Antonella Pisani is the CEO of Eyeful Media, a leading digital marketing agency that is one of the fastest-growing businesses in the US.
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Building a healthy work culture dedicated to employee wellness in a remote environment is a challenge that many companies are facing right now. Even before the start of the pandemic, employee wellness had been a primary concern for many companies. As early as 2014, Houston Methodist gave out free Fitbits to its employees and used them to track fitness goals for friendly competitions.
Google’s People & Innovation Lab (PiLab) is re-imagining the world of HR and, nearly a decade ago, it developed a program that applied scientific data to try to reduce employee calorie intake. Employees at The Motley Fool participate in free fitness classes that earned the company the moniker “Most Athletic Company in DC” in 2017.
Wellness is about more than just calories and fitness, though—there’s also mental and emotional well-being and work-life balance to be considered. A working team should be helpful and supportive to one another and focus on avoiding the poisoned politics that can so easily take over.
They should help one another climb the ladder of success rather than backstabbing each other to promote themselves over the team. Building a healthy and supportive culture is how this can be accomplished and sustained over time.
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Learning To Build A Healthy Culture Remotely
There are many ways offices have been found to promote wellness within their four walls. But what about remote workers? In 2019, only about 5.7% of the workforce worked remotely. The pandemic caused many offices to close, and by 2021, 17.9% of people were primarily working from home. In some areas of the country, that number is far higher. Washington, D.C., had almost half of the workforce working remotely.
Although current numbers are difficult to measure, many companies have stayed remote or adopted a hybrid solution where employees work from home at least some of the time over the last couple of years.
While there are several benefits to remote work, health and wellness are often not among them. Instead, such an arrangement can easily lend itself to a sedentary lifestyle. When you add the stress of blurring work-life boundaries, it’s easy to see how remote worker health can be at risk.
Remote work companies and workers must focus on creating a culture of wellness. Below are five strategies for how this can be accomplished.
Five Areas Of Focus For Building A Remote Culture That Works For Its Employees
By emphasizing and focusing on these five areas below, your team will be able to start building a remote culture that is supportive, healthy and that promotes overall wellness for its employees.
1. Mental Health Support: Focus on employee mental health by celebrating achievements and promoting mental and emotional wellness within the team.
2. Flexible Schedules: Allow employees to work around their personal schedules. Build trust and loyalty by letting employees set their own work hours.
3. Connections: Encourage employees to engage socially in appropriate ways. Fun online chats, goofy video chat moments and other social engagement moments lead to teams that enjoy working together and regularly encourage one another.
4. Paid Time Off: Besides regular PTO, consider shorter work days on Fridays through the summer or time off for volunteer projects and team-building activities.
5. Financial Wellness: No employee can be happy and healthy while struggling financially. Help alleviate this stress with competitive pay and generous bonuses.
Communication And Support Tools For Fostering A Culture Of Wellness
In any business, your team is your most valuable asset. Ensure that their wellness comes first, and watch your business thrive. While it may seem challenging, communication and support tools can help to further this culture of wellness.
Team Communication Tools: Slack, Google Meet
Instead of gathering around the watercooler, healthy cultures of support and wellness can be fostered by team communication tools such as Slack and Google Meet. Teams can use these tools for daily messages and updates along with video chats and virtual happy hours. For those in the same geographic area, regular company dinners or team-building events can help bring everyone together.
Support Tools: Industry-Leading Compensation, 15Five
Compensation is an obvious but effective tool in building a culture of support. By offering salary, wages and growth opportunities that lead the industry, your team will feel appreciated. Our team also uses tools like 15Five to gauge employee satisfaction and give each team member direct access to their supervisors every week.
Physical Health Tools: Companywide Health Challenges, Giving Back
Participating in companywide physical health challenges that allow employees to record their preferred form of exercise and compete in challenges that benefit various charities is also effective. Giving back through team exercise is another way to help bring a deeper meaning to the work your team is doing as well as the improvements they are making in their own personal health.
Staying Focused On A Healthy Culture As You Scale
The biggest tool for building a healthy culture in a remote environment is staying dedicated to it on a daily basis. Don’t become too far removed as leaders from the day-to-day activities of your company. Make sure you are aware of what is happening with your culture on a regular basis. The teams that win in this changing remote work environment will be the ones who support each other the best and stick together the most. Building a healthy, vibrant and supportive culture is the first step to accomplishing those goals.
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Author: Antonella Pisani, Forbes Councils Member
