How New Brunswick Companies are Fostering Work-Health Balance
Lately, we’ve been hearing a lot about how difficult it is to have it all, to find that ever-elusive work-life balance and be the best well-rounded humans we can be.
But as the benefits of having physically and mentally fit employees become clear, more and more workplaces are choosing to combine work with one of the more important life aspects: fitness.
There are a few ways companies are doing this. Forbes contributor Meghan M. Biro lists four ways to make “workplace wellness a culture win,” citing a study by the American Heart Association that found that for every $1 invested in workplace wellness, companies can receive up to $3 in return. Biro includes providing wearable tech, observing healthy holidays, offering tangible incentives and measuring wellness program effectiveness in her list of ways workplaces can encourage healthy living among employees.
Phillis Kelly is the office manager and HR coordinator at Remsoft in Fredericton. She says that the company has had wellness and fitness policies in place for its employees for a while.
“Remsoft has a corporate health and wellness stipend that our team is eligible for each year,” Kelly says. “We want to help them do the things they love to do outside of work, whether that’s fitness and physical activity or art and music lessons.”
Kelly explains that Remsoft values work-life balance and strives to make sure employees are happy and healthy. She says that with a very active group of staff, group activities are not unusual.
“This past year, we sponsored the build of “La Woodstock” trail through River Valley Cycling and then a group of us went out to ride it this past summer,” Kelly says. “We also do a health and fitness challenge in the winter where we get everyone to do something they wouldn’t normally do like walk to work or take the stairs to our office on the fifth floor.”
“Lots of our staff are also engaged in their respective sporting communities as volunteers, coaches and instructors, so it’s a natural part of our culture and makes it a fun place to work.”
Kelly says that having this balance is important to avoid stretching staff too thin or causing burnouts.
Matt Symes, CEO of Moncton’s Symplicity, says his company actively counters unhealthy work lifestyles like spending a lot of time sitting or constantly being on the road. He says they’ve researched best practices on how to create a healthy environment both in the office and on the road.
“Following the principles of behavioural economics, we have tried our best to create the virtual and physical environment that promotes a healthy lifestyle,” Symes says. “Every member of our team has a Fitbit and we encourage a healthy competition celebrating the most improved person every week in total steps and total active minutes, giving everyone a chance to win.”
Symes says their team has come up with specific ways to keep staff healthy like encouraging healthy eating on the road and putting up a bike desk and treadmill desk in the office.
Symes says that beyond physical health, they’ve also come up with ways to encourage mental well-being like having office pets and extra vacation time.
While every workplace and every team will have different wellness needs depending on lifestyle and environment, it’s seeming more and more worth it to at least put some consideration into the health and well-being of employees and explore ways to keep teams happy and healthy.
Does your workplace have special activities or programs to help employees achieve work-health balance? We’d love to hear about it! Share your thoughts with us on Facebook or Twitter.