Help your employees stay healthy, happy and productive by reducing the stress and anxiety of social isolation while working from home.
Corporations and businesses have been implementing workplace wellness and yoga classes in their physical offices to boost employee productivity and reduce absenteeism and health care costs for years. These companies care about their employees. They want to help them stay healthy, happy and successful. But, what happens when the entire world has to pivot to an online and work-from-home structure? Here is how your team can implement a workplace wellness program for work-at-home employees.
About Me and My Mission
I am a workplace wellness provider and office yoga teacher based in the Research Triangle of North Carolina. As the owner and lead teacher of Yoga in the Triangle, I have been teaching in offices and corporate facilities in this thriving and innovative region for over two years. I am passionate about helping employees and leadership flourish in the workplace through wellness, yoga and mindfulness.
I am writing this article because in just a few weeks since the coronavirus pandemic has turned the world on its head, I have been working to continue bringing these services to employees. I have been leading live, online yoga and meditation classes through a number of platforms and I have personally witnessed the positive and immediate impact it has on wellness and mental health.
As a leader in the workplace wellness and office yoga space, I have observed that one of the biggest obstacles companies face in moving their wellness programs online is a lack of structure for the program. Companies with thriving in-office wellness offerings aren’t prepared to deliver yoga, meditation and other wellness modalities to employees working from home.
Here are my top three tips for setting up an online wellness program for work from home employees. By following this approach, companies have been able to continue supporting their employees’ health and wellness while building a sense of team participation and camaraderie.
Know Your Employees
The more you understand your employee needs, the more you can tailor and personalize their wellness program for a valuable experience.
When on-boarding a company to online wellness and yoga, offer a survey to employees to assess their most pressing needs. Use the results and feedback to create classes and offerings that directly address their concerns and what is happening for them right now.
As you get to know your employee’s needs, you learn how to best tailor the program to fit your company culture. For instance, you might learn that employees struggle with getting up out of their chairs for movement and exercise. Or, you might learn employees are most concerned with their anxiety levels and could use meditation and breath work rather than a Power Yoga class.
Partner with Professionals
Many companies already contract with a professional employee wellness service to implement their program. These programs can help your team stay on track and provide professional-level classes tailored to work at home employees. This could be a locally-based service like Yoga in the Triangle or a local fitness provider. Larger companies may take a broader approach by contracting with a less personalized, national service.
Yoga in the Triangle’s online wellness program includes partnerships with wellness professionals who provide health and self-care workshops. According to our nutrition partner, Talitha Ellsworth, Registered Dietician, “When it comes to nutrition, it has to be tackled a little differently during this time. Very general and basic recommendations. Food can actually cause many a lot of stress.”
Because of the sensitive nature of eating and exercise habits, it is important to have the guidance of a professional when offering health advice to employees. Professionals can help you create a wellness program tailored to your company’s needs.
Just Make it Available
Even if its just a once per week meditation break offered to kick off a conference call, just make something wellness-related available. Your employees are craving a break from the stress and anxiety of global events, the overwhelm of integrating work and family, and the isolation of not interacting with their colleagues and friends.
Showing them you care about their well-being and are willing to create an offering to support them through this experience will mean more than a perfect and streamlined software or app.
Need some guidance with offering workplace wellness and yoga online?
Contact Tiffany for a phone consultation or video conference. I am ready to help you implement online yoga and wellness for your employees as soon as next week.
