Employee wellness programs have initiatives designed to encourage employees to adopt healthy practices. The goal of these programs is to reduce stress and responsibility, as well as promote health and good luck. Virtual employee health program, ideas for creative tips on how to improve the mental, social and physical health of employees.
These ideas are part of virtual team interaction and are comparable to employee bonuses and privileges.
This includes:
virtual entertainment events for employees
online wellness challenge ideas
remote spa games
free virtual entertainment
entertainment for remote workers
Get to the point!!!
List of Virtual Employee Program Insurance Ideas
Online training for digital pet therapy is a war of elements, here's a list of some creative and practical ideas for remote locations.
1. Healthy Lifestyle Loans
Healthy Lifestyle in Loans is a program of classes that will help you practice self-care remotely. Each month, employees can spend up to $ 100 on services such as gym access, house cleaning, or ambiance. Employees, revenue, and receive compensation.
Team building, staff leadership about what they can give out loans for, and let the choices that the employee recognizes. Employees are more likely to take advantage of the act, however they may be, of balancing in the direction of the service you want. In addition, the park encourages a healthy lifestyle for the correct behavior of its employees.
2. Reconstruction of the House
The built environment contributes to human health. You can be sure that your employees ' workspaces are secure. break into healthy habits with the launch of a home office remodeling program. Only to cover the cost of spa equipment and furniture in it.
Here are some examples of what this program will include::
Wheelchair access
Standing room only
Treadmill or bike, desk or on the ground and elliptical bike pedals.
Blue Light Sunglasses
Light therapy lamp
Factory Subscription
Humidifier or dehumidifier
Massage chairs
Conditioner
White Noise Machine
The rationale behind this approach is to provide a large amount of money for large purchases. You can use this one-time bonus if the employee is in the first place among the company's employees, for a year marked or some other important professional milestone.
For the convenience of using the program for the current site from the options in the Google form, or using a single company and save settings. If all employees will make an order to buy and distribute products.
3. The struggle of the elements
Battle of the Banner Elements
Fighting the Elements was one of the most exciting remote spa games. This challenge will address positive changes in their lifestyle in a friendly match. Employees are divided into teams and matched together to make useful changes. Each command will represent an element.
Fire = quit smoking
Water: drink more water
Air = go out more often
Earth = healthy food
Teams will receive specific goals, such as" ten jumping jacks every time you need a cigarette", or"eat five servings of vegetables today". Team members will receive one point for each day that they need to reach the goal. At the end of the event, the team with the most points wins the game.
So, here are some gift ideas to give to the winning team.
Fighting the Elements is also a great game for a Virtual Earth Day.
4. The problem of drinking water
Template for connecting Drinking water
Water Challenge is one of the most competitive online wellness challenge ideas. The work of domestic staff is always a stone's throw from the kitchen. It also has no analogues to judge people for taking about a dozen or more bathroom breaks a day. However, the employee may not need to drink much water.
According to the Mayo clinic, adults should aim to drink an average of eight glasses of water a day. Make sure your virtual employees stay hydrated and start drinking water a challenge. You can set the selected weak channel, message, or channel whose members regularly drink during the day. There is also a tracker, a bottle of mineral water for employees and allows them to send photos of their empty canteens.
5. A Clean Desktop Is A Challenge
Maintaining a clean workplace promotes concentration and mental health. You can zoom in on your employees on the screen to use their office and home, clean, with running a clean desk is a challenge.
At the end of each working day or work week, you will be invited to participate in the process of transferring photos or videos, a clean desk, to a channel,or otherwise. Is it possible to ask for a photo of a clean office at any time, which motivates employees to keep the desktop clean?. At the end of the study, you can change, assign a higher price than the team with the cleanest stationary images. Or you can use the lottery as a digital gift card for each day of the contest winner from day-to-day operations.
6. Online Training
Online Exercise Banner
Office work and a tendency to a sedentary lifestyle, and working from home allows employees to walk even more. How to get employees to switch to online courses. The best way to find leading online classes and staff is to repeatedly invite a calendar that contains a link to a video meeting. When the lesson starts, and the staff will meet with video-and-training-together. You can hire a fitness instructor just to lead a conversation or invite an active team member, and you will have to compensate for this with something additional in the form of a bonus or an additional receiver.
7. Virtual Fitness Connection
Whether your employees have had camera-shy workouts or preferred to practice by themselves, the institute aims to create a virtual fitness challenge. First of all, set yourself a goal, for example, "a day of walking" or "do you have ten minutes of cardio training every day?" You can choose interesting and challenging tasks, such as a sofa up to 5k. Then you can choose a time period to complete tasks, such as a quarter or a month.
Employees will record whether the goal is achieved or not, every day. We offer a free tracker tool to track your account. You can also use it to monitor its progress using apps such as Map My Run or Espresa.
At the end of the study, it awards a prize to the employee who fully completes the task. You can get a more substantial reward for the team from the most impressive results. If your budget allows, then the price is listed for all instagram users with a $ 10 gift certificate price. This will encourage participants to stick to their tasks, rather than stop after they have succeeded for the first time.
8. Zoom in on Yoga and Stretching
Zoom yoga and stretching classes are some of the best wellness activities for remote employees. Yoga is a form of exercise that is used as a stress reliever and meditation. Working from home, employees are less likely to work up a sweat, with an eye-catching downward dog pose, and then do instagram lifts. This way, employees and partners are more likely to engage in afternoon yoga and stress-related activities.
First, you need to find a fitness instructor or team member who is willing to teach, or choose the right movie for your yoga class. Then send us an invitation to the meeting and a link for employees. We recommend that you schedule a weekly 15-minute event.
Taking a break for stretching or yoga classes helps encourage employees to move around remotely and set it up throughout the day.
9. The problem of digital marketing
Office work is not a trip to work, not a conference room, not lunch and visiting neighbors in the office. As a result, remote workers tend to work less than their colleagues in the office.
You are in a position to inspire virtual assistants to upgrade to the Digital Connect Action release. First, decide to take, for example, 6,000 steps a day. Many smartphones have a built-in step counter and participants will be able to track their actions. Employees can also use an app, a fitness tracker, a smartwatch, or an old-fashioned pedometer. Please ask the staff to track their progress and register once a week.
For added fun, price specific numbers of steps. For example, members who are above the 20,000+ steps target and can simply win an Amazon gift card. You can even track your accumulated points and submit information such as: "Once this month we will drive 500 km– the distance between us and New York!!!"
10. Virtual Spa & Wellness Retreat
Many companies plan to conduct privacy procedures for their employees. Even if the organization is located at a distance, you can invite colleagues to participate in a day or two of wellness activities and plan virtual isolation insurance.
Virtual wellness centers consist of online seminars, webinars, and college courses.
Here are some ideas for a virtual wellness retreat
meditations
fitness yoga classes nutrition tips
health food classes
storytelling workshops storytelling sessions goal setting
exercises self-compassion
relationship counseling
digital electronic consciousnesses
ask your doctor chat
These are virtual wellness retreats that give employees the opportunity to practice self-care, learn valuable skills, and connect with each other. Participants will be able to perform a digital swag bag with good services such as online training, food subscriptions, and supplies.
