An important part of any corporate wellbeing program or wellness challenge is the rewards or incentives you provide for your employees. Using the right rewards to motivate employees not only increases participation rates but also may help employees keep up their healthy habits after your program ends. 

Instead of one grand prize, it’s better to have a variety of rewards so more employees feel included. We suggest having a system that allows employees to be rewarded at different levels based on how they do in your challenge. Having smaller prizes in addition to larger ones will help increase participation as more employees will feel they have a chance at winning something.  

Without further ado, here are our reward suggestions for your wellness program.

Fitness Products

With so many health and wellness products out there, they work great as smaller prizes. Things like yoga mats, yoga blocks, dumbbells, foam rollers, a running belt or an armband incentivize employees to keep working out after winning them.

Electronics

For some of your bigger prizes, more expensive fitness products like Fitbit, Garmin or AirPods are great. They encourage participation and healthy living, especially incentivizing those who may already have their basic fitness equipment but haven’t wanted to splurge on a wearable.

Experiences

Some employees might not want more things, which is why we suggest giving away experiences. Putting a healthy spin on this could look like giving away gym memberships, workout class passes or personal training sessions. For smaller prizes, you can give away a voucher for one yoga class at a local studio and for larger prizes you could give a high-performing employee a gym membership for a whole year.

Gift Cards

Some employees might not be motivated by all the health and wellness products. In that case, you can always do gift cards. But giftcards to big businesses like Amazon or Target aren’t the only way to go. Rewarding with gift cards to local places (e.g. the café near your workplace that your employees frequent for lunch) can be another great option.

Workplace Specific

Prizes to help make that work-life balance a little easier, like an extra vacation day or a pass to wear more casual clothing for the day, can also be great incentives for your hard-working employees.

Think about your workplace culture to guide you in choosing the right prizes for your wellness program. With that said, every employee will be different. To figure out what your employees enjoy the most, we suggest offering a variety of prizes and seeing which ones employees redeem the most.

For September and October PUML partnered with LIVIN to support them in their work of ending the stigma around mental health issues. We hosted two step challenges to motivate people to get moving. We had a great turnout with 731 participants in both challenges combined with 238 users competing in both the September and October challenges!

In conjunction with these challenges, PUML launched our donation feature in the app. This allowed users to donate their earned PUML Coins to a charity instead of buying rewards. We are happy to report that through our fundraising efforts, we were able to donate $1,160 to LIVIN to support their much-needed work!

If your charity is interested in using the PUML platform please contact us at hello@puml.io.

There are so many different types of workplace wellness programs, it can be overwhelming deciding what works for your business. At the end of your wellness initiative, the goal is for your employees to think more about their health and make healthier decisions. When you put your employees’ needs at the center of your wellness program, it makes narrowing down your options easier. Here are a few questions to help you figure out what will work best for your company and your employees.

What was the last wellness initiative and how did it go?

If you did something in the past that employees seemed to enjoy, got good feedback or had a high participation rate, then you might want to do something similar. Of course, you don’t want to do the exact same thing but re-use elements that got the best feedback. For example, if you had an “awards ceremony” after a month-long fitness challenge that people seemed to really enjoy, do an awards ceremony again but do a different wellness challenge. If your last wellness program didn’t do as well as you hoped, it’s a great opportunity to totally change it up this year!

It’s important to ask for feedback at the end of your program or at the end of the year if you run wellness programs for the entire year. You can use that feedback to track outcomes and also to help plan your next employee wellness program and make it better than the last.

How big is the company?

The size of your company directly relates to your employees’ experience in your corporate wellness program. If your company is enterprise-sized, it might be better to break down your programming to a departmental level. For example, if you want to host a step challenge it could be tempting to have a large step count goal and push the same messaging to everyone to add their steps to the collective goal. However, this can seem impersonal and not be very motivating on an individual level. If instead you had departments or smaller teams with their own goals or even competing against each other, that has the potential to increase participation rates.

