Ideas for Launching a Corporate Wellness Program

Setting up a workplace wellness program is a great first step to ensure your employees have the opportunity to be as healthy and happy as possible. Any good corporate wellness initiative should focus on three main categories: a healthy diet, a healthy amount of exercise, and a healthy working environment. We'll break those three categories down into specific ideas that you can build into your very own health and wellness program!

Healthy Food and Beverages

Anyone that’s talked with a personal trainer or middle school health teacher knows that it all starts with what you put into your body. There are countless clichés to drive home that point. Food is the fuel for your body. Abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym. You get out what you put in. Here are some ideas on how you can help your colleagues improve eat and drink healthier.

Offer Healthy Office Snacks and Drinks

Believe it or not, snacking at work is actually good for you! Smart snacking, that is. Eating a sleeve of Oreos at 10 in the morning isn’t going to do anyone any good. However, eating healthy snacks throughout the day can enhance productivity, increase happiness, and prevent overeating during meals. Some healthy alternatives to snacks and sodas are fruit, granola bars, pretzels, jerky, LaCroix, and tea.

Provide Company Branded Water Bottles

Hydration is key and very few of us drink enough water. The best way to promote increased H20 consumption amongst your team is to provide them with custom reusable water bottles with your company logo. Personalized drinkware not only encourages hydration, but it also promotes sustainability by cutting back on plastic water bottle consumption and evokes company pride!

Distribute a List of Health Dining Options in the Area

If your business is large enough to have an internal cafeteria, dining hall or food court, that is the perfect way to get healthy food options in front of your team on a daily basis. However, most companies are not capable of providing such a service. In that case, do some research and compile a list of local restaurants and eateries that offer healthy options and distribute it to everyone in the office. Be sure to include some top menu items from each place!

Fitness and Activities

Now that we’ve checked food and drinks off the list it’s time to get moving! There are a ton of ways you can encourage your staff to exercise, both on and off company grounds. Here are a few popular ideas to get the ball rolling:

Offer an On-Site Exercise Room or Discounts on Gym Memberships

They say half the battle is getting yourself to the gym. If your office has some extra space, an on-site gym or exercise room is a fantastic way to encourage people to work out. It doesn’t need to be anything super elaborate and expensive either. A couple treadmills, ellipticals, and a set of free weights do the trick just fine.

Offer Discounts on Memberships to Local Gyms

Don’t have space for an exercise room in your office? Not too worry, that’s the case with most workplaces. Offering a free or discounted membership to local gyms is another great way to incentivize people to go to the gym who might have had a hard time fitting the cost of a gym membership into their budget.

Set Up a Company Sports Team

The benefits of an office sports team are twofold. Not only is it a fun and easy way to stay in shape, but its also a great team building activity! Research some local co-ed adult sports leagues and then gauge interest around the office. The most popular team sports for companies to participate in are softball, kickball, basketball, and volleyball. Since this is an employee health initiative you should cover all the expenses and entrance fees for your team. It’s always a good idea to make team uniforms too, even if it’s just your screen printed company logo on a t-shirt or hat!

Host On-Site Yoga Classes

This idea is one of our favorites at Merchology! This fall we hosted a sunrise yoga session for a relaxing and stress-free start to our morning. We also hosted an outdoor yoga session after lunch this summer, it was the perfect way to kick off the second half of the day. Reach out to a local yoga studio to see if there are instructors available to stop by your office.

Provide Company Branded Fitness Trackers

The best way for your team to monitor their progress is through actionable data and information, and there’s no better way to get this information than through wearable tech like fitness and activity trackers. It’s not just counting calories anymore either. These gadgets give you useful data on your sleep, movement, heart rate, and much more. Add your company logo to a custom fitness tracker from Fitbit and Under Armour and give them to your team as corporate holiday gifts, just in time for New Year's resolutions!

Provide Bike Racks & Showers to Incentivize Biking to Work

Biking to work is good for your health, good for the environment, and saves you money. So why don’t more people do it? Aside from weather conditions, the most common reason people give for abstaining from cycling to work is that their office either doesn’t have a safe space for their bike or that they don’t want to be sweaty at work all day. You can solve both of these issues with some moderate remodeling.

Supply Your Team with Company Branded Workout Apparel

It's hard to get your workout in if you don't have the right clothes! You can probably skip the running shoes, but it's a great idea to provide custom gym shirts, athletic shorts, and other fitness apparel.

Popular Fitness Apparel and Accessory Brands

We're all about Your Logo + Brands You Love here at Merchology, especially when it comes to custom activewear and fitness apparel. We offer over 200 retail brands that are perfect for your company logo, but here's a look at some of our most popular fitness apparel:

 

Host a Company 5k Race Event

There might not be a better way to get the whole company involved in working towards a healthier lifestyle than by organizing a company-sponsored 5k race. A 5k race is the perfect athletic event for a large and diverse group for a few reasons. Namely, don’t require any special equipment, training, or skill sets. Just outfit your team in some personalized 5k race apparel and get moving. If planning a 5k sounds like a daunting task be sure to check out our complete 5k Race Event Planning Guide!

Workplace Wellness Around the Office

Health and wellness aren’t all about exercising and eating right, it's a mental game too. You also have to take things like comfort, happiness, and stress. Here are some changes you can make in the workplace to improve the health and mental wellbeing of your staff:

Assess Ergonomics in the Workplace

 How comfortable are your employees at their workstation? Ensuring a comfortable and ergonomic worksite is crucial for productivity, engagement, and long-term health. That means providing comfortable and supportive chairs, monitor risers, and other ergonomic accessories like mouse pads and keyboards. Working for hours every day in a strenuous position can take a toll on your body over the years.

Provide Standing Desks

This goes along with the last idea, there's no more ergonomic position that standing straight up if your posture is correct. You can either provide convertible desks that can switch between standing and sitting or you can provide a few fixed standing desks in the office that employees can work at when they want a break from their sitting desk!

 

Give Your Team Paid Time Off

 Paid time out of the office is extremely important for the happiness of your workforce. PTO can consist of paid vacation days, sick days, personal days, and mental health days. You should also offer paid time off for bereavement, maternity leave, and paternity leave.

Encourage People to Take the Stairs

 Taking the stairs up to your office is the easiest way to add a little extra exercise to your day. Post signs by the elevators to remind people of the of the benefits of choosing the stairs over the lift. 

Benefits of a Corporate Health and Wellness Program

The main purpose of an employee health and wellness program is to pass along the benefits to your team. However, that doesn’t mean that a corporate wellness program isn’t beneficial to the company as well! Here are a few of the many ways that a worksite wellness program can elevate your business:

• Improved Employee Happiness and Morale
• Increased Productivity and Collaboration
• Reduced Healthcare Costs
• More Inclusive Workplace
• Fewer Absences Due to Illness
• Great Recruiting Tool to Attract Top Talent

Next Steps

If you need any more reasons to incorporate health and wellness initiatives into your business, then you might want to start from the top and read this again! Otherwise, you've got some great ideas to kick off your corporate wellness program. Browse our Health and Wellness Collection for some awesome custom health and fitness apparel and accessories with your logo to jump start your program! Finally, make sure to check out our other Planning Guides and How-To's if you found this guide useful.