The WellRight Blog

Editor's Note: We recently updated this post with new insights.

As we head into a new year, employees everywhere are enjoying a fresh start and setting new and timely wellness goals.

But as temperatures begin to drop, so too can employee engagement. Chilly winter temperatures and snow days may be welcome treats after the holidays, but they also serve as effective barriers to exercising, eating healthy, and getting adequate sleep. 

If your employees are struggling to stay motivated now that the holiday season is over, now is the perfect time to give them ideas for staying active, productive, and fulfilled long term.

Editor's Note: We recently updated this previously published post with new insights.

"Tag! You’re it!"

As a kid, those words may have been your signal to run like the wind while you and your friends scattered across the playground.

At no point during this activity did you stop and wonder how many calories you were burning.

Playful games like tag can be transformative, making almost any activity more enjoyable. So if you want your corporate wellness program (and your wellness challenges) to be more enjoyable for your employees, why not weave a sense of play into your corporate wellness strategy?

Fall marks the time of year when nature shows its beauty and reminds us to slow down, check in, and recharge. The holidays will be here before we know it, along with that recurrent combination of excitement and stress.

To add to those feelings, employees are still grappling with workplaces that continue to change significantly. Whether they’re burned out from working in multiple locations or participating in unsustainable and irrelevant wellness challenges, employees are in need of personalized wellness programs that address their unique needs and put their well-being first.

There’s just something about spring. Everything feels reborn as Mother Nature breaks through the detritus of winter and begins to bloom again.

Spring is full of possibilities, making it the perfect time to shake up your wellness program and offer fun, meaningful challenges to help employees break through their winter doldrums and reach for the sun.

Nature-inspired analogies aside, many employees are at least somewhat the worse for wear after the past couple of years, and they could use the opportunity to make a fresh, energizing start to the spring that lets them reconnect with others—and themselves.

Pumpkin spice, cool morning air, and falling leaves … as the season begins to change, fall can be a time to pause, reflect, and recharge. With the holiday season around the corner, fall is the perfect time to focus on well-being before the demands of family and work gatherings begin to take their toll.

As we enter our second autumn in this pandemic, implementing wellness challenges that prioritize self-care and nourish the spirit can help you and your employees take a much needed—and literal—breath of fresh air to recharge.

It’s that time of year again when the warm weather reminds us how great it is to be alive. But this isn’t just any summer. We’re rolling into this one with a newfound appreciation for little things we sometimes take for granted, like spending time with friends, going to our favorite restaurant, or hitting a workout class.

As we emerge into the summer sunshine, your employees may find themselves struggling to get back into healthy habits after a year of Zoom calls, Netflix, and food delivery. How can you help them recharge and reengage with your wellness program?

Spring always brings new promises—not only for the renewal of nature, but the revitalization of goals and resolutions that may have fizzled during the winter.

This time of rebirth is a great time to get employees amped up for fun new wellness challenges. But with many employees still working at home, wellness challenge ideas for remote workers might be hard to find. You’ll need to be creative and find ways to connect people regardless of where they are.

Typically, people choose to participate in Dry January—a month without booze—after a holiday season of overconsumption. But this New Year, Dry January comes after not just a couple of months of above-average drinking, but nearly a full year.

The change of seasons may be a little bit harder to recognize this year. In many areas, the kids aren’t going back to school full-time. Traditional events like Halloween and Thanksgiving may look quite different. Football season is opening to empty stadiums.

Yet, fall is happening, nevertheless. The air will get crisp, the leaves will change, and the coffees and candles will be pumpkin spiced.

Summer is here! Although, if you hadn’t noticed the change of seasons, you’re hardly alone. Time has been difficult to track this year. With mandatory stay-at-home orders, school closings, and the cancellation of seasonal events, these past few months have felt unmoored from the calendar’s customary flow.

With all that’s going on in the world, it may be more difficult than ever to engage your employees in wellness challenges. But it’s worth persisting: Wellness challenges can help your employees take their minds off the troubling times we live in and recharge for whatever lies ahead. The key is to choose challenges that represent the six dimensions of wellbeing: emotional, financial, occupational, social, physical, and purpose.

Here are six of our favorite summer wellness challenges. Each of these activities can be done from home while social distancing.