If you have a smaller company such as a new start-up, you can make your programming even more specific towards your employees. For example, if you know a good number of your employees enjoy cycling in their free time you can have a bike-to-work week as part of your wellness initiative. You can even offer free bike rentals one day to encourage others who don’t usually cycle to participate. This shared activity also creates something to talk about between co-workers, helping build company culture. With a smaller company, you have the option of making your wellness programs even more personal which ultimately will make your employees enjoy the program and participate more.

Are there going to be prizes?

A great way to incentivize your employees to participate is to have prizes or some type of reward for their participation. Be sure to think about what your employees really want – what will really motivate them to participate? Fitness products as prizes could be great to encourage healthier lifestyles (think Fitbits, gym memberships, weights or yoga mats). But you could also use workplace incentives. For example, maybe everyone who checks into 4 workout classes in a month gets a pass to wear a more casual type outfit on a non-Friday. Or the top stepper in your step challenge gets to take a half-day.

Big prizes for top employees aren’t the only way to motivate, however. You can do micro-rewards or a point-based system so that everyone feels like they have a chance to earn something. For example, for every 10,000 steps completed in a day, your employees can earn 5 points and once they reach 150 points they can redeem their points for a reward.

Employee recognition also is a great motivator. Even just announcing top participants in your weekly meetings can make employees feel good about themselves and want to participate more.

How can we make living a healthy lifestyle easier for our employees?

It’s important to think of how you can make living a healthy life an easier choice for your employees. This can require some creativity when brainstorming what areas of wellness you want to incorporate into your workplace. Some ideas are: having healthy snack options in the break room, making sure your catered meetings have healthy meal options, not having meetings run past 4:30 to ensure adequate home hours, having meditation rooms available or having more social events to improve company culture and social wellbeing. 

When thinking of ideas start with an area of wellness you want to focus on – mental, physical, social – and go from there.

What is Social Wellness?

Humans naturally crave social connection. Familial bonds, close friendships and romantic relationships all play a part in maintaining healthy social connections in our lives. However, social wellbeing expands beyond just our close relationships. Social wellbeing is a sense of belonging to a community and making a contribution to society. It involves the ability to build personal connections with others, deal with conflict and be a part of a positive social network. 

Since we spend much of our time at work, how we interact with our co-workers plays a huge role in our social wellbeing. Also, as an employee, your work is a large piece of how you contribute to society. So it is important employees feel that what they are doing is meaningful. All of this is encompassed in social wellness.

Why is Social Wellness Important?

The effects of poor social wellness (such as loneliness and isolation) take a toll on our mental and physical health. Some ways loneliness can manifest into health issues include: 

• Cognitive decline
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Substance use & addiction
• Increased difficulty controlling high blood pressure & diabetes

According to one study out of Brigham Young University, the effects of poor social connection are:

• Equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day
• Equivalent to being an alcoholic
• More harmful than not exercising
• Twice as harmful as obesity

What Does Social Wellness Look Like in the Workplace?

Now that we know what poor social wellness looks like, let’s look at how healthy relationships help in the workplace. In addition to all the health benefits already discussed, a 2017 Gallup survey observed that having close work friendships boosted employee satisfaction by 50%. Satisfied employees are more productive and creative employees. According to the HR company, Rise, social connection fosters:

• Higher self-esteem
• Trust and cooperation
• Greater empathy for others
• Team performance
• Development of assertiveness skills in place of passive or aggressive ones
• Treating all people with respect
• The ability to create boundaries within relationships that encourage communication, trust, assertiveness skills & conflict management
• Being in a social space that allows for fun, laughter, and encouragement

When employees feel that they are part of a larger community, they take more responsibility for their work and are more engaged. The overall major benefit of fostering a workplace community is having happier, less stressed and more productive employees.

How to Encourage Social Wellbeing at Work

Employee Recognition

When employees are recognized for their achievements or good work, it promotes positivity, ties their work to a bigger goal, and encourages employees to compliment each other’s work, promoting relationship building. 

Provide Social Opportunities

Create environments where employees can socialize naturally without any financial cost to them. This can include after-work events like sports games, company picnics or holiday parties. Or it can be more work-focused like company off-site workshops. Another great way to encourage social engagement is through volunteering opportunities.

