Off-beat Wellness Perks to Consider For Remote Teams

Although COVID-19 has limited our interactions with others, employee wellness should not go on the back burner. Keeping employees productive and reducing turnover is essential, and implementing wellness benefits and perks are a great way to start. Healthy employees mean happy and productive employees, and happy workers are 13% more productive.

Offering wellness perks can encourage happier, healthier employees all year long. We know what you’re thinking, “that sounds expensive” or “we don’t have room in their budgets for frivolous perks,” but there are a lot of cost-effective initiatives that can have an impact on your team. Read on to discover 5 wellness perks you should consider.

Encourage Movement Within the (Remote) Workspace

It’s unhealthy to remain in any one fixed position all day. Encourage an ideal home office. Instead of sitting in the same chair (or the same position on the couch), employees should use taller desks and chairs, so they have the option to stand while working throughout the day.

Companies can also encourage employees to get up and move throughout the day by offering collaborative spaces. Now, with the pandemic, this may be a mask-on office space or an at-home Zoom meeting. The goal is to give them a space to meet with other coworkers outside of the normal cubicle to initiate creativity. Create a calendar of virtual coffee dates to maintain a water cooler atmosphere from home!

Use DOWNward Dog To Bring UP Employees’ Moods

Yoga is an engaging way to focus on employee wellness. Offering bi-weekly virtual yoga sessions is a great way to create a sense of calm and community within your team. This allows employees to center their minds and bodies, returning to work with focus and ready to combat any challenges they may face day-to-day. Below are some Yoga and meditation apps you can suggest to your employees. Most are free — some have in-app purchases. You can also go to YouTube for cost-effective options!

• Daily Yoga
• Yoga Studio
• Glo
• Yoga for Beginners
• Down Dog
• Pocket Yoga
• 5 Minute Yoga

It’s Time for an Extreme Makeover

Encourage your employees to update their office space in these ways to drive productivity, engagement, and collaboration. Clear some weekly check-in time for employees to show off their space! Here’s why it matters:

• Music – Listening to music improves attitudes and brightens the mood. Playing music at an ambient level throughout the day maximizes focus and increases effectiveness. How does your team listen to music during the day?
• Plants – An office space outfitted with plants can increase employee productivity by 15%, and they bring in fresher air, reduce office illnesses, and improve the emotional state.
• Pets – Pets can reduce stress and increase communication between coworkers. Have your remote team introduce their pets!
• Virtual games – Games encourage friendly competition and can lead to increased employee engagement. Check out these Zoom game options for your team.

Catching ZZZ’s and taking breaks

Getting an adequate amount of sleep is necessary for functioning day-to-day. A nap during the day can lower stress levels, improve your mood, and increase alertness. And working a power nap into your employee schedule is often easy because even just 20 minutes is enough to boost alertness. This sweet spot is just enough time to restore energy without causing too much disruption to your work duties.

Offer Unlimited Vacation and Other Time-off Perks

Offering perks such as unlimited vacation time shows employees that leadership trusts them and believes they will be responsible and take time off when they need it. This rewards good performance and allows employees to have a flexible schedule. Remote work already increases productivity eliminates the (often stressful) work commute and allows employees to spend more time with their family and pets. Giving your team the option to take time off to mitigate burnout is the cherry on top of a remote team dynamic.

Other perks could include giving employees shorter Fridays or on-the-clock happy hours in the summer. Even a half-hour can make a world of difference to employees and help them walk away from the workweek in a positive way. Whether a big or small organization, your clients can incorporate wellness perks in one way or another.

If you want to maintain healthy and productive employees, show them that you appreciate all their hard work by giving them some wonderful benefits. Benefits such as these also attract top talent and keep them interested in working for your company.

Whether you have a robust remote wellness program or not, burnout during COVID-19 is running rampant. Check out these tips for avoiding burnout while working remotely!

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