Spring is a time of new beginnings. It’s the perfect point in the year to pause and consider whether your office culture needs some tweaking – or even an entire overhaul.
In the first of a series of blogs on office culture, we take a look at how healthy your workplace is. By that we don’t mean the individuals. We’re talking about messages that your organisation sends out to its workers about enjoying a healthy lifestyle.
In this post, we’ll offer tips and ideas to turn bad habits on their head. We’ll prompt you to factor in good health when making choices that impact office culture. Employee benefits can play a part in healthy office culture, and we’ll consider that as well.
Let’s kick off by looking at how the office culture expresses itself around food.
Healthy office snacking
It can be hard to avoid eating cakes and biscuits if they’re a common part of office life. Some teams even have things like ‘fat Fridays’ where everyone brings in cakes and high-calorie sweet treats to celebrate the last day of the week.
Birthdays and other celebrations can mean a bonanza of biscuits, cake and treats, and even with a small team, these tend to come around quite often. Employees who are trying to eat healthily or lose weight find that these occasions test their willpower.
No one wants to make themselves unpopular by banning treats. But you could ask your team how they’d feel pressing pause on sugary snacks? The answer might surprise you.
There are other options, like healthy bakes that use oats, nuts and fruit. Snacks such as flapjacks or chewy fruit and nut squares, can be high in calories, but they tend to be healthier as they’re less processed.
One boss we know swapped the biscuit tin for a fruit basket which she topped up with a weekly delivery of seasonal fruit. It became a weekly event the team looked forward to while sending a positive message about good health in the workplace.
Walking meetings
Don’t waste these warmer, brighter days if you can help it. Why not head outside for meetings, or get some exercise at the same time with walking meetings.
Sitting down too much or for too long can adversely impact your health, according to the NHS. Sitting for long periods is thought to slow the metabolism, which affects the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar, blood pressure and break down body fat.
So take a break from the desk, artificial lighting and the familiar environment of your office and head outdoors. Fresh thinking can often arrive along with the fresh air. Getting the blood flowing can give creativity and clarity of thought a boost too.
Even standing for meetings in the office can make a difference, letting the team take a break from sitting down and giving their bodies a chance to move. Sitting for long periods can make us tired and less able to take in information.
Introducing a culture of walking or standing meetings – at least some of the time – may benefit not just health, but also productivity.
Even just finding a space outdoors to hold sit-down meetings in the warmer months can shake people out of their routines and lead to new ideas while increasing a sense of wellbeing.
Healthy team events
Office parties and regular after-work drinks were standard parts of working life before the pandemic. With more people doing remote or hybrid working, some of those old patterns of office culture may have been broken.
Now could be an excellent time to start healthy new ones. The growth of the non-alcoholic drinks industry points to the fact that younger people are drinking less than their older counterparts.
“About 42% of millennials drink on a regular basis, and only 21% of Gen Z drink on a regular basis,” according to Meghan Klein, founder of non-alcoholic cocktails company Little Saints. Megan explains the rise of the ‘sober curious’ movement in Marketplace Report.
So it makes sense to look at alternatives to alcohol-based celebrations and team bonding events, to make sure that everyone feels able to fully join in.
Getting together for group activities like indoor golf, escape games, bowling, or even spa days can be a fun and invigorating way to celebrate as a team and build stronger connections.
If a more traditional night-out celebration feels right, see if the venue offers non-alcoholic options or activities like karaoke or bar games that can make it a fun evening for everyone.
Team competitions
A great way to build team cohesion is through extra-curricular activities like team competitions or sports events. Creating any sort of league in your company — whether it’s football, table tennis, quizzes or running — can build team spirit while helping team members to keep healthy and sharp.
Signing up for events like the BBC Sport Relief as a team to raise money for charity can be a spur to engage in sport and fitness. You can create your own challenge and get inventive. One team climbed the equivalent of Everest in two weeks by using the stairs in their building.
If you offer Gym Membership as one of your employee rewards, this widens the options for teams to pledge a certain amount of hours in the gym, or miles run on the treadmills collectively.
Join Cycle to Work Day
Cycle to work day is an annual event that aims to get people out of their cars and onto their bikes for their commute to work.
This isn’t always easy, because some people may be nervous about their route, or may not have the right bike or kit to make it a regular activity. On Cycle to Work Day, team members can make a pledge to try cycling to work just for that day.
Just that one time can kickstart a habit that lasts their whole working life. If you already offer the Cycle to Work Scheme as one of your staff benefits, you can find out how to support Cycle to Work Day here.
If you offer the Cycle to Work Scheme, you might want to consider showering facilities for staff as well. Enjoy Benefits director Vic Johnston talks about ‘joined-up thinking’ to make the most of staff benefits and rewards in the podcast below.
Listen: The Benefits of Benefits (Vic Johnston on the ‘How to be Happy at Work’ podcast)
Healthy Staff Benefits
Offering employee benefits like Gym Membership and Cycle to Work are both big steps in the right direction of promoting and supporting healthier lifestyles.
It’s not only about healthy bodies, however. Healthy minds matter a great deal, and our wellbeing programme offers videos on areas like nutrition, sleep, emotional agility and mental health awareness.
Take a look at all our benefits, which can help your team get and stay healthy, save them money, or help them through demands and challenges of different stages of their life. They can all play a part in helping you to create a healthy and rewarding company culture at your organisation.
About Enjoy Benefits
At Enjoy Benefits, we have great experience in helping companies of all sizes introduce benefits that are suitable for their workplace.
To find out more about the financial benefits covered in this blog, take a look at all the benefits we offer, or get in touch with us for an obligation-free chat.
You can Contact Us via our website or by phone during office hours on 0800 088 7315.
Benefits are easy to set up and ongoing administration is then run through an online platform, allowing employees to manage their own benefits while the employer can see which benefits are proving popular and what level of take-up each benefit has had.
We can help you increase engagement with your benefits, and help you save money by providing your team with benefits that can provide them with real value, and help them feel valued!
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