Workplace Health Promotion Examples to Transform Your Office

There’s no denying that fostering wellness in the workplace is a crucial part of management. Study after study has shown that employees face myriad challenges when it comes to maintaining their physical and mental health. But those studies are good news, because now you know what you’re up against!

It can feel a little intimidating to choose from the countless resources, HR experts, and corporate counselors who can help you figure out how to foster a happy, healthy, productive workplace. So here at The FruitGuys, we did it for you. We sifted through popular approaches and hidden gems and—with the help of an expert—gathered these tips and workplace health promotion examples to help you get started.

Use the Resources You Already Have

According to Chase Sterling, the founder and president of the workplace wellness nonprofit Wellbeing Think Tank (WTT), if you’re looking for an office wellness reset, you don’t necessarily need to start from scratch.

“Many employers overlook their existing vendors. Health plan, Employee Assistance Program, and retirement plan providers often offer free toolkits, webinars, and education around wellbeing,” she told The FruitGuys.

Another resource at arm’s reach might be your office snack provider. Check and see if they offer free health and wellness materials. Not to toot our own horn, but clients of The FruitGuys have free access to our blogs full of health and wellness advice to share with their teams. We also offer wellness events for the workplace, and we’re happy to provide nutrition information and fun facts about specific fruits.

Don’t leave this to your employees to figure out—do the legwork to familiarize yourself with the benefits you offer, and then spread their gospel. Recommend these free resources to staff, set an example by using them yourself, and communicate about them as much as possible.

Partner with Your Community to Create Specific Programs

In the mid-2000s, the town of Fairhaven, Massachusetts, surveyed its 500 civic employees and learned that 32% of its workforce was not meeting recommended movement goals.

To help its team move more, Fairhaven went local. The town joined with a community fitness center to offer on-site bootcamp and yoga classes, and created summer and winter intramural sports leagues in partnership with local businesses. (You know what’s better than meetings? Kickball.) It also offered more digital health resources.

The program succeeded: 35% of surveyed employees said they felt town leadership was giving them the opportunity to be active.

This is a great workplace health promotion example, and you can follow Fairhaven’s lead. Partnering with local community centers and businesses not only encourages your employees, it also creates connections and networking possibilities.

Pursue Public Resources

Sterling noted that tapping municipal resources can also help your business’s workplace health promotion efforts.

“On the local level, city, county, and state public health departments often have workplace wellness programs ready to go. These partnerships are an easy way to expand on what you offer without extra expense,” she said.

A great example is the California Department of Health, which boasts a robust health and safety program and provides countless resources to businesses. For guidance that relates to your specific workplace, you can also reach out to national nonprofits like WTT or Mental Health America.

“They can provide evidence-based toolkits, trainings, and guidance that are free or very low cost,” Sterling said.

Tailor Programs to Your Company Culture

Considering your company’s mission, values, and founding ideas when developing a workplace wellness program will likely lead to more success.

San Diego’s Mixte Communications, a small PR firm that specializes in community health and social justice, provides a great workplace health promotion example. Steeped in bike culture since its inception, the company has long advocated for equitable access to biking for the community at large, and in 2018, it extended that initiative to its employees.

Mixte encourages its staff to commute via bike by providing accessible showers, a flexible dress code, official bike parking, and staff workshops on topics like bike maintenance and navigating more challenging urban biking areas.

Following Mixte’s example will likely lead you to a workplace health promotion program that reflects what makes your company unique. Take some time. Review your mission statement and assess your values. A little reflection will lead to a robust, successful program that your employees will actually use.

Mind Your Meetings

Meeting burnout is real. Studies show that virtual meetings can cause eye strain and physical discomfort because employees have to remain still to stay on camera for hours at a time (this is sometimes called “Zoom fatigue”). In-person meetings can also cause irritation, stress, and take up time that employees could have spent on more productive things. Any combination of the two creates a drag on both mental and physical health for your employees.

While meeting burnout is one of the most pervasive issues challenging the workplace, it’s also one of the easiest to address, according to Sterling. One way is to pay more attention to scheduling.

“Back-to-back meetings leave employees drained and with little time for focused work or recovery,” she told The FruitGuys. “Employers can support wellbeing by setting clear norms, such as capping meetings at 45–50 minutes to allow short breaks, designating certain days or blocks of time as ‘no-meeting zones,’ and encouraging walking or standing meetings when appropriate.”

Meetings can even be an opportunity to proactively foster wellbeing—especially if you incorporate brief, health-focused agenda items.

“Leaders can integrate wellbeing into team rituals by starting or ending meetings with the question, ‘What is one thing you will do today to prioritize your wellbeing?’” Sterling suggested. “This builds accountability and helps make health a shared daily behavior.”

Workplace Health Promotion Examples: Choose Your Fighter

Making a sweeping, holistic change to your office’s wellness approach might seem scary, but all you really need to do is get started. Incorporating even one of these workplace health promotion examples into your company’s everyday operations can be a game-changer. So get going—your employees will thank you!