Tips For Promoting Healthy Lifestyle in The Workplace

Lifestyle is as broad as it is. It encompasses everything that a person does as a living being. Habits like sleep schedules, diet, and self-careroutines combine to make our lifestyle. Extended to our workplace, it plays a highly defining role in productivity and job satisfaction.

He who has health has hope, and he who has hope has everything.
– Thomas Carlyle

As every good thing takes time, championing a healthy lifestyle requires a rock-solid commitment, discipline, motivation, and willpower. The same holds for imbibing a healthy lifestyle at work.

In this blog, you shall explore the innate power of a healthy lifestyle at work. You shall also learn of its impact on productivity and job satisfaction. It also presents employers with nine novel ways to contribute to a healthy lifestyle at work.

What is a Healthy Lifestyle to You?

The broad consensus around what a healthy lifestyle entails is unambiguous. A healthy lifestyle is a set of behaviors that ensures a healthy body, mind, and spirit. The key to a healthy lifestyle is regular exercise,eating nourishing foods, and reducing sugar and alcohol intake.

Experts also recommend reducing stress and screen time and ensuring enough sleep to maintain a healthy lifestyle. However, a healthy lifestyle depends on several other factors, including how and where people live.

An important reminder on what constitutes a healthy lifestyle, is that striving for it should not become a burden in itself. Investing on a healthy lifestyle should instead come easily to you in terms your finances and other capabilities.

Wellness experts thus insist on doing what you can do best for your health within your limited capacity.

Why Does A Healthy Lifestyle in Workplace Matter?

The average American employee today spends 1892 hours per year at work. The math on the influence of life work on an employee's lifestyle is thus simple. An achievable healthy lifestyle at work is any employee's asset. A healthy lifestyle will always have your back.

Promoting such a lifestyle today is a strategic business investment for employers. Workplaces today are seeing an increased interest in promoting healthy employee lifestyles. One easy reason is the correlation between productivity, work performance, and workability.

The avenue for lifestyle health and wellness at work has sprouted newer interests. This interest is due to Generation Z, who would take up 30% of the US workforce by 2030. This new generation would expect employers to be partners in creating a healthy work lifestyle.

Research today emphasizes the importance of employers who prioritize promoting a healthy lifestyle and greater well-being to attract and retain talent from Generation Z.

How Can an Employer Promote a Healthy Lifestyle in the Workplace?

Now that we know the many benefits of a healthy lifestyle, let us understand an employer's role in promoting it. A dedicated promotion of a healthy employee lifestyle goes a long way toward building a thriving work culture.

Data says fostering a healthy lifestyle at work yields a proven high return on investment.Progressive companies now realize that cultivating a culture of wellbeing can yield tangible long time returns on investment.

This, in turn, may lead to enhanced productivity and reduced healthcare costs. Further,a healthy lifestyle as a culture even cuts across a competitive edge in today's cut-throat business landscape.

There are several ways for you to promote a healthy lifestyle for your employees. You can help them raise awareness around what they eat, how fit they are, and their unhealthy habits.

Employers may even put up posters with statistics to encourage their employees to take care of their wellbeing.Now, let's dive right into 10 actionable and realistic tips employers could use to cultivate a culture of healthy employee lifestyles.

1. Encourage Preventative Care

You have heard the age-old saying, 'Prevention is better than cure.' For all the right reasons, this proverb never gets past relevance. For example, managing your weight and keeping excess weight off will keep severe diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart disease at bay.

Invest in activities such as health awareness workshops on preventive healthcare measures. Organise guided health and wellness fairs where your employees are actively engaged.

These could provide employees with information and education on proper sleep habits, staying hydrated at work, and managing work-related stress.

On-site fitness centers can be a practical method to encourage preventive care. This would guarantee employees easy access, saving them time and energy on their commute.

2. Develop a Smoke-Free Workplace

WHO affirms that having a smoke-free workplace is beneficial for all individuals. Additionally, it supports workers in their quest to stop smoking.

The American Lung Association claims employers can save nearly $6,000 annually for every employee who quits tobacco use. Most Americans dedicate over 50% of their time to their jobs, and a significant number are susceptible to or already coping with various lung diseases.

As per the American Cancer Society, tobacco use is the leading cause of lung cancer and other major health issues. A smoke-free workplace could add years to your employees' lives. At the same time, your company saves significantly in healthcare-related costs.

3. Encourage Healthy Eating Habits

As much as you cannot decide what your employees eat, you can. This is where the powerful tool of persuasion comes into play. When you cannot take action for someone, you influence them to act. Below are some initiatives you could take up with a thoughtful and empathetic strategy.

Make Easily Accessible Healthy Eating Options

Make healthy food options available and affordable in workplace cafeterias. As employees see these foods, they are more likely to choose them over something unhealthy.

