7 Employee Wellness Topics for Lunch and Learn Sessions

In today’s business world, life can get monotonous at times and affects employees’ moods. It is because workers often engage in the same work every day. This bores the workforce and can also affect their mental state redundant. So, it is essential to break the chain and come up with some fun activities at work.

Doing so will keep things interesting for a better work environment. To accommodate this change, companies have come up with many ideas. Some of these are informal workspaces, game rooms, picnics, Lunch and learn sessions, etc.

This article will explore more about Lunch and learn sessions and what are some of the fun topics to discuss in these sessions.

But first, let’s get acquainted with what Lunch and learn sessions are.

What is a Lunch and learn?

It's never easy to decide whether to take a lunch break away from the workplace or to eat the leftovers as quickly as possible so that you can respond to the bunch of emails.

The heavy workload makes us repent for wasting those precious minutes of lunch break.
That’s where the concept of a Lunch and learn comes into play.

A Lunch and learn is a group lunchtime activity where one can discuss interesting subjects. These can be anything from brainstorming business strategies, training programs, or fitness routines. Such sessions in the workplace are also known as brown bag meetings.

The idea behind these sessions is to encourage employees to get together while simultaneously utilizing that time to complete seminars, meetings, and other activities.

Let’s explore some of the fun and informative topics that we can discuss in these sessions

7 Employee Wellness Topic for Lunch and Learn Sessions

1. Nutrition at Workplace

Our body needs to have a proper intake of different supplements and food items to function well. In this regard, a proper diet is vital for a healthy lifestyle. When workers eat healthily, they feel good, light, and energetic, helping them work well.

Therefore, it is essential to encourage employees on an appropriate diet in their daily life. But, because of their busy lives, they fail to eat well. On many occasions, you’d find your workers eating junk food from outside. It has adverse effects on employee health.

To emphasize eating healthy foods, you can discuss proper nutrition at your brown bag event. It will help your workforce understand the benefits of proper nutrition in their life.

Points/Activities to undertake:

• Having a professional nutritionist over to discuss a proper diet.
• Inviting a chef over to show some quick and healthy recipes.
• Calling upon a guest speaker of a nearby organic business to demonstrate some products.
• Brainstorming on a few products for having at the office snack bar.
• Considering the plantation of some fruit trees inside the office premises.

2. Fitness

It's tricky to maintain a healthy balance between a sedentary office job and a healthy lifestyle. Your employees might fall into a rut of lethargy in the workplace unless you can provide standing desks.

As a result, discussing health and wellness at your next lunch-and-learn could be an excellent idea.

One of the common ways to ensure fitness is having regular workouts and meditation sessions. It helps individuals to stay fit mentally and physically. But amidst the busy corporate lifestyle, finding the time to work out is hard.

Suggested read: 42 Office Exercises You Can Do At Your Desk To Stay Fit

Points/Activities to undertake:

• Having a trainer over to show an office and work from home workout routine.
• Deciding on a regular seven-minute workout session.
• Invite employees to share some fitness woes and how to overcome them.
• Considering the views of implementing an office gym.
• Reviewing different wellness apps on physical fitness for personal use.

3. Stress Relief Activities

Workplace stress is a big issue affecting companies worldwide. It affects both employee wellbeing and productivity. Owing to these two reasons, employers must do everything possible to reduce stress at the workplace.

To counteract the aspects of stress, numerous measures are available. While you may know some, there might be a few uncommon as well.

Exploring these topics during the Lunch and learn sessions could be really beneficial.

Points to discuss:

• Discussing what elements bring the most stress in the workplace for different workers.
• Talking about different stress relief activities that workers like to do while being stressed.
• Brainstorming various activities to get into an office environment to release tension.
• Reviewing multiple ideas for brain breaks for adults at work to ease the brain.
• Conversing a few board game ideas in the office like darts to reduce mental stress.
• Conducting a group yoga or meditation session.

4. Exercises

Exercise is the cornerstone of a healthy life. They help us stay fit, build strong bones, gain better immunity, etc. What’s even better is that there are many exercises your workforce can practice in the workplace.

These can be hand exercises for carpal tunnel syndrome prevention, training for body posture, etc. Since some exercises require no equipment at all, your employees must know of these immediately.

To facilitate this exchange of knowledge, you should discuss this at your meeting.

Points/Activities to undertake:

• Discussing the importance of office exercises.
• Demonstration of a few exercises by a professional.
• Brainstorming on different exercises to practice on the desk.
• Talking about the channels which the employees follow for fitness.
• Deciding a few health events like walking to promote fitness in the workplace.
• Introducing or providing your employee fitness apps.

