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If you're putting together your wellness plan, choosing the best activities can be challenging and a little overwhelming. With so much choice, it can be difficult to know what employees will value the most.
Typically, we recommend conducting anonymous employee surveys and interviews to find out what your workforce wants in a wellness plan. This will increase participation rates and should yield better results (i.e., increased productivity and employee engagement).
In this article, we provide you with four wellness event ideas to get started, all of which are very popular among employees.
4 Wellness Event Ideas for Work
With so many wellness events to choose from, we’ve narrowed it down to four main events—each of which contains many sub-events to pick for your team.
1. Health Talks
If you want to improve wellbeing at work, Health Talks are a must. You can hear and learn from the experts, whether an in-person event or a remote talk. There are various Health Talks you can host depending on the needs of your workforce.
Example Health Talks include:
Emotional and mental health
Physician lead talks
Food and nutrition
Ergonomics
Fitness fundamentals
Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging
Finance
Sustainability
Leadership
Personal growth
Parents and caregivers
Furthermore, because there are so many different Health Talks available, you always have something to choose from. One month, you may bring in an expert to speak on emotional and mental health, perhaps during a particularly stressful period, and the next, you may choose a finance expert to help employees better manage their finances.
2. Fitness Classes
Fitness classes are an excellent way to instill healthy habits into a busy workday. Many of your employees want to be more active but don’t have the time when balancing work and home life.
Bringing fitness to the office, whether remote or in-person, can help your employees find balance while chasing their fitness and health goals. There are lots of different fitness classes available for everyone, but examples include:
Yoga
Dance
Gentle fitness
Combat training
Strength training
No matter whether your employees are complete beginners or have a 20-inch bicep, there’s something for everyone.
3. Meditation sessions
Taking a moment to pause and be in the moment can help alleviate stress, especially during a busy work period. Slowing down, breathing in and out, and pausing can be very powerful.
Better yet, it’s easy to do and very accessible. All employees can take part—an ideal lunchtime activity.
There are several types of meditation sessions you can do at work, including:
Classic meditation to calm the mind
Guided meditation to stay present
Meditation for productivity
Meditation for stress and anxiety relief
The type of session you choose depends on your goals. If you notice your employees are busier than ever, stress and anxiety relief meditation is likely a good choice. However, if it’s their first time meditating and being present, classic meditation is also a good option.
4. Team Building activities
Team building activities can help build a community at work, improving communication and helping your employees create friendships. Why is this important? A 2021 survey from Wildgoose found that 57% of employees said having a good friend at work makes their job more enjoyable. The same workers also feel more supported, productive, creative, and happy at work.
So, what team-building activities should you do? You have endless options, from food and drink to arts and crafts and mindfulness activities.
Below are a few possibilities:
A mixology lesson
Hands-on cooking activities
Painting and pottery
A murder mystery event
A magic show
An escape room
Make the Most of your Open Enrollment Period
During your open enrollment period, employees are typically permitted to make changes to their current benefits plan or choose something new entirely. During this time, host fun activities to drive awareness of benefit plans. This allows for a more successful open enrollment period when employees are engaged and excited to experience healthy learning and fun, during what has long been seen as a tedious process.
Fun activities can include any of the above recommendations, as well as an on Onsite or Virtual Health Fair. Making the open enrollment period more fun can also lead to better conversations about what your employees actually want in their wellness and benefit plans.
Onsite Health Fairs are great for companies that want employees to come into the office, even if just this one day of the year. A FitPros coordinated Health Fair is a wellbeing party! Introduce employees to their company benefits, and meet with local and national wellbeing vendors. We bring fun activities such as a chair massage, live DJ, and a digital Wellness Passport game.
Virtual Health Fairs are a great way to give your employees access to fun, educational virtual sessions delivered by credentialed experts, no matter where your teams are located. And FitPros relieves you from coordinating with your carriers for those necessary presentations.
The better the engagement you have during open enrollment season, the better the benefits outcomes.
Key takeaways
Creating a wellness plan can be time-consuming and complex
Choosing the right wellness events is crucial for plan participation and success
Health talks, fitness sessions, meditation sessions, and team-building activities are great events to get started
Make the most of open enrollment to drive awareness to your benefit plans
Book an Onsite or Virtual Health Fair to introduce employees to their company benefits
FAQs
How to set up a wellbeing event?
There are lots of considerations to take into account when planning an event. First, you need to decide whether it’s a virtual or physical event (maybe even both for your remote employees). Next, decide on the event and schedule as needed.
How do you make wellness fun?
Wellness can be made fun by hosting fun wellness event ideas, such as team building activities including murdery mystery and pottery lessons. You can also gamify the process, using leaderboards to encourage healthy competition for wellness challenges, including movement, hydration, and sleep.
What are some zero-cost wellness event ideas?
If you’re strapped for cash, you can try zero-cost ideas such as walking/movement challenges. You can track progress using a Google Sheet and compete against other employees. Other ideas include an improvised murder mystery event or a yoga session.
Looking for more? Contact a Wellbeing Manager to discuss your organizational wellbeing needs.
We provide workplace teams with mindful practices, personal and professional wellbeing growth, fitness instruction, and opportunities for social connection. We aim to inspire the highest potential in people at work, in life, every day, so they can show up healthy and at their best.