Connect to a Bigger Goal

Give employees a few paid days a year to volunteer at a charity of their choice. Provide charitable payroll contributions that your employees can opt into. If your company is helping the greater good, it makes employees feel they are making a difference as well. 

Team Development over Personal Development

A 2015 study found employees with low levels of autonomy felt more lonely. To combat this, avoid micromanaging and allow for flexible scheduling. In addition, employers should focus on developing team problem-solving skills over individual ones. Having employees work together to find solutions instead of going at it alone or having little control over their work, leads to healthier, happier and more social workplaces.

Use Your Wellness Initiative

If you have a wellness initiative that focuses on physical health, you can use it to also promote social wellness. For example, creating teams to compete against each other in a step challenge instead of competing as individuals encourages social interaction among team members. For more ideas on promoting social wellness with your company fitness challenge check out this blog post. 

There have been a number of articles on how your health could be impacted by isolation. We’ve decided to talk about ways to combat some common side effects from this year of social isolation. Everyone is different, so you should choose what areas of your health have been impacted the most and take a few steps to become healthier in those specific areas.

With gyms closed for most of the year, you probably didn’t see many gains this year and maybe saw the opposite. If you feel you’ve become weaker, there are still some things you can do at home to start rebuilding that muscle. There are thousands of bodyweight workouts you can find on YouTube if you have no equipment. If you want, you can get creative in using things around the house to use as weights. What’s important is that you do something most days to keep your muscles working.

Does walking up a flight of stairs seem a little harder than normal? Staying indoors and not being able to hit the treadmill probably has had its effect on your heart and lung health. But even without a gym, cardio is easy to work on. Go on a brisk walk and try adding some intervals of jogging. Or go on a run if you feel up for it. Again, consistency is key, so try to get your heart rate up every day. Not feeling motivated? Join a PUML challenge so you can get rewarded the more steps you take!

An increase in fat can come from multiple causes so of course be sure to consult your doctor if you feel you have fat gain that is not due to your current eating and exercise habits. But if you can tell you’ve gained some fat due to a slower routine, there are a few things you can do to get back on track. First, make sure you are eating healthy foods in reasonable proportions every day. Plan your meals for the week before grocery shopping. Avoid snacking just because you’re bored with working at home. And if you can’t resist snacking during the day, make sure you have healthy options on hand – fruits, veggies, hummus, etc. In addition to eating healthy, follow some of the above tips for getting a workout in, even if just at home.

Has your back and neck been aching? Your home office set up may not be as ergonomically sound as your desk and chair in the office. As a result, your posture could be suffering. A simple thing you can do is set reminders on your work computer at random intervals during the day reminding you to sit up straight and roll your shoulders back. It is also important to give your eyes a break from the screen. You don’t want to be looking too closely and hunching over or to be squinting and straining your eyes. So when your reminder goes off to sit up straight, also look away from your screen at something around 6 meters away for 20 seconds to give your eyes a break. Do this a few times a day.

With everything happening in the world and drastic lifestyle changes happening, sleeping habits have suffered for many. To help get better sleep, create and stick to a simple bedtime routine. This could mean reading before bed, practicing some light stretching or simply being screen-free for an hour before you want to sleep. Try to start your routine at the same time every night so that your body gets used to winding down regularly. 

As your physical health deteriorates, so does your mental health and vise versa. If you feel like your mental health hasn’t been that good throughout this year, doing things to increase your overall health like having a good diet and regular physical activity are good first steps. If this doesn’t help, you should also contact a professional for added support. There are a lot more options for remote therapists now because of COVID and it could be worth it to check them out. 

A sense of team or community can make your workplace more fun and effective. A great way to build this is through a company wellness challenge. Here are three ways a wellness challenge can help your team beyond just the physical health benefits.

Accountability

In a fitness challenge, you want your employees to interact with each other and hold each other accountable for their team and individual fitness goals. Similarly, you want employees to hold each other accountable to do their best work on projects and their day to day tasks. It is important for employees to hold each other accountable so that every issue or question doesn’t have to go higher up. Check your team leaderboards and remind your teammates to get their steps in each day if you’re doing a step challenge, so this level of accountability becomes the norm on your team.

