13 Excellent Wellness Activities For Remote Employees To Stay Healthy

There has never been a more important time for organizations to promote employee well-being than now. This is especially important now that the Covid-19 outbreak has forced a significant shift in the professional scene.

The work-from-home or remote working scene is more prominent than ever. In companies where employees are working from home, it is essential that the latter stay healthy and fit.

According to studies, remote workers frequently wind up working long hours. This is because there is no clear separation between work and home. It's all too simple to stay working late at night.

This can affect mental and physical health, resulting in stress and burnout. However, with virtual employee wellness initiatives, you may encourage your remote staff to maintain a healthy work-life balance.

Hence, wellness activities for employees are great ways to promote healthy habits. These programs keep employees engaged in healthy activities while working from home.

They provide opportunities to introduce wellness activities and challenges to increase health awareness. Such programs benefit employers and their employees in more ways than one.

Challenges and Benefits of Virtual Wellness Activities

When working remotely, the possibility for casual interactions over coffee or lunch simply does not exist.

Remote work has blurred the distinction between actual work hours and family time. This can contribute to staff burnout influencing work quality. Adding to all these challenges are a few more, such as:

• Disconnected teams
• Less internal communication
• Employee isolation
• Technical problems
• Low engagement

All of these challenges are enough to decrease productivity levels over the long term.

Virtual wellness programs help establish and reinstate company culture even when not everyone is in the same physical space. It shows they value their employees and care about their health and happiness.

Here are a few ways virtual wellness programs for employees help you overcome these obstacles:

• Healthy lifestyles, such as healthy eating habits and increased physical activity.

• Decreased stress and anxiety, which reduces the likelihood of burnout.

• Increased employee happiness resulting from helping employees maintain good mental health.

Related Podcast: Happiness In the Workplace

• Increased productivity by providing staff with the necessary tools to execute their jobs.

• Increased employee retention will occur naturally as wellness programs foster loyalty.

• Lower healthcare costs and absenteeism.

One such example of lower healthcare costs is Johnson and Johnson. The company managed to drop the smoking rate and increase the physical activity rate. All these with a simple addition to their employee wellness activities: a smoking cessation program

13 Engaging Virtual Wellness Activities for Remote Employees

Remote working has become the new normal and is not going anytime soon. Focusing on employee wellness is crucial with the ever-increasing stress levels. So, if you are an employer, you should ensure your remote team's optimal wellness.

Introducing and incorporating practical wellness activities can improve remote employees' health and well-being. They can serve as ways to get your entire workforce together and keep them motivated in such difficult times.

These activities aim to improve staff health and employee morale, and productivity. Here are 13 wellness activity ideas that you can use to improve the health of your remote employees:

1. Work-from-home workout

We all know that physical fitness is a vital part of overall wellness. However, making time for gym and other activities is difficult due to long work hours. It is mostly because there is no balance between work and personal life. This has hence led to numerous people becoming more sedentary day by day.

But having virtual fitness training sessions for your employees can help them stay fit and active while working from home. Doing so will also help relieve workplace stress and strengthen your employees' immunity.

Check out this quick and effective work-from-home workout plan you can encourage your employees to do.

You can enroll them in various fitness classes or register them with fitness apps. Such apps have quick and effective workout plans that can be squeezed into day-to-day activities. One such workout plan from Vantage Fit is the 7-minute workout plan.

The plan consists of 12 exercises, from jumping jacks to triceps dips to planks. These exercises, when combined with a healthy diet, can make you achieve your fitness goals.

The best part about this plan is that there is no need for any equipment and a lot of space. The plan is designed for busy individuals to get their daily dose of exercise in as little time as possible.

2. Virtual Yoga Class

Yoga is another physical discipline that has gained worldwide popularity In modern times, especially now due to the lockdown.

Practicing yoga helps in several ways, such as increasing flexibility, relieving stress, and much more. The benefits of yoga can be precious for corporate employees, especially.

So, why not hire a yoga instructor to offer three or four yoga classes to your employees?

Our entire workforce recently got together for an online yoga session consisting of some poses and breathing exercises. It helped us cope with work stress, ease tension from our muscles, and refresh our minds.

Also read - 14 Fantastic Benefits Of Yoga In The Workplace

3. Morning Meditation

If you have incorporated regular meditation at your workplace before, you must be aware of the fantastic benefits that are associated with it. Meditation at work is highly beneficial to workplace productivity, employee mental health, employee satisfaction, and much more.