11. Midday Meditations
Even without the distractions of a traditional office, remote teammates can struggle with focus. One way to encourage mindfulness and decrease stress is to host midday meditations. Each workday, send an alert to participants to take a moment to breathe and clear their minds. You could ask an employee to guide the meditation, watch a video together, or use an app like HeadSpace. Or, you could make your own company meditation portal and have folks upload calming pictures, music, and audio meditations.
12. Mr. Rogers Calls
Loneliness is one of the biggest health risks for remote employees. To combat isolation, institute Mr. Rogers Calls. First, create a Slack channel and invite interested participants. Then, install the Donut app to randomly pair members for chats. We recommend setting the app on one week intervals, but you could assign matches more or less frequently.
Donut pairs participants and prompts them to schedule a video call. If you integrate virtual meeting platforms like Zoom or Google Meet and grant Slack access to virtual calendars, then Donut will propose times and set up the call with the click of a button.
Teammates meet up for a short video call, and talk about anything besides work. If your remote colleagues have trouble thinking up talking topics, then they can refer to this list of icebreakers.
13. Virtual Happy Hours
Healthy employees have thriving social lives and positive relationships with colleagues. Both of these accomplishments can be hard to master when working from home. Virtual happy hours help teammates bond and get face to face interaction.
During virtual happy hours, colleagues meet up on video conference software, sip drinks, play games, and wind down from the workday or workweek together. With Zoom happy hours, there is no need to worry about the noise level in the pub or coordinating a ride home afterwards. Plus, busy or faraway colleagues are more likely to make an appearance, since attending is as easy as clicking a link.
To stick with the theme of well-being, you could even host dry virtual happy hours where attendees indulge in nonalcoholic beverages like milkshakes or mocktails.
14. Healthy Cooking Club
Remote employees do not have to worry about the temptations of cake in the breakroom or impromptu lunches out. Yet staff might still not eat nutritious meals while working from home. To encourage remote workers to eat balanced meals, start a healthy cooking club.
Staff can swap healthy recipes via a collaborative Google Doc or link collector, and can upload pictures of finished dishes to a cloud-based photo album. You could even schedule ongoing remote dinners or virtual cooking sessions based around healthy meals, or send participants meal kits.
15. Meal Subscriptions
In theory, the absence of a commute gives employees more time to cook healthy meals. In reality, many telecommuters often work even more at home, and dinner becomes a bag of Doritos or takeout from the Chinese restaurant down the street.
Even if you plan online cooking classes and group meal prep sessions, some employees may not take part. After all, cooking from scratch requires grocery shopping and prep, and some folks lack the time or energy.
Healthy meal subscriptions are a great alternative. They take the place of catered office meals, and you can offer them once a twice a week or month, depending on budget and need. You can either order a fully-prepared meal, or one that requires very little effort to assemble.
16. Wholesome Snack Packs
Many companies stock communal break rooms with nutritious snacks. Work from home employees can benefit from healthy bites too.
To keep your staff energized, periodically send them wholesome snack packs full of healthy foods.
What to include:
Granola bars
Baked chips
Popcorn
Pretzels
Nuts
Organic fruit snacks
Peanut butter pouches
Apple sauce packets
Whole grain crackers
Low-sugar dried fruits
17. Online Art Therapy
Art can be therapeutic, especially if your employees work in highly technical positions.
There are a variety of ways to host online art therapy for your staff:
Doodle together on a digital whiteboard
Create a digital mural in Miro or Google Sheets
Attend Zoom paint and sip sessions
Book virtual art classes
Issue a monthly photo challenge
Send craft kits and adult coloring books to employees
Ask teammates to send each other homemade gifts, such as cards or origami animals
Create a Slack channel or cloud photo album where staff can share art creations
Make a team scrapbook by asking each teammate to create a page and mail it to the manager. Scan the final product and send all participants a digital copy.
18. Virtual Health Fair
Many employers host health fairs for staff, and virtual offices can join this tradition. To host a health fair virtually, plan a series of web sessions and virtual activities related to health and medical topics. You can recruit health care providers and vendors to give virtual talks and demonstrations.
Some virtual health fair ideas:
Online CPR courses
Mini telemedicine check-ups
Self-exam tutorials
Tips for work at home health
Healthy meal planning workshops
Survival skills and first aid Zoom classes
Information sessions about employee benefits
Online company store with healthy products
When planning your fair, reach out to your health insurance carrier, preferred medical providers or company health team, and health vendors to inquire about more virtual options.
19. Online Mental Health Fair
Mental health is just as important as physical health. Due to the individual nature of remote work, it is extra important to monitor employees’ mental and emotional wellbeing. By hosting online mental health fairs, you can set up a series of virtual activities and informational sessions that teach staff how to manage stress, express emotion, and cultivate mindfulness.
Online mental health fair ideas:
Teletherapist meet and greets
Guided virtual yoga and meditation
Zoom support groups
Journaling prompts
Coping skills workshops and worksheets
Self-help podcasts
Tips on managing workplace stress
Random acts of digital kindness
Holding online seminars about mental health de-stigmatizes the subject and encourages employees to ask for help when necessary.
20. Traveling Meetings
One of the perks of telecommuting is the ability to take meetings from unconventional locations. Following this logic, you can encourage employees to get exercise during calls by taking walks. Once a month, hold traveling meetings. Participants join the call by dialing in via phone or smart watch, and stroll through a park, beach, or city center. Traveling meetings help remote employees get exercise, fresh air, and sunshine.
21. Virtual Volunteering
According to Harvard Health, volunteering can boost both mental and physical health. If you lead dispersed teams, then you may not be able to rally the crew for an off-site service day. Nevertheless, your remote team can volunteer virtually.
First, choose a cause as a team. Then, coordinate a day to make complete activities together. For instance, you could meet up on Zoom to write letters to troops, tutor school children, lead a community workshop, or video chat with nursing home residents. Teammates get a chance to socialize with each other and bond over a shared mission.
If your team does not have the time or bandwidth for online volunteering, then team members can make monetary donations. You could provide a stipend for employees to put towards the philanthropy of their choosing, or offer to match any charitable donations up to a certain amount.
22. Digital Pet Therapy
Pets are instant mood boosters. To help your remote team get their animal fixes, schedule recurring digital pet therapy. Simply invite interested parties to a Zoom call, then take turns showing off furry friends. Cats and dogs are the likeliest guests, but the activity is extra fun if colleagues have exotic pets like hedgehogs, chickens, or chameleons.
If conflicting schedules prevent the group from meeting, then create a group chat or Slack channel where teammates can swap pictures of cute animals instead.
23. Treat Yourself Allowance
Treat yourself allowances are modest stipends bookmarked for small indulgences. Once per month or per quarter, permit remote employees up to $15 to spend on an item or service that brings them joy. Examples might include gourmet marshmallows, an hour at the batting cage, or a set of fake moustaches.
There are only 3 rules:
Employees must spend the money on themselves.
The object should not serve a practical purpose.
Participants must upload pictures of themselves enjoying the treat.
Treat yourself allowances double as a “getting-to-know-you” activity and remind remote employees that having fun at work is important.
24. Career Coaching
Professional development is a key element of employee satisfaction. To keep remote employees’ skills sharp and careers thriving, provide coaching as part of the wellness program. You could either cover costs of a set number of sessions, or partner with a coaching company to offer employees a discounted rate on services. These sessions can fill in the gap between virtual one on one meetings. Not to mention, they provide employees with a safe space to explore options and a neutral party to bounce ideas off of.
