Last year, confined to our homes, many of us have developed new healthy eating habits, wellbeing and fitness routines. Now that everyone is back in offices and schools and we can meet up with friends and colleagues again, it is easy to drop the ball and indulge. Fear not, we’ve put together a guide on how to help your employees stay healthy (nutritionally, physically and mentally) and resist the temptation to just order pizza for the park picnic socials you are, no doubt, planning.
At Feedr, we take food seriously but we also know that it’s only one part of the equation, so we decided to partner with the health and wellbeing engagement specialists, Racefully, to give you a holistic view on how to continue to lead a healthy life in a post-pandemic society as pubs re-open and we return back to work.
Racefully a virtual health and fitness platform enhances the physical and mental wellbeing of employees through team-focused initiatives. They focus on impacting employee wellbeing through the three C’s: Communication, Competition, and Collaboration. As hybrid working and flexible working become the “new normal”, it is crucial for businesses to adjust and adapt their employee wellbeing offering to cater for this significant change. Racefully’s global health and wellbeing platform can be deployed virtually across more than 80 countries so you can motivate your employees (from the UK, Europe, Asia, and also include employees across the pond in the US) to keep physically and mentally fit beyond the office gym. Most importantly, Racefully is a tool to help employees stay connected with their colleagues from different departments and regional/international offices.
Through the exclusive collaboration, Racefully and Feedr can give your businesses the necessary tools to future-proof your office culture at the time of seismic change. Here are our five tips on how to keep your workforce healthy post-lockdown.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, and we may receive a commission for any sign-ups made through these links.
1. Pre-order meals via the Feedr app to avoid the temptation
We all know the first rule of food shopping: don’t do it when you’re hungry. Sticking to healthy options is so much easier when you plan your meals ahead, which will help you resist the temptation to indulge. Instead of going for overly processed last-minute options available close to the office, Feedr delivers nutritious meals directly to the office, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and allows users to place their orders up to 7 days in advance. Feedr can help you curate a menu specific to your employees’ tastes and preferences with a plethora of healthy, plant-based meals to inspire them to make that choice. Employees can pick high-quality nutritious meals for today’s lunch, tomorrow’s picnic in the park, or their entire week ahead without having to do any meal prep.
2. Encourage your team to eat a varied diet, meet healthy goals and be kind to the world
We believe in eating well no matter what your preferences, so whoever is on your team, there will be food that works for them. We curate our meals for both taste and nutritional value, hand-picking vendors who cater to specific dietary and allergen requirements as well as life goals. Feedr’s nutritional breakdown enables full transparency of ingredients that go beyond basic allergen information.
People often think that eating healthy can be unimaginative. With over 100 vendors available on the platform and rotating menus, Feedr gives your employees a plethora of choices, so they never get bored of eating the same salad every day. Our powerful analytics engine identifies popular and high-rated meals within your business, so we also have a clear view of what your employees want and constantly optimising our offering to meet their needs.
All of our vendors undergo a rigorous selection process and need to adhere to strict sustainability requirements, meaning you’ll find vendors who use local, seasonal ingredients, reduce waste, and demonstrate environmental responsibility.
3. Introduce a gamified employee wellbeing initiative
Now that we have shifted to British Summer Time, we can stop the habit of finishing our workday by bingeing on Netflix and instead put on our trainers to get outdoors. The longer days mean we have more energy and more time to spend quality time outdoors doing physical activity, whether that would be walking, running or cycling.
Spring is a great time to launch a new internal employee wellbeing initiative as the warmer days and longer nights give employees a good excuse to spend time looking after their physical and mental wellbeing. Racefully’s platform drives health and wellbeing and allows employees to feel connected to their fellow colleagues, who they may not have seen in person since the first lockdown in March 2020.
Racefully’s gamified wellbeing app allows businesses to strengthen company culture and build camaraderie through a virtual fitness experience. Employees are able to join a company tribe where they can collaborate and compete against their colleagues through organised in-app tribe challenges. Other core features of the app include employee vs employee races (anyone wants to race the CEO?), virtual gamified leaderboards, group chat, photo sharing, and news feeds. All data is tracked on the client engagement dashboard as Racefully manages the entire onboarding and implementation process, maximising the employee experience.
So instead of planning another team quiz or cocktail hour on Zoom, think about the long-term impact that a wellbeing initiative will have on team morale, team engagement, and individual productivity.
4. Plan a wellbeing challenge around something that truly matters for your employees
Spending more time indoors has led to many people feeling demotivated and lacking in energy. Racefully can provide a solution to this problem as they organize virtual team-based fitness challenges that involve the entire office to get you feeling physically and mentally fit. Some of their recommended virtual challenges include climbing Mount Everest, running the London Marathon, or cycling the Tour De France. Through their application, employees are able to track, monitor, and analyse their personal performance in addition to introducing some healthy competition in the workplace through their challenge feature.
Over the past year, Racefully has seen a clear trend emerge where companies want to combine their fitness/wellbeing challenges alongside specific wellbeing days such as Earth Day, Stress Awareness Month, Cycle to Work Day, and Mental Health Awareness Week. These are key days that can be celebrated with more purpose and meaning by coordinating internal wellbeing initiatives to coincide with these relevant dates in the calendar. Racefully has recently introduced a new initiative where companies are able to plant a tree for every mile which their team records, allowing employees to give back to the environment and encourage greater levels of motivation.
Additionally, employers are using employee wellbeing as a CSR initiative and are creating virtual charity challenges in order to raise funds for local charities that are supported by the company. Companies can choose to match the donations raised by the employees to create a large donation pot and to show that they are truly invested in the wellbeing and passion projects of their people.
5. Encourage your employees to breathe, de-stress and sleep well
Breathing is something so fundamental to everyday life, it has such simplistic elegance that its power is often overlooked. There is a lot of evidence that breath control releases endorphins, lowers cortisol levels in your body, and boosts oxygen levels in your body and brain. Breathing can also help slow your heartbeat down and manage your stress levels.
Other ways to de-stress can include encouraging your team to set alarms at two intervals during the day, one mid-morning and one mid-afternoon to take 10 minutes to go for a stroll, grab a herbal tea, or do some breathing exercises — anything that breaks the stress cycle.
Unhealthy daytime habits and lifestyle choices can leave your team tossing and turning at night and adversely affect moods, brain and heart health, immune system, creativity, vitality, and weight. Encourage your team to form healthy bedtime habits such as reading, listening to calming music, meditating, or drinking herbal tea.
We hope that our guide will help you develop a solution for your team. To find out more about Racefully please email their Partnership team at [email protected] to explore how they can help your employee wellbeing objectives. Remember to quote Feedr, as you will receive a 10% discount off your first month. You can also book a 30-minute demo with the Racefully team by clicking on this link to discuss how they will be able to assist with your workplace wellbeing programme.