5. Healthy Activities in the Workplace

There are numerous healthy activities your workforce can do in the office to stay fit. You should also emphasize the importance of these activities in the workplace. here, one such healthy activity can be Yoga.

Yoga is an age-old method of staying healthy. Other than being a healthy activity, it is a fantastic stress relief activity as well. Here, all you need is awareness and a yoga mat to get your employees practicing yoga in the workplace.

Here, one other activity can also be meditation. It refreshes our mind and restores sanity to proceed appropriately with work. Here, since having office meditation doesn’t require much equipment, it is also a tremendous cost-effective stress buster.

Since these are two essential parts of a healthy lifestyle, your workforce must know about this in detail. Therefore, discussing these activities will be an excellent addition to the meeting.

Points/Activities to undertake:

• Talking about the importance of yoga and meditation in the workplace.
• Inviting a professional over to demonstrate a few office yoga poses.
• Employees talking about the yoga poses and office meditation techniques they practice.
• Having workers converse on how yoga or meditation helps them in certain situations.
• Reviewing a few yoga and meditation apps on the play store or app store for free or paid use.

6. Mental Health

Mental health is a crucial factor in employee wellness today. Many individuals suffer from different mental problems because of their nature of work. These can be anxiety, workplace depression, mood disorders, etc. Mental health conditions can affect both the personal and professional life of your employees.

Therefore, employers must pay close attention to these issues. One way of doing so is by talking about them which makes it a perfect Lunch and learn topic.

Points to discuss:

• Discussing the importance of Mental Health.
• Having a guest speaker talk about various tips and tricks to maintain a sound mental state.
• Conversing on the idea of employee counseling for the workforce.
• Reviewing different channels focusing on mental health.
• Deciding on a channel of communication to address mental health issues at the workplace.

7. Local Health Clubs

Participating in events by the local health clubs is also a great way to stay healthy. In this aspect, gyms, aerobic studios, yoga studios are great alternatives. Therefore, you should also discuss some local establishments for employees to consider.

Here, you can also talk about health events around the city for workers to participate in. Taking part in such activities as a group is a great team-building activity as well.

Points to discuss:

• Employees discussing the possibility of being a part of a health club.
• Discussing on upcoming events like town virtual marathon or walkathon.
• Workers reviewing different health clubs in the city with a possibility to join.
• Brainstorming on some office health club ideas like walking club, jogging club, etc.
• Considering the possibility of having a corporate health club membership.

Suggested read:20 Awesome Icebreaker Games For Work

Virtual Lunch and learn topics

With the pandemic taking a toll over the entire workforce, the sedentary lifestyle has shifted from the mundane office to our home as well.

If you have employees working remotely, then you shouldn’t neglect them from these lunches and learn sessions as they already feel disconnected from the organization so it’s imperative that you include them in these sessions.

Let’s explore some fun and interactive topics to include in these virtual lunches and learn sessions

5 unique topics for virtual Lunch and learn sessions

• Balancing parenting with work

Work from home can be a nightmare for the parents. With today’s ‘have it all culture you are expected to crush your goals at work and be the perfect parent at home too.
Even though it sounds nice but it’s not practically possible to balance both.
Sharing each other’s experiences and coming up with tricks and solutions on how to balance both can really break the ice among co-workers.

• Time management skills

Managing time can be really tricky for employees both in their professional and personal lives. Discussing ways to plan a proper workday and achieve goals in time can be really beneficial. It will further help to reduce stress and anxiety at work.

• Managing networking skills

Work from home can really mess up with the employees’ networking skills. Since networking is the key to achieve success at work, discussing topics about how to elevate your networking skills can be insightful.

• Meal prep sessions

In conventional Lunch and learn sessions, the employers provide free foods and drinks. But with covid and remote working, the employers can include those working from home too by giving allowance to your team members to order foods online or send the necessary ingredients to their resident places.

Preparing a meal together can be fun and ice breakers in these sessions.

Suggested read:9 Super Easy Meeting Snacks Ideas For Your Next Event

Conclusion

Meetings are the place wherein the most serious discussions of the office take place. But the main motive of organizing a lunch and learn is to break this pattern of monotony and make it more fun.

With the right tools and topics to discuss you can easily reduce stress, and lighten up the environment where you can discuss new ideas and make it a productive session as well.
Furthermore, it is also an excellent team-building activity.

There you have it, a myriad of reasons to organize your lunch and learn session soon!