8 ways to include families in your physical wellbeing benefits
By including employees’ family members in a physical wellbeing strategy, organisations can promote a culture of wellness that extends beyond the workplace and demonstrates their commitment to supporting the health and wellbeing of employees and their families.
1. Start from within
When developing a physical wellbeing strategy, you need to embed it within your culture and core values. From the snacks you offer in the kitchen to the communication you share – it all needs to align with an ethos of physical health.
Even simple measures such as encouraging employees to get up from their desks, using their lunch break to recharge and sharing exercises your people can do throughout the day, all help cement the messaging.
2. Get them active
Not everyone has a competitive streak, but most people enjoy participating in fundraising events. Make them activity based, ensuring there’s something everyone can participate in, and extend the invitation to your employees’ families.
Challenging your staff to a sponsored walk? Make it a scavenger hunt and keep the children entertained as well.
This is a fantastic opportunity to boost your social value and get great brand exposure when your employees share their achievements with their social network.
3. Wellbeing events for families
Download an HR or wellbeing calendar and plan which national or international events you want to support. Consider getting involved with Cycle to Work week in June, Stress Awareness Month in April, or National Walking Month in May. There are multiple opportunities throughout the year to encourage employees and their families to take part in, boosting their morale and physical wellbeing.
4. Extend insurance
Private medical insurance (PMI) is a popular employee benefit that can be extended to include family members. There is a cost to the employee when they add on their family members, but with the NHS under such strain, there’s been a steady increase in people taking up PMI since 2016.
5. Virtual GP appointments
If your employees don’t want to take out PMI, you can still provide them with a better physical health experience by offering an Online GP service as an employee benefit. These are often available to be extended to employees’ households and significantly speed up the process of speaking with a GP.
Virtual GPs also bring business savings, since 41% of employees would otherwise use half a working day to attend a GP appointment.
6. Promote healthy sleep habits
Sleep is integral to our physical and mental wellbeing. Employers can provide resources and support for healthy sleep habits, including sleep education resources and sleep tracking tools to help employees monitor and improve the quality of their rest.
7. Make exercise affordable
A total of 42% of Britons have cancelled their gym membership due to rising household bills. Embedding a corporate gym membership into your employee benefits offering can help make a trip to the gym, sauna, or pool affordable again.
Most corporate gym memberships have flexible options and can be funded by the employee or paid for via salary sacrifice. Extend the discounts to your employees’ families and the entire household can get active.
8. Flexible working
A work-life balance is essential to healthy living and a mental and physical health booster. What flexible working looks like is to be agreed upon between the employee and employer, but the business must review any request for flexible working.
One key thing to remember when it comes to your family friendly physical wellbeing strategy is that there is more to it than just adding benefits. Create a family friendly culture, including partners and children in fundraising and awareness events to make them feel valued by and part of the business.
In partnership with Pluxee UK
Pluxee UK, is a leading employee benefits and engagement partner that opens up a world of opportunities to help people enjoy more of what really matters in their lives.