25. Life Coaching
Virtual life coaching is another service option to offer in your wellness program. Life coaching takes a more holistic approach than career coaching. Instead of focusing solely on job satisfaction or personal wellbeing, life coaches take a big-picture approach and help patients achieve balance in all areas. You can negotiate a discounted rate for employees, or offer every teammate a complimentary introductory session.
26. Professional Organizers
Clean home office spaces are pivotal to remote work success. Clutter can increase employee stress, not to mention lead to workday procrastination. By offering professional organizer services, you can help your teammates keep their workspaces tidy and conducive to productivity.
The organizers can make “virtual house calls,” via Zoom consultations and advise employees on how to best optimize their space. Not only will the organizers help clean up the clutter, they will also teach staff skills and develop systems to maintain order.
27. Virtual Water Cooler
Social ties are important to workplace wellness. A survey from the Society for Human Resource Management found that employees with work friends are less likely to seek or accept new job offers from outside organizations.
Remote employees have less opportunities to mingle and develop natural rapport with colleagues. Virtual water coolers provide environments where remote coworkers can chat and build friendly relationships.
To create a virtual water cooler, designate an online forum like Slack channel or group chat for casual, non-work banter. Managers can spur conversation by occasionally commenting within the feed.
28. Online Game Lounge
Traditional offices sometimes offer perks like ping pong tables, arcade games, and board games so that employees can socialize and relax. Virtual offices can achieve the same results by building an online game lounge. Simply make a Slack channel or an always-on video meeting room where remote employees can go to play games with colleagues. Or, use a game app or collaborative gaming website instead.
29. Online Employee Book Club
Online book clubs offer employees personal enrichment and social time. Every month, give participants a reading assignment. You could send members a physical or digital copy of the book, or offer to reimburse the cost of purchase. Teammates will meet up on a Zoom call to discuss the book in real-time, or will post reflections on an internal forum or Slack channel.
Chosen books do not have to be work-related. Members can read recent bestsellers or personal favorites instead. Be sure that the selected title is work-appropriate and accessible.
30. Goal Sharing Sessions
One way to motivate employees and maintain morale is to encourage staff to share goals with each other. First, create a hub where teammates can post goals, such as a Slack channel, cloud document, or collaborative whiteboard. Next, create a goal tracking spreadsheet and share it with participants. On a regular basis, check in with the team for updates. Throughout the exercise, teammates provide each other with encouragement and advice on how to accomplish goals.
Be sure to encourage employees to react to and celebrate each others’ announcements and milestones. For extra incentive, award victorious participants with a prize such as a complimentary meal, virtual party, or a digital badge.
31. Digital Coworking Hours
Digital coworking hours helps to eliminate remote work-induced isolation. Simply designate a block of time where dispersed team members can log in via Zoom and work silently together. Teammates do not need to be silent for the full time, and can exchange banter and ask each other questions. This activity simulates in-person office experiences and helps to build rapport between dispersed colleagues.
You could also do a virtual hackathon.
32. Virtual Employee Financial Wellness Programs
Economic health is an important facet of overall well being. By launching virtual employee financial wellness programs, you ensure that your teammates’ monetary health is as strong as their physical and mental health.
These programs can consist of Zoom meetings with financial advisors, digital financial literacy workshops, trials or subscriptions to fintech apps, as well as worksheets, websites, virtual calculators, podcasts, and videos that help employees learn how to better manage money.
33. Inspirational Quotes
One of the easiest free virtual wellness activities is to share motivational quotes with employees. You can include these quotes in company communications, such as internal emails or announcements. Or, you could create a channel where employees can post and react to quotes. For maximum effectiveness, share sayings regularly, such as a quote of the day or week. To make the exercise more interactive, call on employees to find and share powerful quotes on a rotating basis.
34. Team Wellness Emails
Team wellness emails are one of the easiest employee wellness program ideas. You can send regular emails to remote staff members highlighting healthy topics.
Here are some topic ideas:
Avoiding procrastination
Working with proper posture
Setting realistic goals
Easy at-home workouts
Showing gratitude for remote colleagues
Navigating work from home conflicts
Beginning or end of day self-care rituals
The emails can be about general health points, or work from home wellbeing. Sending these messages serves as a reminder for remote workers to take care of themselves and each other, and assures your team members that you care.
35. Digital Mentors
Virtual employees sometimes miss out on the coaching and advising opportunities available in traditional office settings. One solution to this problem is to launch a digital mentoring program. By matching remote employees with senior-level teammates, you give your crew a backup resource for times when managers are unavailable. Because the nature of these relationships is more informal, remote employees can ask mentors questions and advice they might not feel comfortable asking direct superiors. Plus, an online mentorship program adds an extra level of professional support and human contact to online offices.
To run your program, first ask for mentor volunteers, and then accept sign-ups from mentees. Next, match up your pairs, and make an introductory email. You may want to suggest a minimum number of monthly meetups or set up the first call.
36. Virtual Buddy System
Virtual Buddy Systems are a sort of online pen pal program. It is harder to forge work friendships in online environments, but the buddy system facilitates the process. Simply match up two dispersed employees, and set a schedule for them to check in with each other.
Online buddies can send each other inspiring quotes, funny gifs, online game challenges, interesting articles, and can meet up for casual conversation or virtual bonding time. The relationship should be ongoing. If one half of the pair leaves the company or opts out of the activity, then be sure to re-match the remaining participant. The purpose of the program is that every remote employee has a friendly face to reach out to within the company at all times.
37. Online Employee Resource Groups
Remote workers often report feeling lonely, and so do members of underrepresented groups. Even if employees get along with remote teammates, they may benefit from connecting with colleagues from similar backgrounds and demographics.
One of the best virtual employee wellness program ideas is to give staff access to online employee resource groups. These groups can have members-only chats and channels and hold regular Zoom meetings. Examples of support groups include meetups for race and cultural identities, gender, LGBTQ+, religions, grief and loss, and working parents.
Telecommuters can meet like minded individuals, ask advice from peers with similar experiences, and get the support they need. If your organization is too small for significant membership in these groups, then you can point employees towards outside organizations, such as groups run by industry or community organizations.
38. Daily Brain Teasers
Keeping employees’ brains sharp is just as important as keeping their bodies fit. To give remote staff regular mental workouts, send brain teasers. You can include the puzzles in team emails and Slack threads, or pose problems as an icebreaker in virtual meetings. Offering small rewards like digital Starbucks cards or virtual high fives from the boss encourages participation.
39. Work-life Balance Workshops
Remote workers often struggle to self-regulate and self-manage. Some employees overwork, while others under-work and are easily distracted. Establishing and maintaining boundaries is difficult. By offering ongoing remote work-life balance workshops, you set virtual employees up for success.
These seminars can take the form of Zoom lectures from experts, or group discussions on challenges and goals. Attendees can swap strategies and practice skills like active listening and email correspondence.
We recommend holding these events at least once per quarter, as part of the virtual new hire onboarding process. You could also send employees tips for working from home.
40. Online Lunch and Learns
Online lunch and learns are one of the most common virtual wellness activities for employees. These online events help employees learn and grow and offer face-to-face time with colleagues.
