Before COVID-19, companies were already working to improve employee health and wellness. Now, during these unprecedented times, those efforts are more critical than ever. Many professionals are struggling due to shelter-in-place orders, school closures, unexpected layoffs, and the stress of the pandemic.

Companies with robust employee health and wellness programs have an advantage. Not only can they help their workforce thrive, ensuring morale and productivity remain high, but they also position themselves as employers of choice. This can alleviate retention and recruitment strains, all while ensuring operations remain optimal.

If you wonder how you can be a champion of employee health and wellness, here’s what you need to know.

Prioritize Safety

As many professionals begin to return to their workplaces, they may be experiencing a significant amount of anxiety. After all, it may have been months since your workforce has spent much of their day interacting with people in person, and fears about the virus still hang heavily over their heads.

If you want your team to feel comfortable back at work, then you need to make safety a priority. This can include providing PPE, reworking open areas to support social distancing, amping up your cleaning routine, and more.

Additionally, update your leave policies to reflect the times. Ensure sick leave is available and easy to use, both by staff members who may be ill and those who were potentially exposed to the coronavirus. That way, employees will feel supported if they do need to stay home because of the virus.

Offer Inviting Workspaces

Updating your workplace to feel more inviting can be a wise move. With smart design, you can reduce stress levels and boost morale, which may be critical today.

Along with supporting social distancing initiatives, take some extra steps. Find opportunities to bring natural light into every work area, bring in low-maintenance plants to add some color and life, and use technology to improve air quality.

Additionally, make sure form doesn’t negate function. Focus on creating workspaces that make handling tasks and collaborating easy, potentially while supporting good ergonomic design. That way, the space is attractive and easy to navigate.

Support Healthy Choices

While many companies previously offered discounted gym memberships and similar perks pre-pandemic, those benefits are often hard to use even when the climate isn’t so odd. If you want to encourage your team to make healthy choices – like working out and eating right – you need to make it ridiculously simple for them to do just that.

For example, make healthy food options accessible in your actual workplace. Bring in a few treadmill desks that employees can share. Give them two hours off during the week that they can use to work out, or creating a walking path through your workplace so that employees can easily get their steps in during the day.

By embracing the tips above, you can become a champion for employee health and wellness. If you’d like to learn more, the team at CPS Recruitment can help. Contact us today.