Making Use of Wellness Programs Across Remote Teams
Remote working has been a complicated experience for many during the pandemic. Some have found it a welcome break from their old office routines, and others have found it disruptive. As it drags on, people whose initial reaction was positive may have changed their minds.
It can be hard to create a common work culture among remote workers who may be in different cities or even countries. But it’s particularly important to create a wellness culture for your remote team’s well-being. Burnout is still a real possibility, and so is just plain languishing. Wellness programs across remote teams can bolster mental health, morale, motivation, and an all-important sense of cohesion.
How To Create a Wellness Culture Among Remote Teams
In the past, it was relatively easy to create a wellness culture at a workplace. Maybe you hired yoga teachers or found a way to introduce healthy options for lunch. Remote work makes doing these simple things much harder.
The good news is that you can make use of a lot of resources to boost remote teams’ well-being. The following are some ideas you can explore.
Have Your Team Learn New Culinary Skills
Nothing bonds people like eating meals together — but learning how to cook and master healthy skills can come close. The pandemic has opened up a wealth of information and knowledge and made it more accessible to everyone. However, it can be isolating to pursue knowledge on your own. Create time for your group to learn the same healthy recipe and then everyone can enjoy eating it and sharing notes on how it turned out. It can be fun to look forward to and buy ingredients for a joint cooking class, too. Along with an educational component regarding nutrition and health, it can really turn into a whole project for your team.
Have Your Team Learn About Mindfulness or Meditation
Mindfulness, the ability to be fully present at any moment, is a wonderful skill we can all benefit from. But while mindfulness is beneficial to most individuals, it’s even better when groups can talk about it and so provide accountability to one another. Consider a mindfulness lecture followed by a group discussion.
Similarly, group meditations can be surprisingly powerful, even when done in a remote setting. Try a guided meditation session with your team, then debrief on your experiences after to create a sense of bonding.
Have Your Team Start a Yoga or Weights Class
Many people are doing online workouts now, whether live or prerecorded, for a sense of mental balance and physical wellbeing. The benefits of exercise are legion — including weight control, fighting depression, maintaining brain health, and protecting your heart.
Yoga is great for balance, mental clarity, and flexibility. It’s a great balm when your team is spending all day long at their office chairs hunched in front of laptops. Exercise is also particularly good for creating a boundary in your day, between work and private time. That’s helpful when time seems to blur.
Doing weights classes or group training sessions are particularly good ways to create a group wellness culture, as you can all advance together, mastering new skills jointly as you go forward. There’s a powerful sense of bonding that you can tap into if your team is all getting better at a discipline — not to mention that it can be motivating to people to improve with their peers. No one wants to fall behind.
One-off classes are great, but if you really want to create a lasting wellness culture in a remote team, it’s better to focus on a series or progression of classes. Look into classes tailored for your group’s level of fitness or an aspect of fitness you all want to work on and improve, whether that’s increasing core strength or learning the Turkish get-up. Then watch everyone’s physical and mental health improve together, as a group.
Find Other Skills To Master With Your Team
Just because your team’s separate, doesn’t mean you can’t learn new skills and ideas together. Poll your team and find out what they want to learn. Wellness can be a broader category than many realize. Maybe your team wants to learn more about how to control their finances — a major source of stress — or maybe they want to learn more about wine. Hey, that could also be a part of self-care. Deciding what to do together can be a fun exercise in itself.
Create Your Team’s Wellness Culture Today
If you’re looking for a great resource to help you bond your team through wellness, MyLifeWell has to be your destination. It’s got great classes in a multitude of disciplines, as well as coaching and group classes. Check it out today and help your team bond — and flourish! Wellness culture and remote teams can be completely compatible.