To host online lunch and learns, recruit speakers to present on subjects relevant to employees. The talk topics might be industry-specific, such as public speaking tips for sales advisors, or general job skills like time management. You could also host life-skills sessions such as retirement planning or language learning, or just-for-fun lessons like succulent gardening. Once you set a time for the meeting, send invitations with the virtual meeting link.
Conclusion
Wellness programs are especially important for remote employees. Due to the independent nature of virtual work, it can take longer to realize that a teammate is struggling. Telecommuters can also use occasional reminders to take care of themselves.
By offering a robust virtual employee wellness program, you communicate that you care about your remote staff and give your workers the tools and resources to live a more well-balanced and beneficial lifestyle. Over time, these practices can result in higher productivity, employee engagement, and retention rates and lower absenteeism, turnover, and insurance costs.
Next,
We also have a list of reasons why employees quit jobs.
FAQ: Virtual employee wellness programs
Here are answers to common questions about virtual employee wellness programs.
What are virtual employee wellness programs?
Virtual employee wellness programs are initiatives designed to encourage healthy habits in remote team members. These campaigns occur through platforms such as Slack, Zoom, social media. They target all areas of worker health, including mental, physical, social, and financial aspects.
What are some good virtual employee wellness program ideas?
Some good virtual employee wellness program ideas include:
Healthy Living Credits
Water Drinking Challenge
Online Group Workouts
Mr. Rogers Calls
Wholesome Snack Packs
Virtual Health Fairs
Traveling Meetings
Virtual Volunteering
Digital Pet Therapy
Goal Sharing Sessions
Digital Coworking Hours
Team Wellness Emails
Online Employee Resource Groups
There are also many other ways to improve the wellbeing of remote employees.
Why should you offer virtual workplace wellness programs?
Virtual workplace wellness programs demonstrate that employers care and encourage healthier habits among remote staff. In the long-term these programs can result in improved employee morale, lower absenteeism and employee turnover, greater productivity, and decreased insurance and liability costs.
How do you start an online workplace wellness program?
A good first step to starting an online workplace wellness program is to survey employees to see what perks might most interest them. Next, establish a budget and speak to your executives and HR department about instituting the program. Once you determine the offerings, announce the program to staff and encourage enrollment. Be sure to offer the options to new team members upon joining, and remind existing staff members about the resources available.
11. Midday Meditations
Even without the distractions of a traditional office, remote teammates can struggle with focus. One way to encourage mindfulness and decrease stress is to host midday meditations. Each workday, send an alert to participants to take a moment to breathe and clear their minds. You could ask an employee to guide the meditation, watch a video together, or use an app like HeadSpace. Or, you could make your own company meditation portal and have folks upload calming pictures, music, and audio meditations.
12. Mr. Rogers Calls
Loneliness is one of the biggest health risks for remote employees. To combat isolation, institute Mr. Rogers Calls. First, create a Slack channel and invite interested participants. Then, install the Donut app to randomly pair members for chats. We recommend setting the app on one week intervals, but you could assign matches more or less frequently.
Donut pairs participants and prompts them to schedule a video call. If you integrate virtual meeting platforms like Zoom or Google Meet and grant Slack access to virtual calendars, then Donut will propose times and set up the call with the click of a button.
Teammates meet up for a short video call, and talk about anything besides work. If your remote colleagues have trouble thinking up talking topics, then they can refer to this list of icebreakers.
13. Virtual Happy Hours
Healthy employees have thriving social lives and positive relationships with colleagues. Both of these accomplishments can be hard to master when working from home. Virtual happy hours help teammates bond and get face to face interaction.
During virtual happy hours, colleagues meet up on video conference software, sip drinks, play games, and wind down from the workday or workweek together. With Zoom happy hours, there is no need to worry about the noise level in the pub or coordinating a ride home afterwards. Plus, busy or faraway colleagues are more likely to make an appearance, since attending is as easy as clicking a link.
To stick with the theme of well-being, you could even host dry virtual happy hours where attendees indulge in nonalcoholic beverages like milkshakes or mocktails.
14. Healthy Cooking Club
Remote employees do not have to worry about the temptations of cake in the breakroom or impromptu lunches out. Yet staff might still not eat nutritious meals while working from home. To encourage remote workers to eat balanced meals, start a healthy cooking club.
Staff can swap healthy recipes via a collaborative Google Doc or link collector, and can upload pictures of finished dishes to a cloud-based photo album. You could even schedule ongoing remote dinners or virtual cooking sessions based around healthy meals, or send participants meal kits.
15. Meal Subscriptions
In theory, the absence of a commute gives employees more time to cook healthy meals. In reality, many telecommuters often work even more at home, and dinner becomes a bag of Doritos or takeout from the Chinese restaurant down the street.
Even if you plan online cooking classes and group meal prep sessions, some employees may not take part. After all, cooking from scratch requires grocery shopping and prep, and some folks lack the time or energy.
Healthy meal subscriptions are a great alternative. They take the place of catered office meals, and you can offer them once a twice a week or month, depending on budget and need. You can either order a fully-prepared meal, or one that requires very little effort to assemble.
16. Wholesome Snack Packs
Many companies stock communal break rooms with nutritious snacks. Work from home employees can benefit from healthy bites too.
To keep your staff energized, periodically send them wholesome snack packs full of healthy foods.
What to include:
Granola bars
Baked chips
Popcorn
Pretzels
Nuts
Organic fruit snacks
Peanut butter pouches
Apple sauce packets
Whole grain crackers
Low-sugar dried fruits
17. Online Art Therapy
Art can be therapeutic, especially if your employees work in highly technical positions.
There are a variety of ways to host online art therapy for your staff:
Doodle together on a digital whiteboard
Create a digital mural in Miro or Google Sheets
Attend Zoom paint and sip sessions
Book virtual art classes
Issue a monthly photo challenge
Send craft kits and adult coloring books to employees
Ask teammates to send each other homemade gifts, such as cards or origami animals
Create a Slack channel or cloud photo album where staff can share art creations
Make a team scrapbook by asking each teammate to create a page and mail it to the manager. Scan the final product and send all participants a digital copy.
18. Virtual Health Fair
Many employers host health fairs for staff, and virtual offices can join this tradition. To host a health fair virtually, plan a series of web sessions and virtual activities related to health and medical topics. You can recruit health care providers and vendors to give virtual talks and demonstrations.
Some virtual health fair ideas:
Online CPR courses
Mini telemedicine check-ups
Self-exam tutorials
Tips for work at home health
Healthy meal planning workshops
Survival skills and first aid Zoom classes
Information sessions about employee benefits
Online company store with healthy products
When planning your fair, reach out to your health insurance carrier, preferred medical providers or company health team, and health vendors to inquire about more virtual options.
19. Online Mental Health Fair
Mental health is just as important as physical health. Due to the individual nature of remote work, it is extra important to monitor employees’ mental and emotional wellbeing. By hosting online mental health fairs, you can set up a series of virtual activities and informational sessions that teach staff how to manage stress, express emotion, and cultivate mindfulness.
