16 Virtual Wellness Ideas and Activities for Remote Employees

Everyone thought virtual jobs would become null and void with the decline of COVID cases. Instead, most companies embraced remote work positively. With it, the idea of hybrid work came into existence.

Employees working in hybrid jobs are seen to have better work productivity and performance. It is one of the biggest reasons why employers are keen on offering hybrid jobs.

However, being human, it is natural for employees to struggle to deliver quality work at times. With it, some employees fail to balance their professional and personal lives.

And in more complex situations, employees who work remotely develop unwanted health issues.

This is where the power of wellness activities for remote employees comes into play. Virtual wellness activities aim to boost health for employees working from home. Such an initiative seeks to offer your remote workers a healthy work-life balance in a fun and engaging way.

So, are you looking for strategies to boost the experience of your remote employees? Or are you considering tips for reducing stress in your employees?

Worry not, as I have curated some of the best virtual wellness ideas and activities you can organize to boost employee health. Let's get started!

Top virtual wellness ideas and activities for remote teams

1. Virtual Workout Sessions

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.

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. When combined with a healthy diet, these exercises can help 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

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

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 muscle tension, and refresh our minds.

3. 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.

4. Online fitness challenge

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

Online fitness challenges can help motivate and improve the overall well-being of employees. Even research suggests hosting online fitness challenges positively impacts the participants.

Here are virtual wellness ideas that you can host as part of an online fitness challenge.

• Step Challenge

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.

To create a successful one, set a daily number of steps for your employees 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.

• Water Drinking Challenge

Studies report that overworked employees forget to stay hydrated or eat properly.

Now, this is something that employers should be wary of since dehydration can immensely affect work performance and quality. It's because dehydration can cause brain fog, wherein the affected person suffers from decreased work productivity and loses the ability to focus.

So, hosting a water challenge is a great way to promote wellness for your remote employees. To make such a wellness initiative a success, you can integrate a health-tracking app that allows users to log daily water intake.

• Squat challenge

Squats are a fantastic workout for individuals who work long hours in a sitting job. Squatting helps strengthen the core, glutes, and the quadriceps. Moreover, squats are known to prevent lower back pain.

You can hold a 30-day squat challenge, where employees must record themselves while doing it for 30 days.

5. 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 greatly benefits 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.

6. Stress Management

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. You can organize mental health workshops that offer multiple sessions covering all dimensions of mental wellness.

7. Online Journaling

The power of penning down in a journal is often overlooked. Working remotely can be monotonous and stressful. And in the long term, such emotions affect remote employees’ work quality.

This is where journaling can work its magic of stress relief.Writing down one’s emotional turmoil can help give employees a different perspective and reduce stress. This will help them tackle the root cause behind the emotional roller coaster.

Journaling is a task that most are reluctant to try, as not everyone is habituated to the idea of writing their thoughts. So, you can incentivize and gamify this activity to encourage their participation.

For instance, you can set a fixed number of points for every journal entry employees make for a specific number of days.

8. 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.

9. 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 stay fit.

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

10. Virtual "Healthy Lunch and Learn"

A virtual "healthy lunch and learn" session is one of the most brilliant remote wellness activities you can conduct for your remote employees.

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

11. Finance Workshops

Financial wellness undoubtedly plays a significant role in maintaining overall health. Arranging finance workshops is another great virtual wellness idea. This helps provide valuable financial information to employees.

You can reach out to renowned financial experts who are willing to educate corporates on how to deal with financial stressors and lead a less stressful life.

12. 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.

13. 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. In fact, employers can continue with the doctor if they want to.

14. 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

15. 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 include 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. 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.

The app consists of a curated list of challenges that are 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.

16. Greenery Giveaway

It is known that greenery in nature soothes the eyes and mind. It's because exposure to nature is linked to attention recovery theory and stress reduction theory.

According to attention recovery theory, staying connected to nature improves concentration levels. Stress reduction theory suggests nature boosts recovery related to psychophysiological stress.

So, keeping your employees close to greenery will help them focus better on work and deal with psychophysiological stress, if any. So, gift your remote workers with indoor desk plants as part of a "Greenery Giveaway" virtual wellness activity from your end.

Use a Web-based Wellness Platform

It is essential to strategize ideas for remote employees to offer them a healthy work-life balance. With it, considering factors that may backfire the plan, such as:

• Employees may not engage in wellness activities.
• Getting all the employees to participate in team challenges.
• Employees lack the zeal to take part in the activities.

So, incorporating a web-based wellness platform will help overcome the above obstacles.

Also read: 7 Wellness Incentive Ideas To Boost Your Corporate Programs

Tips for increasing engagement in virtual wellness initiatives

Increasing engagement in wellness initiatives is all about trying different strategies before stumbling upon the right one. It would be wrong to think one wellness program will immediately suit every employee's wellness demands.

But, with the research plan and the right tool, an ideal wellness program is achievable. Here are some practical tips you must try to boost employee engagement in virtual wellness initiatives:

• Study the wellness programs that other organizations have.
• Study your workforce. Learn every employee's health status and needs.
• Research wellness activities that will fulfill your employees' health requirements.
• Make sure the activities address all the dimensions of wellness.
• Go for activities that employees can perform in a remote working situation.
• Conduct anonymous surveys before and after integrating the wellness initiative to learn its effectiveness.
• Recognize and incentivize to encourage the participation rate.

Wrapping Up - Elevate Your Remote Employee Wellness with Vantage fit

Introducing virtual wellness activities can be fun, engaging, and rewarding for your remote employees. It is an excellent way for them to break from their monotonous remote work routine and indulge in some extracurricular activity.

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 well-being.

Also, it will give them the nudge to push forward and achieve their health goals. 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.

In this case, the wisest strategy is to incorporate a corporate wellness program for the best results. Vantage Fit is a wellness platform that you should consider if you want to promote employee wellness. This platform is designed to create a happier and healthier workplace holistically.

So far, combining the essence of gamification and incentivization, Vantage Fit has helped employees take 19.4 billion steps on a global scale. So, hurry, talk to our experts here and get a sneak peek.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. 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.