Make these Changes to your 2021 Corporate Wellness Strategy

Due to COVID-19, the “normal” workplace will never be the same, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In an effort to keep businesses running while simultaneously slowing the spread of the virus, many companies shifted to offsite, work-from-home (WFH) models. As a result, we have seen massive changes in the workplace environment. To be sure we’re setting our employees up for success in 2021, we must assess our corporate wellness plans in light of these changes.

4 Changes Your Corporate Wellness Plan Needs in 2021

If you haven’t already taken these changes into account, now is the time.

Boosting Physical Activity

Before employees worked from home, even those who did not engage in a fitness lifestyle had a certain amount of movement worked into their day. Unfortunately, with the WFH experience, it’s all too easy to move from the bed to the desk to the couch and back to bed at the end of the day without having taken more than a thousand steps total. This much inactivity is very hard on the body.

However, just two and a half hours of moderate exercise per week has been proven to have long-term positive benefits for both physical and emotional wellbeing, including reduced risks of heart disease, high blood pressure, depression, stroke, type 2 diabetes, colon and breast cancer, and decreased cognitive function.

With online sales of fitness equipment increasing by 55% in 2020, it seems people are ready to do what it takes to keep fit from home.

While spending across traditional gyms, boutique studios and on-demand streaming fitness combined grew just over 5% last year, on-demand fitness spending jumped nearly 59%. (CNBC)

To support your employees’ fitness journey during their WFH experience, be sure your corporate wellness plan for 2021 focuses on boosting physical activity through systems such as our Office Fitness and Relaxation program here at One Stop Wellness.

Offering Resilience Training

For some people, disruptive events such as the pandemic revealed an ability to adapt to stress, disruption, and trauma. Others, however, are left feeling shaken and insecure. Resilience training aims to help people enhance their quality of life and decrease stress and anxiety by teaching them to view life’s inevitable challenges as opportunities.

You can develop resilience by learning to train your attention on more-positive aspects of your life. You use purposeful, trained attention to decrease negative thoughts in your mind and bring greater focus on the most meaningful aspect of an experience. (Mayo Clinic)

Adding resilience training to your corporate wellness plan in 2021 will grant your employees far-reaching benefits, giving them tools to overcome challenges through the coming year and beyond.

Prioritizing Mental Health

While protecting physical health was a huge focus of employee wellness in 2020 (and with good reason!), there’s some reason to believe that mental health posed a comparable threat. Anxiety, depression, burnout, loneliness, stress, and despair proved ongoing pandemic companions, leading to massive mental health challenges. Taking these factors into account, your corporate wellness plan for 2021 must prioritize employees’ mental health.

Facilitating Social Connection

When working together in an onsite setting, co-workers naturally interact and get to know one another through the course of their day. They share office space, eat lunches together, chat in the elevator, and mingle after meetings. In the WFH lifestyle, however, these social interactions are greatly reduced, if not cut out completely.

If we’re going to look after the total wellbeing of our workforce, however, we must encourage social well-being. In order to help employees thrive in 2021 and beyond, we must incorporate elements in our 2021 wellness plan that allow for increased personal connection and greater social engagement.

These elements may include items such as the following:

• Connecting on socials. Social media offers co-workers a window into each other’s daily lives. Encourage social connections to foster bonds.
• Meeting for on-screen coffee chats. Make space for social connection and chit-chat.
• Hosting a book club or movie night. A book discussion or viewing party can be just the thing to help employees come together and bond.

Strong bonds can help employees thrive amid ongoing changes and keep them centered through 2021 and beyond.

We Can Help

At One Stop Wellness, we’re here to help you support you and your employees through these unprecedented times. To learn more about how we can help you craft a corporate wellness plan for 2021 that helps to build healthy habits and create a mindful culture, please contact us.