Online mental health fair ideas:
Teletherapist meet and greets
Guided virtual yoga and meditation
Zoom support groups
Journaling prompts
Coping skills workshops and worksheets
Self-help podcasts
Tips on managing workplace stress
Random acts of digital kindness
Holding online seminars about mental health de-stigmatizes the subject and encourages employees to ask for help when necessary.
20. Traveling Meetings
One of the perks of telecommuting is the ability to take meetings from unconventional locations. Following this logic, you can encourage employees to get exercise during calls by taking walks. Once a month, hold traveling meetings. Participants join the call by dialing in via phone or smart watch, and stroll through a park, beach, or city center. Traveling meetings help remote employees get exercise, fresh air, and sunshine.
21. Virtual Volunteering
According to Harvard Health, volunteering can boost both mental and physical health. If you lead dispersed teams, then you may not be able to rally the crew for an off-site service day. Nevertheless, your remote team can volunteer virtually.
First, choose a cause as a team. Then, coordinate a day to make complete activities together. For instance, you could meet up on Zoom to write letters to troops, tutor school children, lead a community workshop, or video chat with nursing home residents. Teammates get a chance to socialize with each other and bond over a shared mission.
If your team does not have the time or bandwidth for online volunteering, then team members can make monetary donations. You could provide a stipend for employees to put towards the philanthropy of their choosing, or offer to match any charitable donations up to a certain amount.
22. Digital Pet Therapy
Pets are instant mood boosters. To help your remote team get their animal fixes, schedule recurring digital pet therapy. Simply invite interested parties to a Zoom call, then take turns showing off furry friends. Cats and dogs are the likeliest guests, but the activity is extra fun if colleagues have exotic pets like hedgehogs, chickens, or chameleons.
If conflicting schedules prevent the group from meeting, then create a group chat or Slack channel where teammates can swap pictures of cute animals instead.
23. Treat Yourself Allowance
Treat yourself allowances are modest stipends bookmarked for small indulgences. Once per month or per quarter, permit remote employees up to $15 to spend on an item or service that brings them joy. Examples might include gourmet marshmallows, an hour at the batting cage, or a set of fake moustaches.
There are only 3 rules:
Employees must spend the money on themselves.
The object should not serve a practical purpose.
Participants must upload pictures of themselves enjoying the treat.
Treat yourself allowances double as a “getting-to-know-you” activity and remind remote employees that having fun at work is important.
24. Career Coaching
Professional development is a key element of employee satisfaction. To keep remote employees’ skills sharp and careers thriving, provide coaching as part of the wellness program. You could either cover costs of a set number of sessions, or partner with a coaching company to offer employees a discounted rate on services. These sessions can fill in the gap between virtual one on one meetings. Not to mention, they provide employees with a safe space to explore options and a neutral party to bounce ideas off of.
25. Life Coaching
Virtual life coaching is another service option to offer in your wellness program. Life coaching takes a more holistic approach than career coaching. Instead of focusing solely on job satisfaction or personal wellbeing, life coaches take a big-picture approach and help patients achieve balance in all areas. You can negotiate a discounted rate for employees, or offer every teammate a complimentary introductory session.
26. Professional Organizers
Clean home office spaces are pivotal to remote work success. Clutter can increase employee stress, not to mention lead to workday procrastination. By offering professional organizer services, you can help your teammates keep their workspaces tidy and conducive to productivity.
The organizers can make “virtual house calls,” via Zoom consultations and advise employees on how to best optimize their space. Not only will the organizers help clean up the clutter, they will also teach staff skills and develop systems to maintain order.
27. Virtual Water Cooler
Social ties are important to workplace wellness. A survey from the Society for Human Resource Management found that employees with work friends are less likely to seek or accept new job offers from outside organizations.
Remote employees have less opportunities to mingle and develop natural rapport with colleagues. Virtual water coolers provide environments where remote coworkers can chat and build friendly relationships.
To create a virtual water cooler, designate an online forum like Slack channel or group chat for casual, non-work banter. Managers can spur conversation by occasionally commenting within the feed.
28. Online Game Lounge
Traditional offices sometimes offer perks like ping pong tables, arcade games, and board games so that employees can socialize and relax. Virtual offices can achieve the same results by building an online game lounge. Simply make a Slack channel or an always-on video meeting room where remote employees can go to play games with colleagues. Or, use a game app or collaborative gaming website instead.
29. Online Employee Book Club
Online book clubs offer employees personal enrichment and social time. Every month, give participants a reading assignment. You could send members a physical or digital copy of the book, or offer to reimburse the cost of purchase. Teammates will meet up on a Zoom call to discuss the book in real-time, or will post reflections on an internal forum or Slack channel.
Chosen books do not have to be work-related. Members can read recent bestsellers or personal favorites instead. Be sure that the selected title is work-appropriate and accessible.
30. Goal Sharing Sessions
One way to motivate employees and maintain morale is to encourage staff to share goals with each other. First, create a hub where teammates can post goals, such as a Slack channel, cloud document, or collaborative whiteboard. Next, create a goal tracking spreadsheet and share it with participants. On a regular basis, check in with the team for updates. Throughout the exercise, teammates provide each other with encouragement and advice on how to accomplish goals.
Be sure to encourage employees to react to and celebrate each others’ announcements and milestones. For extra incentive, award victorious participants with a prize such as a complimentary meal, virtual party, or a digital badge.
31. Digital Coworking Hours
Digital coworking hours helps to eliminate remote work-induced isolation. Simply designate a block of time where dispersed team members can log in via Zoom and work silently together. Teammates do not need to be silent for the full time, and can exchange banter and ask each other questions. This activity simulates in-person office experiences and helps to build rapport between dispersed colleagues.
You could also do a virtual hackathon.
32. Virtual Employee Financial Wellness Programs
Economic health is an important facet of overall well being. By launching virtual employee financial wellness programs, you ensure that your teammates’ monetary health is as strong as their physical and mental health.
These programs can consist of Zoom meetings with financial advisors, digital financial literacy workshops, trials or subscriptions to fintech apps, as well as worksheets, websites, virtual calculators, podcasts, and videos that help employees learn how to better manage money.
33. Inspirational Quotes
One of the easiest free virtual wellness activities is to share motivational quotes with employees. You can include these quotes in company communications, such as internal emails or announcements. Or, you could create a channel where employees can post and react to quotes. For maximum effectiveness, share sayings regularly, such as a quote of the day or week. To make the exercise more interactive, call on employees to find and share powerful quotes on a rotating basis.
34. Team Wellness Emails
Team wellness emails are one of the easiest employee wellness program ideas. You can send regular emails to remote staff members highlighting healthy topics.
Here are some topic ideas:
Avoiding procrastination
Working with proper posture
Setting realistic goals
Easy at-home workouts
Showing gratitude for remote colleagues
Navigating work from home conflicts
Beginning or end of day self-care rituals
The emails can be about general health points, or work from home wellbeing. Sending these messages serves as a reminder for remote workers to take care of themselves and each other, and assures your team members that you care.
35. Digital Mentors
Virtual employees sometimes miss out on the coaching and advising opportunities available in traditional office settings. One solution to this problem is to launch a digital mentoring program. By matching remote employees with senior-level teammates, you give your crew a backup resource for times when managers are unavailable. Because the nature of these relationships is more informal, remote employees can ask mentors questions and advice they might not feel comfortable asking direct superiors. Plus, an online mentorship program adds an extra level of professional support and human contact to online offices.