Team Building

Use your wellness challenge as an excuse to practice some team-building skills. There are quite a few skills that you can focus on during a challenge that are also important in your day-to-day work, such as:

• Aligning with goals
• Working well together
• Brainstorming
• Encouragement/ positive reinforcement
• Time management
• Persuasion skills
• Communication skills

Choose one or two from the above list as a team leader and focus on fostering that skill throughout the challenge.

Fun

Lastly, it is always just more fun to be on a team that gets along and jokes with each other. We all want team members who go the extra mile to make the workplace more enjoyable for everyone. To do this, you need to become that team member. So go all out for your wellness challenge – encourage your teammates, give shoutouts to top weekly winners in your meetings, schedule walking meetings. Incorporate this spirit into your wellbeing challenge to make for a more fun workplace and others will follow in your suit.

Start building a sense of community with your corporate wellness program and watch it spill over to your work environment.

A new study has been released looking at the ways to increase your number of “disease-free years” as you age. The researchers analysed different combinations of lifestyle factors to see how they correlate with the number of disease-free years an individual has in their lifetime. What they found is that of 16 different lifestyle profiles studied, the 4 that were associated with the greatest disease-free years all included a body mass index (BMI) lower than 25 and at least 2 of these 3 factors: never smoking, regular physical activity and moderate alcohol consumption. The diseases that these factors help delay or ward off are type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, and cancer. Needless to say, if you want to live a long and healthy life, making sure your own life fits into this profile is important. If you are an employer, you can promote this type of lifestyle to your employees in a number of different ways.

You can use your corporate wellness program to target these factors and help your employees increase their disease-free years. First, let’s look at lowering individuals’ BMI. Basically, this is done by losing unhealthy weight if their BMI is 25 or higher. While there are many fads to losing weight, science proves that the most effective way to lose weight and keep it off is through regular exercise and proper nutrition. 

Incorporating regular exercise can be as simple as having an activity challenge to get participants to think about physical activity daily. You can also host workout classes or sponsor gym memberships. Exercise will not only help lower employees’ BMI but also is one of the other factors on its own that helps increase the number of disease-free years. Get your employees moving, and check off 2 of the 4 important lifestyle factors!

To incorporate proper nutrition into your workplace, make sure that healthy meal and snack options are available. Instead of complimentary donuts for breakfast, try fresh fruit and yogurt. Instead of cake and ice cream to celebrate birthdays, opt for healthier treats. Also, providing some type of course on nutrition could be a great way to support your employees who are interested in nurturing better eating habits.

The last two factors to consider are: never smoking and moderate consumption of alcohol. While these are very personal decisions made by individuals, there still are a few things you can do to help your employees. The first piece is education. A wellbeing course that mentions the risks of smoking and alcohol and clearly directs individuals on what the proper amount of alcohol is, could be a smart idea to include in your wellbeing program. You could also think about how much alcohol makes up a part of your company culture. If lunchtime drinks and after work stops at the bar are big on your team, maybe try a company challenge where you go one week a month without drinks at work.

While you cannot control all of these factors for your employees, creating an environment where employees can make healthy decisions for themselves is important. Also, promoting these healthier lifestyle options can potentially save your employees from life-altering diseases.

PUML is happy to support LIVIN, a charity dedicated to ending the stigma around mental health issues. LIVIN is all about living your life at the top and breaking the stigma around mental health through connecting, supporting and encouraging one another to talk about their feelings and challenges because “It Ain’t Weak to Speak”. LIVIN provides mental health training and stigma reduction programs to schools all around Australia through their LIVINWell program, which is also available to corporate workplaces, sporting clubs and other organisations.

To boost LIVIN’s message, PUML will be hosting two challenges for LIVIN. Throughout both challenges, you can donate directly to LIVIN through our My Cause page. September’s challenge focus is on reaching 300,000 steps to not only boost physical health but also mental wellbeing. 

