How to organize a successful wellness week

In recent years, organizing a health week in companies has gained popularity, and for good reason. Mental health issues cause more and more absences from work, and “recovery” takes more time than recovering from a common cold. This, in turn, causes a higher cost to the employer and also a headache in terms of work not being done.

 

  1. According to a study conducted in America in 2011, mental illnesses such as depression can cost an employer up to 51 billion dollars a year. Meanwhile, employers who invest in mental health receive $4 in return for every dollar they invest in employee health.


Contributing to mental and physical health in the workplace has become so important that a World Health Organization initiative has made mental health a global focus.

We asked the Estonian Environment Agency and PawaPay whether and how they have organized a health week in their company and what are the best practices for this.

What is a wellness week?

Wellness week is a corporate health program that provides an opportunity to focus on different topics related to health and general well-being during a specified period of time. This, in turn, provides a good opportunity to establish direct contact with employees, to understand what their real challenges are in the workplace, and through this to find effective solutions to these challenges.

Wellness week strengthens team spirit, increases employee motivation and creates good conditions for employees to be more satisfied and more efficient in their work.

Of course, a health week alone is not enough to keep employees well, but it is a good launching pad. In addition to the health week, the Environment Agency also offers its employees a free work psychologist service, massage and various opportunities to participate in joint sports events. PawaPay encourages its employees to be physically active with a walking competition and keeps the spirit alive with a book club. By the way, book club takes places during working hours.

The best time to organize a health week?

Any time is good to start, but according to the experience of Firmafitness, the best time is autumn and spring. In the spring, nature start blooming, and the desire to take care of oneself too, and in the fall, we are bursting with the energy we gathered in the summer.


The Environment Agency is inspired by the recommendations of the World Health Organization and conducts a health week once a year in October, when mental health is in focus around the world.

PawaPay has conducted the health week with Firmafitness once a year, but plans to continue with the pace of twice a year to offer its employees as much added value as possible.

Mandatory elements of health week

The health week can last from a few days to even a month, and there are no fixed rules regarding the topics. Before planning activities, you should consider:

The most important thing is to explain to the employees what exactly is planned during the week: what are the planned activities and who will carry them out. The clearer the course of events, the greater the participation. Who wouldn’t like to get out of their daily routine and take part in at least one joint activity during the week?!

“Over the course of a month, we explored different ways to take better care of ourselves and maintain our mental health. We brought more movement into the workweek: we organized walking meetings, tried office fitness together, and shared videos which helped to take breaks during the workday. We talked about positive emotions. For example, a good simple trick is to praise your colleague when he has done something well. We also tackled healthy eating and shared tips and recipes. We tried to reduce stress together with yoga classes and learned to do breathing exercises,” she explains Kristina Hermann from Estonian Environment Agencytheir wellness month.

“We combined our health week with lectures and trainings to have something for both mind and body. We talked about nutrition and reminded, that it is important to take care of yourself at work and at home,” describes Kristiina Kuulman from PawaPay.

Ideas for wellness week.

We are there for you

Organizing a health week does not have to be a time-consuming process. Even with a short time and a small budget, it is possible to accomplish a lot. It is important to remember what the purpose of health week is – to educate or to entertain.

At Firmatness, we know how difficult it can be to organize and conduct events in companies. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible. We will prepare a suitable program for your company and implement it if necessary! Ask for an offer: info@firmafitness.ee

Download our e-book with instructions for conducting a health week: https://eraamat.gr8.com/thank_you.html