To run your program, first ask for mentor volunteers, and then accept sign-ups from mentees. Next, match up your pairs, and make an introductory email. You may want to suggest a minimum number of monthly meetups or set up the first call.
36. Virtual Buddy System
Virtual Buddy Systems are a sort of online pen pal program. It is harder to forge work friendships in online environments, but the buddy system facilitates the process. Simply match up two dispersed employees, and set a schedule for them to check in with each other.
Online buddies can send each other inspiring quotes, funny gifs, online game challenges, interesting articles, and can meet up for casual conversation or virtual bonding time. The relationship should be ongoing. If one half of the pair leaves the company or opts out of the activity, then be sure to re-match the remaining participant. The purpose of the program is that every remote employee has a friendly face to reach out to within the company at all times.
37. Online Employee Resource Groups
Remote workers often report feeling lonely, and so do members of underrepresented groups. Even if employees get along with remote teammates, they may benefit from connecting with colleagues from similar backgrounds and demographics.
One of the best virtual employee wellness program ideas is to give staff access to online employee resource groups. These groups can have members-only chats and channels and hold regular Zoom meetings. Examples of support groups include meetups for race and cultural identities, gender, LGBTQ+, religions, grief and loss, and working parents.
Telecommuters can meet like minded individuals, ask advice from peers with similar experiences, and get the support they need. If your organization is too small for significant membership in these groups, then you can point employees towards outside organizations, such as groups run by industry or community organizations.
38. Daily Brain Teasers
Keeping employees’ brains sharp is just as important as keeping their bodies fit. To give remote staff regular mental workouts, send brain teasers. You can include the puzzles in team emails and Slack threads, or pose problems as an icebreaker in virtual meetings. Offering small rewards like digital Starbucks cards or virtual high fives from the boss encourages participation.
39. Work-life Balance Workshops
Remote workers often struggle to self-regulate and self-manage. Some employees overwork, while others under-work and are easily distracted. Establishing and maintaining boundaries is difficult. By offering ongoing remote work-life balance workshops, you set virtual employees up for success.
These seminars can take the form of Zoom lectures from experts, or group discussions on challenges and goals. Attendees can swap strategies and practice skills like active listening and email correspondence.
We recommend holding these events at least once per quarter, as part of the virtual new hire onboarding process. You could also send employees tips for working from home.
40. Online Lunch and Learns
Online lunch and learns are one of the most common virtual wellness activities for employees. These online events help employees learn and grow and offer face-to-face time with colleagues.
To host online lunch and learns, recruit speakers to present on subjects relevant to employees. The talk topics might be industry-specific, such as public speaking tips for sales advisors, or general job skills like time management. You could also host life-skills sessions such as retirement planning or language learning, or just-for-fun lessons like succulent gardening. Once you set a time for the meeting, send invitations with the virtual meeting link.
Conclusion
Wellness programs are especially important for remote employees. Due to the independent nature of virtual work, it can take longer to realize that a teammate is struggling. Telecommuters can also use occasional reminders to take care of themselves.
By offering a robust virtual employee wellness program, you communicate that you care about your remote staff and give your workers the tools and resources to live a more well-balanced and beneficial lifestyle. Over time, these practices can result in higher productivity, employee engagement, and retention rates and lower absenteeism, turnover, and insurance costs.
Next,
We also have a list of reasons why employees quit jobs.
FAQ: Virtual employee wellness programs
Here are answers to common questions about virtual employee wellness programs.
What are virtual employee wellness programs?
Virtual employee wellness programs are initiatives designed to encourage healthy habits in remote team members. These campaigns occur through platforms such as Slack, Zoom, social media. They target all areas of worker health, including mental, physical, social, and financial aspects.
What are some good virtual employee wellness program ideas?
Some good virtual employee wellness program ideas include:
Healthy Living Credits
Water Drinking Challenge
Online Group Workouts
Mr. Rogers Calls
Wholesome Snack Packs
Virtual Health Fairs
Traveling Meetings
Virtual Volunteering
Digital Pet Therapy
Goal Sharing Sessions
Digital Coworking Hours
Team Wellness Emails
Online Employee Resource Groups
There are also many other ways to improve the wellbeing of remote employees.
Why should you offer virtual workplace wellness programs?
Virtual workplace wellness programs demonstrate that employers care and encourage healthier habits among remote staff. In the long-term these programs can result in improved employee morale, lower absenteeism and employee turnover, greater productivity, and decreased insurance and liability costs.
How do you start an online workplace wellness program?
A good first step to starting an online workplace wellness program is to survey employees to see what perks might most interest them. Next, establish a budget and speak to your executives and HR department about instituting the program. Once you determine the offerings, announce the program to staff and encourage enrollment. Be sure to offer the options to new team members upon joining, and remind existing staff members about the resources available.
Even without the distractions of a traditional office, remote teammates can struggle with focus. One way to encourage mindfulness and decrease stress is to host midday meditations. Each workday, send an alert to participants to take a moment to breathe and clear their minds. You could ask an employee to guide the meditation, watch a video together, or use an app like HeadSpace. Or, you could make your own company meditation portal and have folks upload calming pictures, music, and audio meditations.
12. Mr. Rogers Calls
Loneliness is one of the biggest health risks for remote employees. To combat isolation, institute Mr. Rogers Calls. First, create a Slack channel and invite interested participants. Then, install the Donut app to randomly pair members for chats. We recommend setting the app on one week intervals, but you could assign matches more or less frequently.
Donut pairs participants and prompts them to schedule a video call. If you integrate virtual meeting platforms like Zoom or Google Meet and grant Slack access to virtual calendars, then Donut will propose times and set up the call with the click of a button.
Teammates meet up for a short video call, and talk about anything besides work. If your remote colleagues have trouble thinking up talking topics, then they can refer to this list of icebreakers.
13. Virtual Happy Hours
Healthy employees have thriving social lives and positive relationships with colleagues. Both of these accomplishments can be hard to master when working from home. Virtual happy hours help teammates bond and get face to face interaction.
During virtual happy hours, colleagues meet up on video conference software, sip drinks, play games, and wind down from the workday or workweek together. With Zoom happy hours, there is no need to worry about the noise level in the pub or coordinating a ride home afterwards. Plus, busy or faraway colleagues are more likely to make an appearance, since attending is as easy as clicking a link.
To stick with the theme of well-being, you could even host dry virtual happy hours where attendees indulge in nonalcoholic beverages like milkshakes or mocktails.
14. Healthy Cooking Club
Remote employees do not have to worry about the temptations of cake in the breakroom or impromptu lunches out. Yet staff might still not eat nutritious meals while working from home. To encourage remote workers to eat balanced meals, start a healthy cooking club.
Staff can swap healthy recipes via a collaborative Google Doc or link collector, and can upload pictures of finished dishes to a cloud-based photo album. You could even schedule ongoing remote dinners or virtual cooking sessions based around healthy meals, or send participants meal kits.
15. Meal Subscriptions
In theory, the absence of a commute gives employees more time to cook healthy meals. In reality, many telecommuters often work even more at home, and dinner becomes a bag of Doritos or takeout from the Chinese restaurant down the street.
