Wellness is a big part of our culture here at CleverClicks, not just because it makes for more productive employees, but because it makes for happier ones.

We’ve found that incorporating wellness into our work-life has all sorts of benefits, from increased job satisfaction and retention rates to an improved sense of community between team members.

When making health a part of your company, however, there’s a balance to be found between encouraging people to live well and forcing them to follow a lifestyle that’s not for them.

In light of this, we thought we’d share a few of the ways we’re weaving healthy living into our work life without going all-out boot camp.

Why we do it:

First and foremost, we do it because we care about the people who work at CleverClicks and we believe that work-life balance shouldn’t be such an impossible thing to obtain, but we’ve also noticed  a number of positive benefits that are enjoyed by both employers and employees.

1. Improved job satisfaction & retention rate

From an employer’s perspective, including a wellness angle is a perk that means improved job satisfaction and happy employees. This leads to a better retention rate and a more gratified workforce, which in turn means a more dedicated, happy and loyal team.

2. Recruitment

One benefit we didn’t foresee was the role it would play in recruitment. Our job ads mention our focus on health and the health-related perks we offer. We had an overwhelmingly positive response to these ads and many of our best candidates mentioned this as a major ‘tipping point’ in their decision to choose us over other offers.

3. Decreased absenteeism & increased productivity

It’s not just the promise of health that benefits employers; once your staff begin improving their health you’ll see improved productivity and lower absenteeism. In fact, we’ve had a team total of 4 sick days in the last 2 years! Not bad going, right?

4. Improved quality of work

This is no joke. Studies have specifically shown that people in a healthier physical state are able to concentrate for longer periods of time, have more creative ideas, show greater productivity and are less prone to dips in mental performance.

5. Greater sense of community

Finally, in addition to the overall pleasure employees get from working in a company that cares about their well being, we’ve found that making our wellness a part of the company culture has increased the sense of community among team members. Sharing in each other’s goals and successes creates a healthy, positive energy that we all really enjoy.

How we do it:

Incorporating health and wellness into our culture has been an exciting journey, and is one of the things that we feel makes our company great. Below are the ways we’ve found work for us.

1. Flexi-time

All employees at CleverClicks work on flexi time – meaning you choose your start and end time, and you’re free to take off during any part of the day.

This means that we can hit the gym, attend a yoga class or even just grab a half hour meditation session in the middle of the working day. It also means that we’re working when we’re most productive: if you hit a wall at 2pm, rather go for an afternoon jog and return to the task with a fresh mind and an endorphin rush.

Flexi time also means that we never have to travel to and from the office during peak hours, resulting in extra time to work or gym or catch up on ‘me-time’ that would otherwise be wasted staring at a bumper.

Not having enough time is one of the most common excuses for not exercising – with flexi hours our people have the luxury of choosing when they feel like kicking ass at work or when they feel like decompressing in a yoga class.

2. Wellness allowance

CleverClicks gives its employees a wellness allowance to be spent on a gym membership and other wellness-related activities. This is on a ‘use-it-or-lose-it basis, which is a great motivator.

This not only encourages us to get active but also helps to offset the cost of healthy living. This goes a long way in helping people maintain an active and healthy lifestyle and is an awesome perk to be able to offer employees and potential candidates.

3. Health goals

At the start of every month we have a discussion around our own personal health goals. Each individual shares a wellness-related goal they’d like to achieve and the date they’d like to have it completed by. This can be anything from quitting smoking to completing 20 press ups.

For example, for November our team’s goals are as follows:

Naeem: 60 consecutive crunches and 2 minutes plank

Anika: Gym 3 x per week for the month

Philip: Yoga class twice a week for a month

Ant: Run 5km in under 27 minutes

Nicole: 100 consecutive round house kicks

Steph: Nail ‘Adho Mukha Svanasana’ (a yogi handstand)

Once you’ve shared your goal with the team, it gets posted up on the health goals board and you at the start of each week you update the team with your progress.

Sharing the goal with your peers and making it visible in the office creates accountability, allows other to offer support as you work towards achieving it and increases each individual’s sense of accomplishment when they get there.

4. Monday Health Question

Every morning we have a quick status meeting with the team, and before each meeting we ask a tag question to get the ball rolling.

On Mondays, our tag question includes a health-goal update; a chance for each individual to update your colleagues on your wellness-related progress for the week.

Chatting about your progress at regular intervals provides a platform for people share their successes and challenges, allows others to encourage you on your journey and keeps you motivated to throughout the month.

5. In-office exercise

When we’re all in the office together we engage in sporadic exercise and stretch sessions during the working day.

These are not compulsory, but they provide a good break, reconnect us with our bodies during the working day, break up long periods of sitting and keeps energy levels up.

As digital marketers we spend a lot of time in front of our computers and these quick stretch sessions are an easy but effective way to minimise the damage that causes.

6. Team events

Every year we enter ourselves in team athletic events. We do our training individually, but the event is done as a group and acts as a fun, team building activity with a healthy twist.

Here’s a peek at our upcoming challenge, and below is a picture of the team participating in the last one:

7. Healthy office decor

This is still a work in progress (as we’ve just moved to new offices), but we’re creating a space that promotes happy, calm, healthy employees.We’ve already installed wall forest vinyl and plenty of indoor greenery.

At the moment we’re busy creating a place for people to sit and meditate, and communal area flooded with natural light, so it’s safe to say that we’re well on the way to making the office a calming, awesome place to spend time.

8. Overall ‘vibe’:

A less tangible (but very important) part of our healthy culture is the ‘overall vibe’. Health and wellness is encouraged, talked about in the office, joked about in meetings and has become a part of our day-to-day culture.

The fact that we’ve created a culture where we chat freely about our gym workouts and enjoy encouraging each other on our wellness journeys is something we’re really proud of.

Incorporating health into our company culture has been a really positive and rewarding journey. We’re going to keep expanding on it and trying new things, but even the results we’ve seen thus far have been great! Suffice it to say it’s been a great investment and we’re looking forward to the road ahead.

 

Tags: corporate fitness, corporate wellness, employee wellness, fitness, health and fitness, health goals, healthcare, healthy life, healthy living, keep fit, keep healthy, occupational health, occupational wellness, wellness, wellness activities, work wellness