Companies in every industry are investing in the health and well-being of their employees, and it's easy to see why. Healthcare is complex and hard to navigate, and the pandemic brought the importance of employee mental health into the spotlight. Employers can prioritize this in many ways, including adding a wellness room at work.
As you explore the range of employee health and wellness options available, we recommend you put an employee wellness room high on your list. These flexible spaces are known to:
To help you assess whether an employee wellness room at work is a good fit, read this post to learn how a wellness room supports employees' physical and mental health and helps your team navigate other challenges related to their health.
Employees feel more valued and happier when they feel cared for at work and have tools available to help them manage their stress and anxiety. In turn, this boosts their confidence, performance, and contributions.
Let's start with physical health and how a wellness room at work can support your team. Let's say you have an employee recovering from an injury and must rest daily. A wellness room gives them a private place to care for themselves.
Work can be stressful, no matter your role. Deadlines, performance expectations, and problems crop up out of nowhere. A wellness room at work can play an essential role in supporting mental health by offering a place to:
Companies are required to offer a space for working moms to nurse, but wellness rooms can be used for more than nursing. For example, most of us will experience significant life changes during our working years – whether that's becoming pregnant, adjusting to being a new parent, or grieving the loss of a loved one. As your employees try to balance work with life during these stages, they'll appreciate having a quiet and private place they can go.
Many workplaces are highly active spaces with bright lights, people moving about, and even the din of machinery and equipment. For some employees, this constant exposure can become overstimulating – especially for people who are neurodivergent and or who are sensitive to activity or noise. Again, a wellness room at work offers a moment of respite that prepares the employee to return to work rested and ready to tackle the rest of their to-do list.
There's no perfect formula for how to create a wellness room at work. Instead, your goal should be to provide a private yet easy-to-access place where employees can take a moment for themselves. All you need is the following:
With the basics in place, you can add extras like plants, music, or even snacks and beverages. The only thing we don't recommend including is technology (other than the system you use to schedule the space).
At NeoPath, we've been helping mid-sized companies take a non-traditional approach to employee well-being for over a decade.
Let's get in touch if you'd like to learn more.