Even if you plan online cooking classes and group meal prep sessions, some employees may not take part. After all, cooking from scratch requires grocery shopping and prep, and some folks lack the time or energy.
Healthy meal subscriptions are a great alternative. They take the place of catered office meals, and you can offer them once a twice a week or month, depending on budget and need. You can either order a fully-prepared meal, or one that requires very little effort to assemble.
16. Wholesome Snack Packs
Many companies stock communal break rooms with nutritious snacks. Work from home employees can benefit from healthy bites too.
To keep your staff energized, periodically send them wholesome snack packs full of healthy foods.
What to include:
Granola bars
Baked chips
Popcorn
Pretzels
Nuts
Organic fruit snacks
Peanut butter pouches
Apple sauce packets
Whole grain crackers
Low-sugar dried fruits
17. Online Art Therapy
Art can be therapeutic, especially if your employees work in highly technical positions.
There are a variety of ways to host online art therapy for your staff:
Doodle together on a digital whiteboard
Create a digital mural in Miro or Google Sheets
Attend Zoom paint and sip sessions
Book virtual art classes
Issue a monthly photo challenge
Send craft kits and adult coloring books to employees
Ask teammates to send each other homemade gifts, such as cards or origami animals
Create a Slack channel or cloud photo album where staff can share art creations
Make a team scrapbook by asking each teammate to create a page and mail it to the manager. Scan the final product and send all participants a digital copy.
18. Virtual Health Fair
Many employers host health fairs for staff, and virtual offices can join this tradition. To host a health fair virtually, plan a series of web sessions and virtual activities related to health and medical topics. You can recruit health care providers and vendors to give virtual talks and demonstrations.
Some virtual health fair ideas:
Online CPR courses
Mini telemedicine check-ups
Self-exam tutorials
Tips for work at home health
Healthy meal planning workshops
Survival skills and first aid Zoom classes
Information sessions about employee benefits
Online company store with healthy products
When planning your fair, reach out to your health insurance carrier, preferred medical providers or company health team, and health vendors to inquire about more virtual options.
19. Online Mental Health Fair
Mental health is just as important as physical health. Due to the individual nature of remote work, it is extra important to monitor employees’ mental and emotional wellbeing. By hosting online mental health fairs, you can set up a series of virtual activities and informational sessions that teach staff how to manage stress, express emotion, and cultivate mindfulness.
Online mental health fair ideas:
Teletherapist meet and greets
Guided virtual yoga and meditation
Zoom support groups
Journaling prompts
Coping skills workshops and worksheets
Self-help podcasts
Tips on managing workplace stress
Random acts of digital kindness
Holding online seminars about mental health de-stigmatizes the subject and encourages employees to ask for help when necessary.
20. Traveling Meetings
One of the perks of telecommuting is the ability to take meetings from unconventional locations. Following this logic, you can encourage employees to get exercise during calls by taking walks. Once a month, hold traveling meetings. Participants join the call by dialing in via phone or smart watch, and stroll through a park, beach, or city center. Traveling meetings help remote employees get exercise, fresh air, and sunshine.
21. Virtual Volunteering
According to Harvard Health, volunteering can boost both mental and physical health. If you lead dispersed teams, then you may not be able to rally the crew for an off-site service day. Nevertheless, your remote team can volunteer virtually.
First, choose a cause as a team. Then, coordinate a day to make complete activities together. For instance, you could meet up on Zoom to write letters to troops, tutor school children, lead a community workshop, or video chat with nursing home residents. Teammates get a chance to socialize with each other and bond over a shared mission.
If your team does not have the time or bandwidth for online volunteering, then team members can make monetary donations. You could provide a stipend for employees to put towards the philanthropy of their choosing, or offer to match any charitable donations up to a certain amount.
22. Digital Pet Therapy
Pets are instant mood boosters. To help your remote team get their animal fixes, schedule recurring digital pet therapy. Simply invite interested parties to a Zoom call, then take turns showing off furry friends. Cats and dogs are the likeliest guests, but the activity is extra fun if colleagues have exotic pets like hedgehogs, chickens, or chameleons.
If conflicting schedules prevent the group from meeting, then create a group chat or Slack channel where teammates can swap pictures of cute animals instead.
23. Treat Yourself Allowance
Treat yourself allowances are modest stipends bookmarked for small indulgences. Once per month or per quarter, permit remote employees up to $15 to spend on an item or service that brings them joy. Examples might include gourmet marshmallows, an hour at the batting cage, or a set of fake moustaches.
There are only 3 rules:
Employees must spend the money on themselves.
The object should not serve a practical purpose.
Participants must upload pictures of themselves enjoying the treat.
Treat yourself allowances double as a “getting-to-know-you” activity and remind remote employees that having fun at work is important.
24. Career Coaching
Professional development is a key element of employee satisfaction. To keep remote employees’ skills sharp and careers thriving, provide coaching as part of the wellness program. You could either cover costs of a set number of sessions, or partner with a coaching company to offer employees a discounted rate on services. These sessions can fill in the gap between virtual one on one meetings. Not to mention, they provide employees with a safe space to explore options and a neutral party to bounce ideas off of.
25. Life Coaching
Virtual life coaching is another service option to offer in your wellness program. Life coaching takes a more holistic approach than career coaching. Instead of focusing solely on job satisfaction or personal wellbeing, life coaches take a big-picture approach and help patients achieve balance in all areas. You can negotiate a discounted rate for employees, or offer every teammate a complimentary introductory session.
26. Professional Organizers
Clean home office spaces are pivotal to remote work success. Clutter can increase employee stress, not to mention lead to workday procrastination. By offering professional organizer services, you can help your teammates keep their workspaces tidy and conducive to productivity.
The organizers can make “virtual house calls,” via Zoom consultations and advise employees on how to best optimize their space. Not only will the organizers help clean up the clutter, they will also teach staff skills and develop systems to maintain order.
27. Virtual Water Cooler
Social ties are important to workplace wellness. A survey from the Society for Human Resource Management found that employees with work friends are less likely to seek or accept new job offers from outside organizations.
Remote employees have less opportunities to mingle and develop natural rapport with colleagues. Virtual water coolers provide environments where remote coworkers can chat and build friendly relationships.
To create a virtual water cooler, designate an online forum like Slack channel or group chat for casual, non-work banter. Managers can spur conversation by occasionally commenting within the feed.
28. Online Game Lounge
Traditional offices sometimes offer perks like ping pong tables, arcade games, and board games so that employees can socialize and relax. Virtual offices can achieve the same results by building an online game lounge. Simply make a Slack channel or an always-on video meeting room where remote employees can go to play games with colleagues. Or, use a game app or collaborative gaming website instead.
29. Online Employee Book Club
Online book clubs offer employees personal enrichment and social time. Every month, give participants a reading assignment. You could send members a physical or digital copy of the book, or offer to reimburse the cost of purchase. Teammates will meet up on a Zoom call to discuss the book in real-time, or will post reflections on an internal forum or Slack channel.
Chosen books do not have to be work-related. Members can read recent bestsellers or personal favorites instead. Be sure that the selected title is work-appropriate and accessible.
