentive programs to help make each wellness campaign interesting and successful.
Remain enthusiastic in participating in and promoting the campaigns and initiatives. Always be available to provide updates, information, and materials relevant to the activities, such as invitations and announcements regarding schedules, venues, guests, and prizes.
Answer questions about the program. Committee members must be a reliable source of information and always be ready to provide clear answers to interested employees’ queries. By appealing to their goals, you can get them to join and enjoy the benefits of the activity.
Encourage coworkers to start and continue their wellness journeys. Share the benefits and incentives of joining the activities and how these can help with their personal and professional growth.
Distribute campaign materials. Spread the word through visible materials to promote wellness campaigns and activities. These materials may include books, flyers, and button pins, among others.
Share constructive feedback and success stories. Create content that shares how the wellness program has helped employees overcome their physical, mental, or emotional challenges.

Employees who feel good would naturally want to give back to their communities and society. Conversely, doing random acts of kindness in underprivileged communities also helps provide them with a sense of meaning and joy.

You can integrate activities like these with social impact into your wellness program.

clean-up drives
donation drives
livelihood projects
tutoring sessions for young learners
feeding programs

These activities can be done in groups, allowing employees to do something meaningful together with their colleagues. This will ultimately boost team morale.

Building Wellness Programs Will Boost Team Morale

When it comes to establishing and maintaining a company’s wellness programs, all hands must be on deck. The success of this endeavor hinges on everyone’s commitment and willingness to create and nurture a work environment that cares for, protects, and inspires people to be their best.

When the team’s morale dips, the business suffers, and the company’s journey towards success slows down. With the right wellness programs and activities, everyone on the team can help lift each other up. Furthermore, by establishing that the company cares not only for its people but the community as well, employees develop a sense of greater purpose. When they can make a difference as a group, team morale surges.

To learn more and discover how WellSteps can help ensure that for your employees and company, join us on a Free Demo and get your questions answered!

How to Use Wellness Programs to Boost Team Morale