Workplace Wellbeing Day offers us the opportunity to focus solely on employee health and wellbeing, and ways that we can maintain our mental and physical health whilst in the work environment. Whether you’re working from home or you’re in the office, maintaining a healthy work-life balance can be quite tricky. There may be times when you feel overwhelmed, stressed, burnt out or isolated, but this shouldn’t be the norm. To help cultivate and support a healthy balance in the workplace, we have gathered some tips and resources.
Workplace Wellbeing and Mental Health
Firstly, let’s focus on supporting mental well-being within the workplace. Whilst work can leave us feeling a little stressed at times (thank you, tight deadlines and complex projects), you shouldn’t feel stressed all of the time. Stress can negatively affect both your mental and physical health, and it can leave you feeling burnt out. Not only will this mean a dip in your work performance, but more importantly, it will affect your quality of life outside of work.
Stress Management
To help us cope better, we can learn stress management techniques. In this blog post, we explore the four A’s of stress management: avoid, alter, adapt, and accept. We also discuss how you can identify the different types of stress in your life, and how you can use these techniques to eliminate or reduce them.
Employee Burnout
As mentioned above, employee burnout can be the result of stress and strain in the workplace. But what does it look like? In this article, we discuss burnout symptoms and how to avoid them. We have also included a short and helpful self-assessment that will help you reflect on whether you’re currently struggling with employee burnout.
Achieving a Healthy Work-Life Balance
We spend a lot of time at work and it can sometimes be difficult to separate your work life from your home life, especially if you’re working from home! Unfortunately, when these lines become blurred the risk of burnout increases, so it’s important to take measures to maintain a healthy balance. To help you do this, we have gathered some helpful tips in our “Achieving a Healthy Work-Life Balance” blog post for you.
Top Tips for Maintaining Mental Wellbeing
Luckily, there are tonnes of helpful apps available (most of which are free to use) that we can use as tools to support mental wellbeing. For instance, the Insight Timer app (available on iOs and Android) offers thousands of guided meditations, sleep tracks, and daily affirmations from experts and it is completely free to use.
Alternatively, you can opt for subscription-based apps like Headspace (available on Android and iOs) or Calm (also available on Android and iOs) which also offer guided meditations and sleep stories.
Workplace Wellbeing and Physical Health
You may be thinking “how can I support my physical well-being if I’m sitting at a desk for eight hours each day?”. If that is the case, all the more reason to prioritise movement. Physical wellness is a huge part of workplace wellbeing, as we spend a lot of time seated and this can lead to neck, shoulder, and back stiffness and pain (especially if you’re not sitting correctly). Try to take regular breaks from the desk to stand up, stretch, and walk around. If you’re working from home, leave your work-station and do a lap of the house. Why not feed two birds with one scone and grab a glass of water en route to help stay hydrated? Similarly, if you’re working in an office environment, try to do a lap of the office every hour or so to stretch your legs.
Regular Exercise
If you’re not a regular gym-goer, there are many ways that you can exercise from the comfort of your own home. For instance, there are plenty of online classes that you can join. Similarly, you can find lots of free video content online that personal trainers have shared via their social media channels. Alternatively, you could opt for subscription services like Shreddy or Apple Fitness+ where you can find online classes to suit your needs and keep track of your progress.
If you have always wanted to start running but you weren’t sure where to start, you can simply download the Couch to 5K app (available on iOs and Android). This app provides you with a week-by-week plan, helping you to gradually build up to running 5km.
Healthy Eating
A massive part of supporting physical wellness involves healthy eating. Think of your body as a plant – you need to feed it nutrients for it to grow strong and healthy! Contrary to popular belief, healthy eating doesn’t have to be boring or time-consuming. And don’t worry, you don’t have to eat a salad every single day either. Simply try to get as many different fruits and vegetables into your diet as possible – the more colour the better. Need some inspiration? The Happy Pear shares tonnes of delicious, easy-to-make recipes on their website. Whilst all of these recipes are plant-based, you can simply add fish or meat if they’re usually present in your diet.
Organising Social Events to Promote Workplace Wellbeing
Whilst working from home cuts down on time spent commuting to and from work, there are some downsides. One such downside is that many people feel isolated or lonely at work. This is especially true for anyone starting a new remote job as it can be tricky to meet new people and form friendships from behind a screen. However, it’s not impossible! To help cultivate social well-being in the workplace, we have gathered some ideas to help boost engagement and get people chatting about non-work-related topics.
Random Coffees
Firstly, if you use Slack in your workplace, there is an app that you can install to randomly pair up people in your company for a coffee catch-up. Every Monday, this bot will pair up two random people and they can organise a time and day during the week to meet for 30 minutes or so. They can use this time to get to know each other in a casual setting, over a cup of tea or coffee. This is a wonderful way to meet people outside of your immediate team, that you may not have contact with otherwise!
Step Challenge
As we know, remaining active is important to both our mental and physical well-being so why not make it a team effort? Organising a step challenge can encourage staff to get involved and up their fitness levels. Splitting into teams offers staff the opportunity to get to know each other and it helps build a sense of community. A little friendly competition never went astray either!
Social Clubs
As fitness may not be everyone’s forte, you may consider starting other clubs in the workplace. For instance, you could start a book club very easily! Anyone interested can contribute book recommendations and members could meet over Zoom to discuss the book of the month. Similarly, you could start a cooking club where members share recipes or a knitting club where members share projects that they’re currently working on – the possibilities are truly endless.
How are You Celebrating Workplace Wellbeing Day?
We would love to hear how you’re celebrating Workplace Wellbeing Day and what you’re doing to promote a sense of well-being in your own workplace! Join our online community on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
If you would like to learn more about how Webdoctor.ie can help you promote health and wellness within your place of work, check out our Corporate Care offering!
