1. It Helps Employees Adopt Healthy Habits
   Changing our behavior is ultimately up to each of us. However, employers have an opportunity to help employees adopt healthy habits, so they can live healthier lives! Netpresenter helps you inspire employees to adopt a healthier lifestyle.
   
2. It Lowers Health Risks
   Research among approximately 200,000 wellness participants found that 5 out of 7 health risks improved after one year of participation in a wellness program. To lower health risks, employees should maintain a healthy lifestyle for years and employers should provide a comfortable place to work, wherever their employees work.

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Workplace wellness and employee well-being have become more important over time, but nothing has made the importance of workplace wellness clearer than the past year. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the impact of work on our personal lives – especially for those who have been working from their homes for the largest part of the pandemic. Opportunities to build and maintain positive and strong relationships with colleagues have majorly shrunk. Layoffs and furloughed colleagues have increased uncertainty. And lockdowns have forced us all to move less and stay inside more. These conditions have caused a decline in employees’ mental and physical health, so promoting workplace wellness in hybrid organizations has become crucial to maintaining your staff’s well-being.

2020 was the most stressful year workers have ever experienced; according to research by Oracle and Workplace Intelligence:

• 85 percent of the surveyed employees said that newfound work-related stress is affecting their home lives.
• 78 percent said that the pandemic has negatively affected their mental health.
• 76 percent of employees believe their company should be doing more to protect the mental health of their workforce.
• 35 percent of remote workers say they have been putting in more hours (10 or more per week) since the start of the pandemic.

As countries gradually lift restrictions and employees return to the office, a hybrid future is imminent for more and more organizations. However, the challenges that arose during the pandemic will not cease to exist within hybrid workplaces – especially the growing issue of mental well-being. When done wrong, the hybrid workplace will not only increase the stressors of remote work but those of in-person work at the same time: long commutes, late arrival at home, and a lack of time to exercise or to spend with family – combined with isolation and a lack of social interaction or the absence of enough opportunities to build positive colleague relationships.

Caring for employees

Do you want to start promoting workplace wellness in hybrid organizations? Download our free infographic with 10 tips to start promoting workplace wellness right now. Or get in touch with our consultants to learn how to start promoting workplace wellness in your hybrid organization.

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These tips will help ensure that your employees have a healthy and productive home office!

1. Provide an ERGONOMIC workstation Offer your employees a height-adjustable desk or at least an adjustable chair with armrests to support their arms. This helps to maintain the correct sitting posture.

The dining table is not a suitable workplace

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Rising late (at least just a bit later). No commute. Comfy clothes all day, every day. Oh, the joys of working from home … What started as a temporary leave from the office has transitioned into a complete workforce revolution. Since the start of the coronavirus crisis, many employees around the world have set up a home office. Although it might be challenging to work with children, pets and partners around, working from home has numerous benefits. Still, there’s one thing you cannot promote in a home office: workplace wellness. Or can you?

Remote work has indeed been on the rise in 2020. At the peak, 62% of employed US adults worked part-time or full-time from home. Nevertheless, now that remote working has gone from privilege to necessity due to the coronavirus crisis, burnout is hitting an all time high. Working from home doesn’t mean working all the time, though sometimes it might feel that way. Boundaries between work and private life can easily fade. This state of mind can cause the influx of burned-out employees that affects the overall health of workforces – and, consequently, business productivity.

Workplace wellness is essential to stay healthy

If you’re under the impression burnout just means being drained from your job, think again. Burnout is known to cause a myriad of mental and physical conditions: heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, anxiety, depression, a weakened immune system, and even death. It may well be argued that practicing workplace wellness (wherever your workplace is located) and establishing a healthy work from home lifestyle could keep your mind and body safe. But how do you promote workplace wellness when the workplace is, in fact, mainly a place to live?

Some employers offer office materials for employees’ home offices or make arrangements that provide a tax benefit for employees who set up a healthful home office. These are all great measures to promote physical health. But improving mental health requires a different approach.

Employers should support workplace wellness

In stressful times like these, employees must look after themselves. They also need their employer to support them in their efforts to stay healthy physically and mentally. When working from home, employees might feel the pressure to keep working and show that they are performing well. They might think that taking a short break or time off is frowned upon or even jeopardizes their jobs in these uncertain times. Hence, employers should be transparent about leave policies and include taking breaks as part of the organization’s culture.

Workplace wellness does not just encompass going on leave to disconnect when you log too many hours at work. Stimulate your employees to take a coffee break or stretch their legs at regular intervals during their working day. Remind them to take a break from work periodically. Employees may try to save some of their leave days for later – when they can take the vacation abroad they hoped for. However, downtime is not just a ‘nice to have’; it is essential. You cannot have sustained periods of stress without burnout unless you find a method to detach and a way to recover. Taking a few days off every couple of months is necessary to reset and go back to work refreshed.