30. Goal Sharing Sessions
One way to motivate employees and maintain morale is to encourage staff to share goals with each other. First, create a hub where teammates can post goals, such as a Slack channel, cloud document, or collaborative whiteboard. Next, create a goal tracking spreadsheet and share it with participants. On a regular basis, check in with the team for updates. Throughout the exercise, teammates provide each other with encouragement and advice on how to accomplish goals.
Be sure to encourage employees to react to and celebrate each others’ announcements and milestones. For extra incentive, award victorious participants with a prize such as a complimentary meal, virtual party, or a digital badge.
31. Digital Coworking Hours
Digital coworking hours helps to eliminate remote work-induced isolation. Simply designate a block of time where dispersed team members can log in via Zoom and work silently together. Teammates do not need to be silent for the full time, and can exchange banter and ask each other questions. This activity simulates in-person office experiences and helps to build rapport between dispersed colleagues.
You could also do a virtual hackathon.
32. Virtual Employee Financial Wellness Programs
Economic health is an important facet of overall well being. By launching virtual employee financial wellness programs, you ensure that your teammates’ monetary health is as strong as their physical and mental health.
These programs can consist of Zoom meetings with financial advisors, digital financial literacy workshops, trials or subscriptions to fintech apps, as well as worksheets, websites, virtual calculators, podcasts, and videos that help employees learn how to better manage money.
33. Inspirational Quotes
One of the easiest free virtual wellness activities is to share motivational quotes with employees. You can include these quotes in company communications, such as internal emails or announcements. Or, you could create a channel where employees can post and react to quotes. For maximum effectiveness, share sayings regularly, such as a quote of the day or week. To make the exercise more interactive, call on employees to find and share powerful quotes on a rotating basis.
34. Team Wellness Emails
Team wellness emails are one of the easiest employee wellness program ideas. You can send regular emails to remote staff members highlighting healthy topics.
Here are some topic ideas:
Avoiding procrastination
Working with proper posture
Setting realistic goals
Easy at-home workouts
Showing gratitude for remote colleagues
Navigating work from home conflicts
Beginning or end of day self-care rituals
The emails can be about general health points, or work from home wellbeing. Sending these messages serves as a reminder for remote workers to take care of themselves and each other, and assures your team members that you care.
35. Digital Mentors
Virtual employees sometimes miss out on the coaching and advising opportunities available in traditional office settings. One solution to this problem is to launch a digital mentoring program. By matching remote employees with senior-level teammates, you give your crew a backup resource for times when managers are unavailable. Because the nature of these relationships is more informal, remote employees can ask mentors questions and advice they might not feel comfortable asking direct superiors. Plus, an online mentorship program adds an extra level of professional support and human contact to online offices.
To run your program, first ask for mentor volunteers, and then accept sign-ups from mentees. Next, match up your pairs, and make an introductory email. You may want to suggest a minimum number of monthly meetups or set up the first call.
36. Virtual Buddy System
Virtual Buddy Systems are a sort of online pen pal program. It is harder to forge work friendships in online environments, but the buddy system facilitates the process. Simply match up two dispersed employees, and set a schedule for them to check in with each other.
Online buddies can send each other inspiring quotes, funny gifs, online game challenges, interesting articles, and can meet up for casual conversation or virtual bonding time. The relationship should be ongoing. If one half of the pair leaves the company or opts out of the activity, then be sure to re-match the remaining participant. The purpose of the program is that every remote employee has a friendly face to reach out to within the company at all times.
37. Online Employee Resource Groups
Remote workers often report feeling lonely, and so do members of underrepresented groups. Even if employees get along with remote teammates, they may benefit from connecting with colleagues from similar backgrounds and demographics.
One of the best virtual employee wellness program ideas is to give staff access to online employee resource groups. These groups can have members-only chats and channels and hold regular Zoom meetings. Examples of support groups include meetups for race and cultural identities, gender, LGBTQ+, religions, grief and loss, and working parents.
Telecommuters can meet like minded individuals, ask advice from peers with similar experiences, and get the support they need. If your organization is too small for significant membership in these groups, then you can point employees towards outside organizations, such as groups run by industry or community organizations.
38. Daily Brain Teasers
Keeping employees’ brains sharp is just as important as keeping their bodies fit. To give remote staff regular mental workouts, send brain teasers. You can include the puzzles in team emails and Slack threads, or pose problems as an icebreaker in virtual meetings. Offering small rewards like digital Starbucks cards or virtual high fives from the boss encourages participation.
39. Work-life Balance Workshops
Remote workers often struggle to self-regulate and self-manage. Some employees overwork, while others under-work and are easily distracted. Establishing and maintaining boundaries is difficult. By offering ongoing remote work-life balance workshops, you set virtual employees up for success.
These seminars can take the form of Zoom lectures from experts, or group discussions on challenges and goals. Attendees can swap strategies and practice skills like active listening and email correspondence.
We recommend holding these events at least once per quarter, as part of the virtual new hire onboarding process. You could also send employees tips for working from home.
40. Online Lunch and Learns
Online lunch and learns are one of the most common virtual wellness activities for employees. These online events help employees learn and grow and offer face-to-face time with colleagues.
To host online lunch and learns, recruit speakers to present on subjects relevant to employees. The talk topics might be industry-specific, such as public speaking tips for sales advisors, or general job skills like time management. You could also host life-skills sessions such as retirement planning or language learning, or just-for-fun lessons like succulent gardening. Once you set a time for the meeting, send invitations with the virtual meeting link.
Conclusion
Wellness programs are especially important for remote employees. Due to the independent nature of virtual work, it can take longer to realize that a teammate is struggling. Telecommuters can also use occasional reminders to take care of themselves.
By offering a robust virtual employee wellness program, you communicate that you care about your remote staff and give your workers the tools and resources to live a more well-balanced and beneficial lifestyle. Over time, these practices can result in higher productivity, employee engagement, and retention rates and lower absenteeism, turnover, and insurance costs.
Next,
We also have a list of reasons why employees quit jobs.
FAQ: Virtual employee wellness programs
Here are answers to common questions about virtual employee wellness programs.
What are virtual employee wellness programs?
Virtual employee wellness programs are initiatives designed to encourage healthy habits in remote team members. These campaigns occur through platforms such as Slack, Zoom, social media. They target all areas of worker health, including mental, physical, social, and financial aspects.
What are some good virtual employee wellness program ideas?
Some good virtual employee wellness program ideas include:
Healthy Living Credits
Water Drinking Challenge
Online Group Workouts
Mr. Rogers Calls
Wholesome Snack Packs
Virtual Health Fairs
Traveling Meetings
Virtual Volunteering
Digital Pet Therapy
Goal Sharing Sessions
Digital Coworking Hours
Team Wellness Emails
Online Employee Resource Groups
There are also many other ways to improve the wellbeing of remote employees.
Why should you offer virtual workplace wellness programs?
Virtual workplace wellness programs demonstrate that employers care and encourage healthier habits among remote staff. In the long-term these programs can result in improved employee morale, lower absenteeism and employee turnover, greater productivity, and decreased insurance and liability costs.
How do you start an online workplace wellness program?
A good first step to starting an online workplace wellness program is to survey employees to see what perks might most interest them. Next, establish a budget and speak to your executives and HR department about instituting the program. Once you determine the offerings, announce the program to staff and encourage enrollment. Be sure to offer the options to new team members upon joining, and remind existing staff members about the resources available.