Virtual guided meditation sessions in the morning can be an excellent way for your remote workers to start the day on a positive note. It will help them eliminate all negative thoughts and unwanted stress, helping them become more productive and motivated.

Even five or ten minutes of regular meditation can help your employees thrive in a remote work environment.

4. Stretch Break

After sitting for hours straight, stretch breaks allow employees to take a break and move about. There are two primary methods for conducting stretch breaks remotely.

Method #1: Arrange a ten-minute guided stretch where teammates meet on Zoom to practice exercises together.

Method #2: Set up a calendar or notify and remind employees to stand up, walk around, and shake out their limbs.

Making the workout an official workplace event can inspire more people to participate and get some much-needed exercise.

Also read - Best Stretches For Sciatica To Make Your Work Life Pain Free

5. Host a virtual Feel-Good Meeting.

Your staff is already attempting to overcome the difficulty of adjusting to this new remote work standard. And you sure would want to go to whatever length is necessary to simplify this transition for them.

If you host some feel-good meetings, employees will feel less isolated and more connected to their coworkers. These emotional ties are critical in keeping your employees engaged at all times.

Meet the team over a virtual campfire or on fun Fridays and play some games and challenges. You can even reminisce your outing memories by hosting a book club meeting or visiting a virtual museum together.

6. Walk-from-Home

Working from home can make your employees unfocused and increasingly sedentary. A sedentary lifestyle can negatively impact their health and, consequently, increase your organization's healthcare costs.

Creating a step challenge is a fantastic way to prevent remote employees from sitting on their chairs all day. Employers can complete their steps by doing everyday chores and attending walking meetings.

"The best situations to do a 'walk and talk' would be if you're not in charge of taking notes, not leading, or presenting any new material, or facilitating the discussion." —career coach Kimberly Lucht

One fantastic way to prevent your remote employees from being sedentary and sitting on their chairs all day long is by creating a step challenge.

To create a successful one, set a daily number of steps that your employees have to walk every day, and encourage them to participate. Reward their participation and goal achievement with attractive rewards. At the end of the challenge, you can share your experience on social media, which may inspire other companies.

Using a wellness platform like Vantage Fit can make your step challenge even more exciting and engaging with amazing features like leaderboard, incentivization, and much more.

7. Healthy Cooking Club

Gourmets and epicureans will go crazy for a healthy cooking club. Establishing a healthy cooking club can be one of the most beneficial virtual employee wellness activities. It will encourage remote employees to eat nutritious and balanced meals while working from home to keep fit.

You can encourage them to share healthy recipes and upload photos of their dishes for community interaction. You can even organize real-time virtual cooking sessions where employees can enjoy themselves by watching each other prepare!

With this exercise, you will see that a couple of them who rarely cooks has developed into competent cooks. To awaken your inner cook, you can look for various recipes worldwide and try them on your own.

8. Virtual "Healthy Lunch and Learn"

One of the most briliiant remote wellness activities that you can conduct for your remote employees is a virtual "healthy lunch and learn" session.

If you have not heard of "lunch and learn" sessions before, they are informal team meetings that occur over lunch, where employees can explore and learn new topics and share ideas.

Conduct your virtual "lunch and learn" session, wherein you encourage your team members to have a healthy lunch and provide them a chance to learn skills for themselves and the company.

This way, you can ensure that their nutritional needs are met. You will also be able to foster team collaboration and build company culture. Moreover, you can also ask them to enroll their food and count their nutritional values with wellness apps like Vantage Fit. With this app's help, everyone can track their nutritional intake and plan their meals accordingly.

Also read - 27 Delicious And Healthy Lunches For Work To Satisfy Your Cravings

Classes and Training

9. Life coaching for groups

With group life coaching sessions for remote employees, you may improve employee well-being and develop an efficient team. Group life coaching is a collaborative method for teams to establish personal and professional objectives.

Individuals benefit from life coaching because it enhances self-awareness and practical skills such as planning and communication.

10. Education in health and wellness

You can help your staff improve their daily well-being through virtual health and wellness events. Bring in a different expert each month to give tips and techniques on personal well-being. They can also teach a few new methods to take control of their health.

Nutritionists or doctors can also give them a personalized balanced diet. Infact, employers can continue with the doctor if they want to.

11. Stress management education

According to research, 80% of employees are stressed at work and intend to seek help to deal with it. This is when remote therapy comes into play once more!

But, you must guarantee that these sessions are tailored to each employee's specific needs and address the issues they face daily.

