 Did you know that June is Employee Wellness Month? It's the perfect time to prioritize employee wellness across six key domains of wellbeing: physical, emotional, social, financial, career, and community. Here are five ideas pulled directly from our June 2024 Employee Wellness Calendar that you can use to support employee wellbeing. [Grab the full calendar here.] 1. Celebrate National Play Outside Day (June 1st) Fun and play seem to take a backseat for grown-ups, even though the research shows that playful, connected fun can reduce stress, encourage creativity, and support collaboration. In my conversation with Catherine Price, author of The Power of Fun, she revealed that true fun involves lighthearted play, connection, and flow. She shared the first step is to create more situations where fun could be had. So, on June 1st, celebrate National Play Outside Day by stepping outside and finding a no-pressure way to play. You can ask a friend to go on a hike, bring some toys to the park with your kids, or head to the beach with a cooler and frisbee in tow. Ask your employees for ideas on how they might spend the day, and let them know how you’ll spend it, too. Remind your teams it’s not “go outside day”; it’s PLAY Outside Day — so encourage them to go play! It seems like we are all craving a little more fun — Catherine’s 2022 TED talk, "Why Fun is the Secret to a Healthier Life," was the second most viewed TED talk for all of 2022. 2. Commemorate Juneteenth (June 19th) Juneteenth, the recently established (but long overdue) federal holiday, commemorates the end of slavery. It is also a reminder of the progress we’ve made and what’s left to be done. Chipping away at systemic racism at work begins with having an open dialogue about it - which, granted, is easier said than done. One measure that team leaders can take is to first create a “Safe Harbor,” where psychological safety reigns within the team. Building a community in which members feel safe to speak up and share their viewpoints (respectfully)without fear of repercussions is foundational to being able to communicate more openly. Moving beyond these team-based conversations, every organization and their leaders need to be considering the question: Are we creating healthy, equitable workplaces? I recently had the honor of speaking and moderating a panel at the inaugural Workforce Health Equity event in the Bay Area that tackled that very question. This event stems from a recently launched Workforce Health Equity initiative, which represents a three-way partnership between the American Heart Association, Deloitte and SHRM. The goal is to meaningfully spark collective efforts, tackling the systemic issues to ensure health and wellbeing for all. Check out the Health Equity in the Workforce Employer Resource Guide to obtain an actionable strategy map aimed at accelerating equitable health in the workplace. For more ways to encourage peer-to-peer conversations about this holiday, check out my blog for Commemorating Juneteenth here. 3. Have a self-check-in: are you loved, and are you loving well? Everyone wants to feel cared for, not just because of what they do for work, but for who they are as human beings. When was the last time you felt you belonged and were truly seen? Smiley Poswolsky, author of Friendship in the Age of Loneliness, and I discussed creating more opportunities for connection and the importance of having a best friend at work. Since our conversation, recent Gallup data has shown that having a "best friend" at work has become more important since the start of the pandemic, and remote employees without a best friend feel more isolated from their organizations. Though the question, “Are you loved, and are you loving well?” may feel a bit personal, reflecting on meaningful connectedness is necessary. As workers interact with one another almost 5x a week, social connection belongs in the workplace. With 82% of employees reported to feel lonely at work, managers should carve out safe spaces for their teams and create more situations where people can get to know each other on an authentic level. 4. Emphasize team-care over self-care Self-care is good, but team-care is even better. Organizations too often focus on the individual when it comes to wellness. The whole assumption that we can achieve optimal wellness by taking personal responsibility is FLAWED. The truth is that very few of us can create and maintain good habits and healthy behaviors. Rather, we are creatures of culture and environment. Focusing on the team (as opposed to just targeting the individual) may be our best bet in getting employee wellness programs to work. Not only does it take some of the burden off the individual, but it can also create a ripple effect, or a “middle-out movement,” that can move virally throughout the entire organization – something I’ve observed happen over and over again when managers get activated. That effect creates a culture of wellness for their teams, where employees feel that wellbeing is prioritized and supported. 5. Adopt some movement hacks “If we exercise but also sit for the rest of the day, it's almost as if we hadn't worked out at all.” - Gretchen Reynolds, Washington Post. That is, according to yet another study on the harmful effects of too much sitting. While there are certainly benefits to a once-a-day workout, these are effectively undone when we sit for the rest of the day. A better route to a healthy lifestyle is to find ways to move more throughout the day. Blue Zones calls this “natural movement.” I call it “motion infusion.” (And it’s this idea that gave rise to my company over 16 years ago.) With that in mind, here is one of my tips for “sneaking” more motion into your day. The key is more NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis). As recommended by my friend MJ Shaar, split up long periods of sitting with "movement snack" breaks! These movement snacks are activities like stretching at your desk or taking the long way to the copy machine. You can support employees taking these breaks by modeling them yourself. One of my favorite ways to do this is to encourage employees to NOT take a seat during meetings. By giving your teams permission to move around, you can promote physical activity and help boost their energy levels.
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