Communicate proactively to relieve stress

Pro-active communication helps employers to promote workplace wellness. Especially when employees are working remotely, solutions like a corporate wallpaper or employee app are great ways to remind employees to look after themselves and give them tips on how to improve their own workplace wellness. You can even send out push notifications at fixed times to remind everyone to take a break. And by promoting this as a company, you’ll reassure your coworkers that it is okay to take a coffee break, stretch those legs, or take a few days off. This knowledge alone might just relief some stress.

Looking for ways to promote workplace wellness within your organization? Download our free infographic with 10 tips to start promoting workplace wellness right now. Or contact our consultants to learn how Netpresenter can help you improve workplace wellness.

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On January 24th, it’s National Compliment Day. A day that you might easily overlook. However, it’s not a bad idea to take a moment to reflect on this day, especially in the workplace. There is nothing that motivates people as much as a compliment (except maybe pizza). But why is it important to compliment your colleagues? And how can you best compliment your colleagues?

The relationship between compliments and productivity has been scientifically proven. Various studies show that people become more productive when they receive sincere compliments. This is evident, for example, from a study by Arjan Non from Maastricht University and Robert Dur from Erasmus University. They examined the productivity of three hundred students who thought they were digitizing surveys as a part-time job. They were divided into two groups. In the first group, everyone received a handwritten note with a compliment from the director after completing their tasks. In the second group, only the best-performing employee received a note. However, it turned out that both groups performed better after receiving the compliments.

Money, pizza, or a compliment

The relationship between compliments and increased productivity has also been demonstrated in other parts of the world. Behavioral economist Dan Ariely, for instance, describes in his book “Payoff: The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivations” an experiment in which the motivation of employees in an Israeli factory was examined. All employees in four research groups received a motivational email. Three groups received an additional incentive: one group received a compliment from the boss when reaching a certain target, one group received a monetary bonus, and one group received pizza. The fourth group only received the email. At the end of the experiment, the group that received a monetary bonus was the least productive. The people who received a compliment (or pizza) were the most productive.

We could cite more studies that draw the same conclusion, but the idea is clear. People work harder when they feel appreciated. Ernst Bohlmeijer, a professor of mental health promotion at the University of Twente, provides the following explanation: to develop as a person, you need autonomy, competence, and connection. These three needs come together in a compliment. However, a study by The London School of Economics and Political Science shows that only ten percent of the respondents expressed their appreciation to colleagues. So, it’s time for more compliments!

Complimenting or appreciating

Many people think that compliments and appreciation are the same. But you can express your appreciation by saying things like “thank you,” “good job,” or even “you’re the best.” Compliments go a step further: you explain the value of the person you appreciate. You specifically address what the person has done that you appreciate. Compliments reinforce desired behavior by evoking a positive emotion in the recipient. As a result, the recipient will want to experience the same emotion and exhibit the same behavior for which they received a compliment earlier.

Learning to compliment

You can give compliments privately as well. Take the time for it, advises behavioral scientist Esther Popelier: talk about the person, not just the result. Try to find something for which the person has made an extra effort, so that they see that the extra effort is noticed.

But we are also advocates of praising in public. Public praise can be quick and easy. Moreover, it’s a great way to spread appreciation and motivation and promote engagement. Place your compliments, for example, on your digital signage screens, corporate lock screen, wallpaper, or screensaver, or in your employee app. This way, everyone can see that you’ve done something to be proud of, and you’ll probably receive even more compliments. Publicly complimenting can positively reinforce team behavior, which also benefits your organization (think back to the experiment with the students, where the whole team performed better when the best-performing employee received a compliment).

Celebrating positive contributions

A great way to ensure that everyone feels recognized and acknowledged is to celebrate positive contributions at the end of the week. Look at both small and big things that have made the week more positive.

Set a reminder on your narrowcasting screens so that your colleagues think about their weekly “Cheers for Colleagues.” Let your colleagues submit (anonymous) compliments. There are no rules: they can be directly related to work or to a more personal moment that has had an impact. Any form of public praise will give your colleagues a positive feeling.

Cheers for Colleagues For example, let your colleagues know in this way that they have had a positive impact on your week:

• “Cheers to Roos for taking the time for me this week. You had a lot of new things to share, and I learned a lot. I will definitely use that new knowledge in the upcoming project!”
• “Cheers to Melissa for organizing that fantastic company outing. We enjoyed it!”
• “Cheers to Arjan for staying late. Because of you, I met that deadline. You worked really hard, and it made a real difference. Thank you!”

Share these cheers on narrowcasting screens or PCs on the last day of the week. This way, there is a fixed moment when people receive the appreciation and compliments they deserve. Other colleagues will also know who made a difference at what point in the week. And then everyone can end the workweek a little happier!

Do you want to know how we can help you recognize your colleagues? Contact us for a free demo and make every day a day of compliments!

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