Remote teams can experience a variety of stresses. Employees who receive stress-management training learn methods to manage stress effectively at work and in their personal lives.

Challenge events

12. Clean Your Desk Challenge

It is not an exaggeration to say that a clean desk helps you maintain focus and attention. Not only that, but it also keeps your mood fresh and tranquil. As a result, a clean desk challenge is one of the simplest virtual wellness exercises you can begin.

Urge your virtual workforce to clean their home offices. And request them to share photographs and videos of their desks online. This will push your team to maintain a cleaning practice.

You can even reward the challenge winners with prizes and honorable mentions. This will motivate them and others to keep their workplace clean throughout the challenge.

Also read - 7 Ways Clean Workspace Can Boost Employee Health and Performance

13. Good Habit Challenge

We know that adopting a good habit is easier said than done. But none of these practices are impossible to do. Adding a "good habit challenge" for remote workers can be an excellent strategy to promote healthy habits and increase productivity.

First, list easy, healthy practices your remote employees may include in their daily routine. Healthy practices such as taking frequent breaks, getting enough sleep, and drinking enough water.

Create a challenge in which remote workers can track their progress over a specific period of time. You can create these challenges with the help of any wellness app. These apps have it all; you just need to register yourself and your employees. One such app is the Vantage Fit app.

This app consists of a curated list of challenges updated every week and rewards you for completing the challenge. Those rewards or incentives for individuals who finish the challenge successfully are gift cards or vouchers.

You may help your remote workers stay engaged and motivated by supporting healthy behaviors and cultivating a community.

Tips for Increasing Engagement in Virtual Activities

One of the most significant disadvantages of remote work is its detrimental impact on business culture. It also includes participation in work activities such as wellness programs.

Companies may benefit from better team cohesiveness by conducting wellness programs in a virtual setting.

Here are some ideas for increasing employee engagement through virtual health and wellness activities:

• Build a digital wellness binder containing employee health materials. They can browse for future activities or other wellness program information from there.

• Involve employees one-on-one to determine the most appropriate wellness activities.

• Address the fundamental elements of wellness, such as food, exercise, sleep, and mental health.

• Provide communication tools or set up a wellness buddy system to promote social well-being. Or you can register with such wellness apps with features like social feed or leaderboard.

These features allow you to share your accomplishment and achievements within your community. This can hence, keep track of their wellness activities.

Bottom Line

Virtual wellness activities can be fun, engaging, and rewarding for your remote employees. They will help your employees stay fit, healthy, and productive while working from home. Also, they can serve as a means of showing your care for their health and wellbeing.

Also, it will give them the nudge to push forward and achieve their health goals. And if you sponsor them with gym memberships, yoga classes, and other lessons, they will be motivated to care for their health. Hence, they can serve as a means of showing your care for their health and well-being.

FAQ

Q.1 What is the definition of virtual employee wellness programs?

Virtual employee wellness programs are activities and practices that improve remote employees' health and well-being. These initiatives aim to reduce chronic disease health and economic burden through prevention and management. Aside from that, they want to boost staff morale and productivity while also boosting their quality of life.

Q.2 How can you boost your wellness when working from home?

Some of the greatest methods for staying healthy and improving wellness when working from home are:

• Eat well - Have a well-balanced and nutritious diet. Reduce your intake of junk and unhealthy foods.

• Remain hydrated - Stay hydrated throughout the day.

• Meditate - Make time in your busy day for workouts, yoga, or meditation. Even 15 minutes of daily walking or exercise can help you stay fit and prevent health problems.

• Home office makeover - Arrange your home office for greater comfort and proper posture. Redesign the workspace you've designated for work to fit your needs better.

• Work-life balance - Have a healthy work-life balance. Keep mobile phones and newspapers away from your workspace during working hours. Devote your working hours to your job and spend the rest of your time with family, friends, and personal interests.

• Connect with colleagues - Form deep bonds with your remote coworkers. It is critical to be approachable and social with distant employees and colleagues. It lets you get to know each other better and establish stronger bonds.

Establish a regular schedule and keep to it to rid yourself of feelings of purposelessness and depression.

Q.3 Why should you provide virtual wellness programs for remote workers?

Your staff is the most valuable resource you can have as a boss. Their happiness is synonymous with the success of your company. If they prosper, so will your business.

Sadly, it won’t happen if your remote workforce is anxious, burnt out, frequently unwell, and unproductive. You risk losing business, high turnover, and absenteeism.