Promote Mindful Eating

Now, how do we infuse mindful eating habits when we are seldom mindful at all? First things first, create a discussion around the many benefits of mindful eating. Ensure the office cafeteria is devoid of chaos and spacious to facilitate the same.

Initiate Virtual Cooking Classes

We are often bored with making our regular bread, toast, or pasta. Encourage sharing nutritious and healthy cooking lessons online or set up team cooking challenges with such recipes. The goal is to motivate employees to explore healthier food choices through innovation and fun activities.

4. Provide Breaks and Opportunities for Employees to Socialize

Research shows that breaks during the day can improve wellbeing and productivity. Besides, socializing during breaks is a successful way to build engagement and de-stressing.

Breaks could also be utilized to look away from the screens or even close your eyes to practice mindfulness.Employees can tend to tap into meaningful conversations with their colleagues at such breaks.

Employers can facilitate valuable work friendships through opportunities to socialise more often.A productive exchange of words and philosophy can change your perspective and positively impact your brain and overall health.

5. Encourage Physical Activity

Doctors almost always encourage body movement as a preventive healthcare method. As an employer, too, you could promote just that. Appreciate your employees when they take breaks for a quick walk across multiple floors or be an example yourself.

Employers can also set up step challenges for groups and individuals, and rewards. Remember, allowing employees to walk or stand while working keeps them on task and helps boost productivity.

Encourage employees to walk away from their desks often. Disseminate information about the hazards of long-time sitting. Another great way to boost employee engagement and an active lifestyle are group fitness classes.

6. Office Ergonomics that Promotes Rejuvenation

The age-old proverb 'All work and no play make Jack a dull boy' also applies to an employee. Play here indicates a means of rejuvenation.

Curate a relaxation zone as a dedicated meditation space and boost mental health. A clean floor with comfortable lounges and a relaxing atmosphere could give employees a space to de-stress.

This room could host activities like card/board games, coffee table books, comics, colouring books, gaming lounges, etc.These activities will temporarily distract employees from stressful factors and rejuvenate them. Employees could also take power naps.

Incorporate an intentionally designed space with ample natural light and indoor plants to create a positive and soothing environment for the workforce.

7. Prioritize and Implement Mental Health Friendly Initiatives

Just as the head of the family sets the tune in the house, so does the management at the workspace. A thriving workplace's productivity speaks for itself. It recognizes, prioritizes, and invests in employee mental health.

For instance, employers may invest in workplace counseling centers for their workforce. These could aid employees in practicing a healthy lifestyle. Now, how does such a provision help?

Various stress factors at work include long hours, unclear job expectations, and job insecurity. A workplace counsellor at such a center can listen and provide valuable confidential advice.

Employees can also discuss stressful parts of their jobs and evaluate their mental impacts. Such an initiative could also ensure that your employees do not carry the stress at work to their homes. This way, you also help employees maintain work-life balance, a defining metric of a healthy lifestyle.

Employee well-being is essential for organizational resilience, retention, work-life balance, and more. It helps improve social well-being, fosters a greater sense of belonging, and enhances overall thriving.

Curate innovative and engaging wellness challenges to promote healthy habits. Use them to encourage employees to adopt healthy lifestyles at work with a sporty spirit.

Choose from various wellness challenges with Vantage Fit and curate one that suits you best.

Explore more at https://www.vantagefit.io/employee-wellness-program/.

8. Provide Consistent Health and Wellness Resources

The World Economic Forum says a healthy workforce is good for business. Health and wellness resources at work comprise aspects of work that are functional for goal achievement.

Such resources can promote growth and reduce the psychological and physiological costs of job demands. These resources enable employees to build capacity to deal with work demands.

The word 'resource' is, it indicates all means that help an employee improve her health and wellness. As a result, she is aided in enhancing her efficiency, productivity, and job satisfaction.

Such resources vary from organization to organization. Some common resources include access to mental health services, support groups, and counselling.

9. Support Work-Life Balance Through Flexible Schedules and PTO.

Balance could mean a hundred things to different people. But it is almost always the key to a better lifestyle, personally and at work.Companies that support work-life balance witness higher productivity reduced absenteeism, chronic illnesses, and improved employee wellbeing.

Employers and leaders today understand that a healthy work-life balance allows everyone to excel at work and care for their wellbeing outside the office. Below, we present three steps toward employee work-life balance that an employer may consider.

1. Offer a Flexible Work Life Balance

Flexibility at work includes options for when, where, and how work is done. Offering employees flexibility allows them to balance personal and work demands.

Flexible work arrangements could include work from home, paid leaves, and remote work provisions.

For instance, statistics reveal that 87% of employees in the United States value remote work arrangements. They attribute this preference to the flexibility that such an arrangement brings. Today's employers must understand that Generation Z values flexibility and meaningful work over traditional job perks.

