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For Employers

13 Employee Wellness, Health, and Productivity Ideas

Hannah Larson

Licensed Professional Counselor

Last modified 25 Jun 2024

Published 20 Apr 2024

In today’s fast-paced work environment, the well-being of your employees is more important than ever. As companies strive to create a supportive and productive atmosphere, innovative employee wellness ideas play a pivotal role in enhancing job satisfaction and overall company success. 

Here are some strategies that aim to address the multifaceted needs of your employees. By offering a variety of options, you can foster a culture of health, happiness, and high performance in your work community. 

#1 Offer an evidence-based program for employee wellness 

Provide programs that are based on decades of research and proven to work. These programs are evidence-based, and they have demonstrated results.

Your employees are already googling for their concerns. You can bring them something that brings the experts to their fingertips. This way, you are saving time and money for your employees. When they get expert answers quickly, they feel confident in knowing how to respond and often need to leave work less to take care of a parenting matter. 

Cadey is an evidence-based app and program that allows your employees to get support for themselves and their families immediately. Cadey keeps up on the latest wellness and parenting research, so your employees don’t have to search for answers.

To help with employee wellness, offer an evidence-based app. 

#2 Provide flexible work hours

Offer flexible hours to your employees when possible. 

One way to implement this strategy is to schedule regular meeting times and allow your employees to flex around common meeting times. For example, your employees can work from 7-3, 11-7, 10-6, or 4/ 10 hour days. 

Research shows when companies allow their employees to have some autonomy over their working hours, employees are happier and more committed to their jobs. Happy employees provide higher quality work and are higher performers who are more engaged. 

#3 Extend surprise day-offs around a holiday 

Offer a surprise day off at the end of a week or around a holiday. You may notice your company has times of the year when demand for your service or product goes down. When these periods occur, offer a long weekend. 

This is an excellent opportunity for your company to show gratitude to your employees. 

#4 Make your office dog-friendly 

Employees love their dogs and often feel more relaxed and focused when they are with their faithful companions. If your work environment is conducive to dogs, allow your employees to bring their well-behaved dogs into the office. 

If having your office dog-friendly all the time feels like too much, offer a bring your animal to work day. For example, every Friday, employees can bring their dogs to work. 

#5 Offer mental health education 

Hire a speaker to talk with your staff about ways to increase mental health resilience. 

Educating your staff about ways to decrease anxiety, burnout, and depression will increase productivity. 

Your employees can adopt many simple mental health hygiene habits that can significantly improve your employee’s mental health.  

When your employees know how to take care of their mental health they can perform more optimally. 

When your company is a member of Cadey, Cadey will create customized webinars to help your employees more optimally take care of their mental health. 

#6 Suggest outdoor walking meetings 

If you have a one-on-one meeting with employees coming up, take it outside. 

Walking has significant health benefits. Being outside and moving allows your employees to generate their best ideas. Research shows that walking and talking promote greater openness and creativity.  

#7 Provide a mocktail happy hour 

Implementing a mocktail happy hour as a wellness tool for business meetings is a creative and inclusive way to enhance the workplace culture, foster team cohesion, and promote healthy lifestyle choices among employees. 

This initiative can serve multiple purposes, from offering a relaxed setting for team members to connect and collaborate to reinforcing the company’s commitment to employee well-being.

#8 Implement a no-meeting workday 

Have one consistent day every week without meetings. This will allow your employees to have a solid stretch of uninterrupted time to focus on finishing their work. 

#9 Give one hour of wellness time off each week

This is one hour of wellness time. This can allow your employee to take an online workout class once a week or connect with a therapist. 

#10 Establish a community office garden 

If your company is lucky enough to have the outdoor space, create a community garden for your employees. 

You can also use large pots in a cemented space. 

Being outside and gardening can be a refreshing before-work or after-work activity that helps bring your business community together.

#11 Start an employee gratitude program 

Implement a program to recognize and reward employee achievements and milestones. 

Have a space where employees can give a gratitude shoutout to their colleagues for acts of kindness. Many employees are more comfortable writing these shoutouts than saying them in a meeting. Consider how you can collect notes to share.  

This type of program will help employees look for what they appreciate in each other. 

Expressing gratitude boosts the givers and the receiver’s mental health. This type of addition to your workspace is a great way to foster a supportive and healthy environment at no cost. 

#12 Have a monthly positive email newsletter shoutout 

Have a monthly email that employees can send in with good news about their lives. 

This email can be a place where employees share positive successes or birthdays, birth or anniversary announcements, and the like. 

Designate a point person on your team to collect these successes and announcements. Having a regular cadence for sharing positive news can benefit your employees and bring positivity into the workspace.

# 13 Provide a monthly lunch and learn

Provide a healthy lunch for your employees or sponsor a healthy lunch potluck. During lunch, have a guest speaker on wellness and professional development topics. Topics can include nutrition, exercise, sleep, working parents and mental health, time management, and the like. 

Bring in a speaker that allows your employees to go home with easy and simple ways to bring wellness into their lives. 

By offering Cadey as an employment benefit for your employees, we can bring practical and useful strategies that your employees can implement today to improve their lives and the lives of their families. Your employees could watch a Cadey webinar together. 

Learn More About Cadey

Would you like to offer the number one app for improving your employees’ mental health? Book a demo with Cadey today to learn how our interactive technology can improve your employees’ well-being. Employees with strong mental health perform better and are a greater benefit to your company.  

Cadey’s comprehensive approach not only benefits your employees by saving time and money and improving mental and physical health but also drives your company forward by boosting morale, creativity, and engagement. Your employees can give their best when they feel their best.