In October, PUML will be releasing a Teams feature that will allow you to compete with friends as a team and find someone to sponsor your team – with all proceeds going towards LIVIN. For both challenges, top winners will receive LIVIN merchandise and all participants will receive a discount code to buy from LIVIN’s shop.

There will also be a Donate feature in the marketplace allowing any user to donate their PUML Coins to LIVIN throughout September and October. 

Download PUML and pre-register for the LIVIN challenge today. The first challenge begins September 1st!

Donate Here: https://donate.mycause.com.au/cause/234348

Doante EOS Account: “pumlLivinorg”

This article is part of a series to give you an inside look at PUML. We are interviewing team members to learn about their journey in the fitness world and their take on what PUML is doing for the wellness community.

I enjoyed the community and the focus of the company which combined fitness, wellness and all things health. PUML works to find ways to keep the motivation and drive alive, which is something I strive for personally, too.

My own personal wellness journey – from having chronic gut, hormone and fatigue issues, as well as a passion for helping and training people. It seemed like a no-brainer to become a coach

Sitting is the new smoking, so the hours we spend behind our desk are so damaging to our health. If we can make wellness a priority in the workspace, then it becomes a part of the culture and keeps everyone healthy. It enables people to have a safe space to look after their health without judgment. If your workspace is focusing on wellness, it makes it easier to stay motivated as we work better in communities. The healthier you are, the more productive and focused you are, and the company performs better as a whole. There are fewer sick days in general and people are happier. It’s a beautiful effect.

The fitness industry could improve by stopping the promotion of all the fad diets, ‘shreds’ and get-fit-quick schemes. Wellness is a lifestyle change, and doesn’t require constant restriction and certainly shouldn’t come from having fear as a motivator. When we focus on healing the body and the mind, moving regularly and fueling ourselves in a balanced way, fitness and wellness become not only enjoyable, but also easy!

PUML helps combine the motivation and accountability with their use of challenges, alongside wellness and education so that there is not just the WHAT, but the WHY behind it. Understanding the WHY enables people to make long-term changes when it comes to wellness, not just ‘quick-fixes’. 

Thanks for reading and check back in a few weeks for an interview with another member of the PUML team!

This article is part of a series to give you an inside look at PUML. We are interviewing team members to learn about their journey in the fitness world and their take on what PUML is doing for the wellness community.

What interested me the most about PUML was the combination of technology and wellness. I studied computer science and like to see how people are using new technologies to create brand new products and solutions. Although I work on the marketing side of things, I enjoy being involved with a startup that is built on EOSIO (a blockchain technology). Working with brands who have passionate founders and who are bringing something new to the marketplace is always a great experience and I’ve found that to be true here at PUML.

I have never worked in the industry, but have always lead a pretty active life. When I was younger we were always encouraged to run around and ride bikes outside, I was in dance in high school and when I got to university I tried rowing. Now I enjoy going on runs, hiking and taking yoga and fitness classes every once in a while. I really like using exercise to add variety to my daily life. I am happy I grew up being active and think that it’s important to re-incorporate that fun feeling we used to associate with being active as kids into our fitness routines now.

I think one of the biggest ways the fitness industry could improve would be to be more inclusive. When we think of fitness, we associate it with images of a very specific type of person doing very specific, usually intense, types of activities. But in reality, fitness and wellness are for everyone – no matter what you look like or what activities you are into. In my opinion, fitness doesn’t mean going super hard at the gym or going on 15 km runs every week. Fitness could mean going on hikes. Or playing volleyball. Fitness should still be fun. I think the fitness industry will become more inclusive when we promote different fitness activities and get rid of this idea that it has to be a super intense or expensive hobby.

I think PUML is helping make fitness a fun thing by providing rewards and actual crypto-currency for competing in challenges. Like I said earlier, the more we can make fitness fun and approachable, the more people we will have taking care of themselves – which is a great thing! Soon PUML will be adding different types of challenges in addition to our step and distance challenges which I am excited for because then people who enjoy other types of activities can also compete!

Thanks for reading and check back in a few weeks for an interview with another member of the PUML team!