2. Focus on Productivity Rather Than Work Hours

Research has debunked the belief that long working hours are proportional to increased productivity. New studies have solidified that shorter work hours can reduce burnout and boost employee wellbeing and productivity.

Stanford University research shows that productivity decreases after 50 work hours per week. Thus, instead of prying on employees' work hours, encourage managers to pay attention to task completion. This will facilitate employees' accomplishing their productivity goals.

3. Review Workloads Regularly

It is common for some departments and employees to be burdened with more work than others. Reviewing your employees' workloads can be useful here.
Encourage managers to talk to their teams regularly. Motivate them to maintain clear communication with their respective teams.

Let them inquire whether their teammates are overworked, just right, or have spare capacity. This way, they will know who is busy and stressed and who has capacity. Next, follow up by allocating tasks accordingly.

10. Fostering Community Engagement for Wellness.

Two brains are better than one, they say. In terms of a workplace too, many companies consider teamwork and team solidarity as their core strengths. In terms of wellness as well, a high spirited workplace community has a lot to offer to each employee.

According to Corporate Wellness MagazineCorporate Wellness Magazine,community engagement in the context of employee wellness refers to the involvement of employees in activities and initiatives that connect them with each other and the broader community.

Employee Wellness platforms such as Vantage Fit for instance offers employees with a community wherein employees can collaborate, compete and support colleagues.

11.Incentivize Employees for Adopting Healthy Lifestyles

When combined with simple, short-term prizes, benefits-based incentives will provide your employees with motivation.The goal is to get the wellness ball rolling until they begin to feel the internal benefits of a healthy lifestyle.

Then, track your wellness programs with great platforms like Vantage Fit. But do not forget to make it easy for employees to report their progress towards earning the incentive. Vantage Fit's reward platform offers incentives where participants can earn fitness points and redeem those for gift vouchers.

How is Healthy Lifestyle Related to Employee Satisfaction?

Now, let us dive into the relationship between employee satisfaction and lifestyle.

At the surface level, it is easy to attribute a healthy lifestyle to physical activities. However, 'lifestyle' and 'healthy' extend further to the mental, emotional, and spiritual.

Employees today are dissatisfied with jobs that only offer monetary compensation. They also look forward to workplaces that invest in their health and wellbeing.

Satisfaction at work is increasingly being considered from a business perspective and is no longer just a good-looking feature. Research shows that when employees are satisfied with organizational culture, 77% are likely to stay with their employer. Conversely, when they are not, the number falls to 24%.

Organizational culture, leadership, and work-life balance are essential to employee satisfaction. Since these are deeply affected by human factors, prioritizing health and wellbeing plays a defining role here.

Employees who prioritize their well-being and lead healthy lives often exhibit better performance and excel at managing both their time and stress levels. As a result, they have a higher chance of improved energy and lower risk of getting sick.

How Does a Healthy Lifestyle Help in Productivity?

The math on the correlations between healthy living and productivity is simple. Just as a healthy body can cradle a healthy mind, a healthy lifestyle can guarantee a productive and healthy work life. With the culture of hyper-productivity taking the world stage, employees today are expected to always be on their toes.

However, employees often find themselves distant from their productive selves.

Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.
– Paul J. Meyer

A consistently followed healthy lifestyle that makes all the difference at work. It puts employers in a better position to put their best foot forward and ensures consistency in your productive days.

Research says all talks on productivity and success fall apart when our mental and physical wellbeing is compromised.This is why, even though an active and healthy lifestyle is demanding to pick up, you may very well thank yourself some years later.

Taking care of your body and mind at work helps you better deliver your work targets and deter work blues

Bottom Line

When your mind and body are at ease,naturally you are able to put your best foot forward at work. Employers today are looking to tap into the benefits of a balanced and healthy employee lifestyle. In addition to these tips, incentivize your employees with Vantage Circle’s rewards and recognition program.

To sum up, this blog, a healthy lifestyle at work has a significant and tangible return on investment for employees and employers alike. Invest generously in your employee’s health and lifestyle because a healthy employee is your company’s working asset.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are 5 Characteristics of a Healthy Work Environment?

A healthy workplace is a place where there is strong internal communication, high Level of employee engagement,clearly defined roles and responsibilities, employee wellness is treated as a priority and good work-Life balance to name a few features.

How to Keep Healthy in the Workplace?

Few simple ways to keep healthy in the workplace are drinking plenty water,consuming minimum caffeine, bringing home cooked meal boxes, snacking on healthier options and walking and doing enough physical movements at the interval of every 2 hours.

How to Remain Healthy When You Work Long Hours?

Daily bodily movements at work including chair yoga or taking the stairs instead of elevator, frequent moving away from the screen to relax your eye muscles, bringing at least two home cooked meal boxes, practising mindful meditation and taking short naps are some of the ways to keep healthy when working for long hours.