Summer Solstice is here marking the onset of summer.
It’s time for some sun, fresh air, fresh seasonal produce, and many holistic wellness challenges ideas for a happy and healthy life, through all the seasons.
The COVID-19 pandemic has restricted physical activities, made unhealthy food easily accessible, and increased mental stress issues due to social isolation, work burnout, and other reasons. The physical and mental health issues have affected employee engagement, productivity, and overall business growth.
Many employers have implemented corporate wellness programs with holistic wellness challenges ideas to support employee wellness, engagement, and productivity, especially during the pandemic-driven remote working periods.
Give your employees a healthy Summer Break with the best employee wellbeing programs!
Be it virtual wellness challenges ideas, or at the workplace, summer is a great time to encourage healthy eats, outdoor activities, and relaxing a bit.
Let’s take wellbeing up a notch with these simple summer wellness challenges ideas.
1. Nutrition Challenge Ideas
Healthy eating habits have many health benefits. The fresh local summer produce does not have preservatives or chemicals, making them healthier. Also, seasonal fruits and vegetables contain the antioxidants and nutrients that are required to sustain that specific climate. For example, cucumbers, cantaloupe, and watermelon are summer produce that contains high water content preventing dehydration. The other summer produce includes berries, lemons, limes, avocados, apples, cherries, tomatoes, mangos, corn, beans, and more.
Employers can implement employee wellbeing programs with nutrition wellness challenge activities to boost employee immune systems and promote healthy homemade food. Host weekly summer potlucks (at the workplace or virtual) with rewards for the best summer dishes. Start sustainability challenges where employees grow their produce. Offer coupons for the local farmers markets.
2. Physical Health Challenge Ideas
The benefits of exercise are numerous. With the pandemic restricting outdoor physical activities, employees may eventually lose interest in exercising. With the fresh air and sunshine, summer is the best time to shake up things and rejuvenate their bodies with the right wellness activities. Ignite the competitiveness with fun summer-themed wellness challenge activities in your corporate wellness programs to keep the employees active, engaged, and healthy. Implementing employee wellbeing programs with a wellness program platform that is compatible with wearable devices and fitness apps can make it more interesting and easy for employees to log and track their physical activities.
Employers can include summer-themed physical health challenge ideas like 30 minutes of daily summer exercise, 8K daily step count, bike to work/store, take the stairs, swimming competitions, and other such personal wellness challenges. Team challenges are also great employee engagement strategies. The team corporate wellness challenges ideas can include outdoor sports like volleyball, baseball, tug-of-war, or even hiking on a weekend.
3. Emotional Wellbeing Challenge Ideas
The pandemic has taken a toll on employee mental health, and many studies have shown its high impact on emotional wellbeing. The uncertainty about the global situation, social isolation, remote working, work burnout, and family demands, all having to be catered to within a small frame of time has affected employee health and wellbeing. Disconnecting from the emotional stressors can help employees to get back to their healthy selves and have a stress-free life.
Through corporate wellness programs, employers can offer mental health challenge ideas that can help them beat stress. The summer-themed mental wellbeing challenge ideas can include yoga sessions, motivating talks, breathing exercises, eating healthy, and hobby sessions. For employees with serious mental health issues, employers can arrange for one-on-one counseling and therapy sessions to support them.
4. Social Wellness Challenges Ideas
The social restrictions have made socializing an old memory. With so much to do in so little time, employees are finding it difficult to socialize safely and have a work-life balance. With almost everyone craving social connections and interactions now, it is time for employers to take steps to focus on social wellness, at the personal and occupational levels, via employee wellbeing programs.
Employers can include summer-themed corporate wellness challenge ideas like arranging volunteering sessions, non-work virtual interactions, a weekly to-do list to organize their time and days, and other workplace benefits packages that can help employees reconnect with their co-workers and others for their social, occupational, and emotional wellbeing.
5. Financial Health Challenge Ideas
Along with the mental health issues, the pandemic has created uncertain economic times. Many employees lost their jobs, and families lost their steady source of income. Many of them are leading their lives with a limited income source or on their savings. While employers are also going through tough times, many of them have taken adequate steps to ensure their employee’s wellbeing.
Employers can offer employee financial wellness with the right financial wellness challenge ideas and workplace benefits packages that may include health insurance, HSAs, 401(K) plans, paid leaves, maternity/paternity leaves, student loans & scholarships, and more. Other simple ways can include comparison shopping lists for teams where 5-6 basic and common items for this summer can be sponsored to the employees every month.
If the pandemic has left many stressed and weary, many others found a good reason to take time out for new hobbies. Right from baking at home to gardening and home workouts, employees have been pulling it all out, despite being stuck at home and juggling between responsibilities.
To make sure the right summer-themed holistic wellness challenge ideas are offered through the employee wellbeing programs, employers can conduct pulse surveys or polls to know the exact employee interests and requirements. This can ensure that employees get the required support resources, feel good about themselves, enjoy a happy healthy summer, and make the most of their employee wellbeing programs.