Employee wellbeing schemes often start strongly with a lot of enthusiasm from various parties, but they can tail off after a few months if they are not well maintained. Particularly if you’re implementing a low-cost workplace wellbeing scheme.
For a small to medium sized business, finding time and resources to ensure that initial early momentum continues can be tricky.
A straightforward way to maintain employees’ interest is to run activities around relevant Awareness or National Days and Weeks. For instance, on March 16, 2019, it’s National Sleep Day, so perhaps discuss how important sleep is to being productive and share tips on how to get an adequate amount each night.
This could be achieved via an informal get together, where the host could present some useful info on the subject. A short informative yet engaging video can be a good way to start. So spend some time searching for something appropriate on YouTube (though please vet the content before playing it to staff). For example, this could be a useful piece of content to show:
Give staff some notice so they can keep the time free and can attend. In conjunction, posters could be erected in staff areas around that date, highlighting best practice and why good quality sleep is so good for mental and physical health.
During Volunteer Week – at the start of June – give staff a couple of hours’ paid time off to volunteer for good causes. And on World Mental Health Day (October 10) raise awareness among workers around mental health in the workplace.
There are many days and weeks like the above that can be incorporated into a low-cost workplace wellbeing plan. For a list of such dates, please visit https://www.shineworkplacewellbeing.com/workplace-wellbeing-event/ where you can download a PDF containing the relevant information.