It's more important than ever to implement and encourage employees to participate in wellness programs. A great place to start is with your events.
According to The American Institute of Stress, 83% of US workers suffer from work-related stress, and stress causes around one million workers to miss work every day. Every year, work-related stress also causes 120,000 deaths and results in $190 billion in healthcare costs yearly. Healthcare costs are nearly 50% higher for workers who report high levels of stress. It's more important than ever to implement and encourage employees to participate in wellness programs — and a great place to start is with your in-person and virtual events.
Corporate Wellness Programs Increase Productivity
A study published in The Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine titled Improving Employee Productivity Through Improved Health found that employees who successfully improved their lifestyle and focused on healthcare gained 10.3 hours in additional productive time annually. Another wellness program study by researchers at UCLA, UC Riverside, and Washington University in Saint Louis found that wellness programs resulted in higher productivity for all participating employees — approximately one additional productive work day per month for the average employee.
Bringing Wellness Programs to Life at Events
Fitness Activities
Start the day with a fitness activity, such as boot camp, yoga, or pilates. Ask attendees to sign up during registration to gauge participation. Include prizes for participants with fitness-related swag such as AirPods, headphones and subscriptions to wellness apps. Another way to encourage fitness and movement is with a philanthropic team-building activity — sorting and packing food at a food bank, a neighborhood cleanup, or a 5K run/walk fundraiser.
Stretch Breaks & Yoga
Include a 5–10 minute stretch break every 45 to 60 minutes. According to the Mayo Clinic, those who sit for more than eight hours a day with no physical activity have a risk of dying similar to the risks of obesity and smoking. Another great way to include stretching is to end the day with a short 15-minute guided standing yoga session. Yoga has been shown to benefit emotional wellness and improve strength, flexibility, balance and postural alignment.
Mindfulness & Meditation
Mindfulness is a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations. Including mindfulness as a therapeutic technique at your event provides moments of serenity that help attendees stay focused and energized. A 2018 study from Harvard found that people who meditated over an eight-week period for 15 minutes a day had a meaningful decrease in their blood pressure.
Your Partner in Well-Being
Contenta Meetings & Events will help your company incorporate engaging and meaningful wellness activities into your in-person and virtual events that align with your corporate wellness program.