The average individual spends 90,000 hours of their lifetime at work, so it’s crucial to figure out how to make them feel comfortable and creative. It comes as no surprise that the workplace influences the employees’ health and overall wellbeing. Are your employees spending their entire day working in front of a computer? Do they engage in at least 30 minutes of physical activity daily? Do they have a healthy diet? Have you noticed low productivity, lack of creativity, stress, or overwork issues?
Whether you observe physical or mental health problems, it’s crucial to take action and transform your work facility into a place that fosters health and wellbeing. Having a healthy and happy workforce should be an ambition for all companies because it boosts productivity, enhances creativity, and sharpens the competitive edge. Happy employees are less likely to get sick leave, miss work, or leave the company.
Convinced to create a healthy work setting for your employees? Then let’s find out how you can do it.
A work environment that supports wellbeing and health has four constituents
The physical space – business facilities come in various shapes and sizes, from offices to warehouses. Companies must consider occupational health and safety legislation when designing a commercial setting to protect the workforce and ensure no hazards can put their health at risk. Well-insulated cables, a well-cared building, good lighting levels, ergonomic furniture, and a welcoming décor can contribute to how happy and healthy the staff is.
Workplace culture – each business has its own corporate culture that determines the values the brand promotes and standards everyone should follow. If your business recognises the importance of positive workplace culture, you can create a healthy work environment through purposefully implemented measures. Your employees need to feel listened to, invested in, and valued. Your team productivity can reach sky-high levels and retain talent if you have a great company culture.
A supportive environment – everyone has personal problems, and it’s only human for them to bring some of these emotions into their workplace. Whether they deal with mental health issues, have a bad day, or cannot leave family issues at home, they shouldn’t feel ignored by their colleagues and leaders. Promote showing compassion and establish an open-door policy that encourages your staff to seek help.
Healthy lifestyle choices – your staff will be more engaged with their work if they feel that you’re interested in their health and wellbeing. Your employees are your most valuable asset, and you need to put their wellness first. With a captive audience for 40 hours, weekly a wellness-focused work environment promotes and supports healthy life practises and discourages bad habits.
How can you create a healthy work environment?
People who love their job are more likely to perform better. Companies have in their best interest to keep their workforce happy, to encourage them to be creative and productive. Creating a healthy work environment isn’t as challenging as one may think, especially if you know what steps to follow. Here are the changes that could make a real difference.
Office safety and comfort
Working in a safe, clean, and comfortable setting can boost the mood and improve interactions among workers. Ergonomic and qualitative furniture and good lighting are the keystones in designing a safe and comfortable office. Hire a specialist to evaluate your workplace and determine how safe the facility is for your operations’ specific. Develop a safety program that handles safety hazards promptly and provides recommendations on avoiding and dealing with workplace accidents. Train your employees to prevent workplace accidents and act when one of their co-workers is injured. It’s crucial to create a safe workplace because if one of your employees gets injured, they can claim compensation or file a lawsuit with the help of an expert from a company like Legal Expert. When working with personal injury solicitors, employees have higher chances to get compensation for their workplace injuries.
Break times
Specialists recommend a minimum of 30 minutes of physical activity daily to improve and maintain general health. Encourage your workforce to take 10-minute breaks away from their desks from time to time to restore concertation levels, relieve eye fatigue, and prevent muscle strain.
The lunch break allows leaders to chat with people about changes different from work. They could share outside work experiences and interests, discuss the latest news or engage in activities together. Promoting the importance of regular breaks is not good only for physical wellbeing but also for mental wellbeing, so encourage your employees to get away from their offices and connect with other workers.
Team building
Everything you do to improve communication between teams and bring workers closer together is a great way to create and maintain a positive work environment. From weekly bowling nights to celebrating birthdays and volunteering, countless initiatives and activities can positively affect your employees’ morale. 
Promote wellness
These days, companies have to remind employees to wash their hands as often as possible, wear masks, and maintain social distance to forget about other health initiatives that could promote wellness. From reminding workers about the wellness benefits program the company offers to encouraging them to have annual check-ups and seeing a therapist when stress overwhelms them, your business can promote wellness in countless ways.
Healthy eating
A nutritious diet does not deprive individuals of the foods they love. It’s essential to nourish their bodies to feel good and have enough energy to handle daily activities. Help your employees to steer clear of fast food and sugary sweets by promoting healthy eating habits at work. Freely available fruits and vegetables and a collaboration with a caterer that offers wholemeal foods, smoothies, and salads are a good starting points.
Now more than ever, companies need to create safe and healthy work environments that reassure employees they’re valued and appreciated. The above recommendations are easy to adopt by any company, regardless of their specificity.
