Why You Should Offer a Virtual Wellness Program to Remote Employees
If you’re a business owner, you know the burden of constantly being swamped with operations work and inquiries. You have to lean on your employees and trust that they won’t let you down. But amidst all the day-to-day needs, you may not be able to stop and consider your employee’s mental health needs.
This is a critical aspect of your workforce that must be cared for. It may not seem like it, but your team members’ emotional well-being is as important as their skillset. Especially after the uncertainty of the last couple of years, virtual wellness has become viable and essential.
If there’s one thing from the pandemic that looks like it’s here to stay, it’s businesses allowing employees to work from home. If you’ve gone remote, and are ready to start prioritizing the mental health of your employees, read this virtual wellness guide.
Virtual Wellness for Your Business
So you may be thinking, “what is virtual wellness? Don’t you need to be in person for therapy and exercise classes?” The truth is, no- you don’t need to be in person for any of these activities. You can support your team’s well-being entirely through the computer.
Virtual wellness just means taking the wellness activities you already know about and making them available online. Everyone had to transition to virtual for a time in 2020 and the wellness industry was not left behind. Therapists, yoga teachers, and team builders moved their offerings to the internet.
You are probably familiar with the traditional corporate wellness efforts. A virtual wellness program isn’t entirely different.
The biggest challenge is fostering a sense of community with the business culture. When your employees don’t have the opportunity to get to know one another, it’s harder for them to bond over common goals.
Why It’s So Important
But that’s part of why virtual wellness is so important. Each of the activities you launch and every incentive you provide will allow opportunities for your team to become stronger together. Mental health care, fitness, meditation, and team workshops allow people to flourish in the workplace.
Providing a virtual wellness program for your remote employees is essential for several reasons. A positive working environment can make or break a company, and it’s your employees who make up that environment.
What to Include in Your Program
Virtual wellness offerings should include a place where employees can express their thoughts and feelings about work-related issues. These spaces for open dialogue often lead to much lower levels of stress and anxiety. They also result in coworkers finding more common ground from which they can grow as a team.
Providing online exercise and meditation classes is known to increase focus and clarity of mind. Offering incentives for participation is a great way to increase engagement. There are many apps you can use to track employees’ progress and give rewards.
You also want to include social opportunities for your employees. Virtual happy hours, themed days for your Zoom meetings, and Slack channels for fun subjects are great ways to bring your team together.
Steps You Can Put in Place Today
Now that you’ve started understanding virtual wellness, there are many things you can do today to start developing your wellness program. First, reach out to Atlanta Mobile Massage and Wellness and ask about our complete program package. Especially with the radical transition to work-from-home, we’ve adjusted to deliver a complete program to you.
When starting a virtual wellness program, make sure it has these options:
- Connect with local therapists who are offering virtual meetings and see if they can dedicate a block of time to your employees
- Do the same with local fitness providers
- Schedule time for casual “office” hangouts like Zoom parties, coffee chats, happy hours, etc.
- Start conversation channels about subjects unrelated to work
- Make virtual meetings more entertaining in any way that works for you
- Allow opportunities for employees to provide feedback and express themselves
- Provide opportunities for continued training or education
By implementing these virtual wellness tips, you will start to see an overall improvement in the mental health and happiness of your employees. Atlanta Mobile Massage and Wellness offers all of this and more to kick start your program.
Other Ways to Support a Wellness Program
If you can’t hire an organization or create your own virtual wellness program, you can still support your employees’ mental well-being. There are other ways you can promote a wellness program for your company.
At the very least, you can encourage your employees to take on therapeutic and exercise regimes by covering their fees for such programs. Oftentimes, people cannot afford the additional expenses of taking care of their mental health, but if it’s sponsored by their boss, they will be more inclined.
You can also promote a healthy work-life balance by tracking days off and making sure people are actually taking what they have earned. You can reward people with extra time off or work-sponsored vacations. Taking your team on a trip together can accomplish many of the goals of a wellness program.
Creating Happiness in the Workplace
Ultimately it comes down to this: a happy workforce means a happy and productive working environment. Employees are no longer tolerating toxic work environments. To hold on to your team and give them the best possible opportunity for joy and success with your company, you’ll want to implement a virtual wellness plan.
You can customize your plan entirely to fit your employees’ needs. Pick from any of these ideas above, or send a survey to your team to find out what they want. Every step you take is one step closer to creating a wellness plan for your company.
Especially with so many businesses switching to work-from-home, having a virtual wellness program should be on the top of any business owner’s to-do list. If you’re ready to get started implementing your virtual wellness plan, contact us today to get a quote on our offerings!