3 Steps to Bring Health and Wellness to the Workplace

As professionals, we tend to work based on priorities. We create a list of to-dos, set goals, and hit the ground running to accomplish everything in front of us. However, we often let something incredibly important slip by the wayside: our own health and wellness. We are willing to work long nights, come in early to tackle challenging projects, and stay glued to a desk while getting hopped up on caffeine in order to deliver at our highest capacity. 

We are passionate about our work, but that doesn’t mean we should let our health and wellness suffer. To make sure our team took their health seriously, I was appointed to start the health and wellness at Baker Barrios Architects.

Right away, our team was more than up to the task of making positive changes, learning healthy habits and having a bit of fun along the way. With the support of appointed “health ambassadors” in both our Orlando and Tampa offices, we started an annual week of health and wellness activities known as, Health Week (#Bhealthy).

Our team had a lot of fun during Health Week’s post-work yoga sessions, healthy lunches, office chair ergonomics education, and so many other health events and wellness activities. Baker Barrios Architects learned some valuable lessons that may help other businesses make health and wellness commitments to their staff.

3 Steps to Enforcing Health and Wellness in Your Business

• Motivation: None of this would be possible without motivated individuals on all levels of our company. People at Baker Barrios Architects are driven to be healthier due to our understanding that being healthy increases efficiency and productivity. A healthier team that feels better can work and think better, so even the most committed workaholic will see the benefits of giving Health Week their all. 
  
• Commitment: Our team was motivated to start Health Week, but it was the commitment shown by our team to implement the program that truly made it progress from a good idea to reality. Baker Barrios Architects’ commitment made Health Week a bigger success than we could have imagined.
  
• Enthusiasm: If people weren’t excited about health and wellness in the workplace, Health Week would have fallen on its face. There is a major misconception that eating healthy and exercising is at best boring, or, at worst, painful. The events we organized, such as a sunset yoga session, a designated meditation and de-stress room and scheduled stair climbing (with team-designed motivational signs on each floor, no less) proved quite the opposite. Our team’s excitement and enthusiasm helped drive these events into a communal party instead of a tired excuse for team building and mandatory “fun.”

Infused water available as a refreshingly healthy way to stay hydrated during the day and a great way to welcome clients who visit the office for a meeting.

You can increase the efficiency and productivity in the workplace by motivating your staff with clear reasoning for forming wellness habits, developing a committee to inspire others in your staff to be healthy, and sharing your enthusiasm of the importance of health and wellness. The Health Week activities have spilled into the rest of the year with our team’s renewed awareness and commitment to healthier eating, de-stressing throughout the day and keeping up with daily stair climbing within our building. It’s exciting to see what a group of motivated health ambassadors have accomplished in just two years of starting the Health Week initiative. 

As the Roman poet, Virgil, once said, “The greatest wealth is health.” A team that prioritizes their own health and wellness as often as they prioritize the success of their work will make great work sustainable. Management and leaders who focus on the health of their team are bound to enjoy long-term success.