At Rise, we strongly encourage employee health and wellness, which is evident in our extensive list of perks and benefits such as paid birthdays off, fitness and wellness subsidies, a kitchen full of healthy food, tons of office plants, and a few dogs. We love hearing about what other companies are doing to foster wellness in the workplace and we thought you would, too! Here are some of our favourites:
1. The David Suzuki Foundation
One of our terrific clients, the David Suzuki Foundation, provides its dedicated volunteers and employees with a variety of options that encourage individual health and wellness. For starters, the Vancouver-based not-for-profit offers a 4-day workweek, in which most team members work Monday to Thursday -- but they are flexible on working hours. For instance, if someone’s daughter has a soccer game on Tuesday, they can choose to take that day off and work on Friday instead. Offering this kind of flexibility empowers employees to have a work-life balance that’s unrivalled by most organizations that operate on a 9-5, Monday-Friday basis. As the Foundation's HR Director, Catherine Gordon, explains, “We believe that people bring their personal lives to work”. Because of this, The David Suzuki Foundation makes work-life balance a priority.
In addition to the foundation’s flexible working days and shorter workweek, it provides showers for employees as most of them run or ride their bikes to work -- makes sense, since everyone who works there is highly environmentally friendly and don’t have cars. There are several other things this incredible organization offers its employees, including walking meetings, a beautiful west coast-inspired office space and more, but that’s for another post.
2. Zappos
From state-of-the-art yoga and fitness studios to a nap room, mini putt golf course, and of course, a ping pong table, Zappos offers its employees a robust workplace wellness program. Additionally, the online retailer reimburses its employees for their fitness-related activities such as gym memberships and marathon registrations. Doing so encourages employees to stay active and healthy.
According to this Mashable article, Zappos provides what it calls “Wellness Adventures” to team members, in which a small group of employees from different departments get together to do something entertaining outside of the office. Such adventures include golf lessons, trampolining, and laser tag -- this gives employees a chance to get to know others in the company while having fun. If that weren’t enough, the company further encourages employees to stay active by offering playground-like games such as tetherball, basketball or volleyball on certain days during lunch.
3. Flight Centre
All Flight Centre Employees receive extensive travel discounts and get 4 weeks of paid vacation within just three years from their start date. They also receive “familiarization trips” in which they’re flown out to popular destinations and resorts to help them better sell particular vacations to clients. As we discussed in a previous post, Flight Centre also hires wellness and financial consultants who provide employees with everything from yoga classes to one-on-one investment consultations — making for well-rounded, well-rested staff.
Now that you’ve read through this list, what do you think makes for a great workplace wellness program? We’d love to hear what you think, so be sure to share your comments with us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!
Looking for more articles on employee wellness programs? Check out one of these blog posts:
8 Activities to Incorporate into Your Workplace Wellness Program
9 Ways Technology Can Increase Workplace Wellness
10 Companies with Amazing Workplace Wellness Programs
