Nearly half (47%) of employees say the majority of their stress or all of their stress comes from work, rather than from their personal lives, according to Headspace’s 2024 Workforce State of Mind report. With Blue Monday being regarded as ‘the gloomiest day of the year’, showing awareness as an employer and normalising the struggle can help to ease any feelings of stress or anxiety within your team.
FUEL’s Director of Employee Experience, Gráinne Earley shares 3 key actions employers can take this Blue Monday, to support their employees and help them to look after their mental wellbeing.
- Acknowledge the day
As part of your company’s employee wellness program, it is important to make sure the mental wellbeing of your team is a top priority throughout the year, not just on Blue Monday. Mental wellbeing should be something that your employees are not afraid to prioritise or speak about, and a nice way of letting them know that you care, is by using the opportunity of Blue Monday to bring the topic to the forefront as an employer and doing something nice for them on the ‘most depressing day of the year’.
Examples of what this might look like include: hosting an animal therapy session on-site, providing some sort of ‘candy corner’ for everyone to enjoy (you could even bring in an interactive element to this and turn it into more of an experiential pop-up to really lift their spirits!), or you could have a positive playlist in the office that day to lighten the mood. Why not even go one step further and bring in a live performer!
Don’t forget, while it’s lovely to do all of these things on Blue Monday for your employees, mental health matters all year round. It’s important to make sure that you are also prioritising their mental health 12 months of the year, with a detailed employee wellbeing strategy as part of your EVP.
- Wellness Elements
Blue Monday is a great opportunity to focus on encouraging your employees to ‘fill their cup’. You could encourage them to take an extra hour away from the desk that day, to do something that makes them feel good; like yoga, meditation, journaling, or getting out for a walk, for example.
Alternatively, you could host a wellness session of your choosing in your workplace and invite employees to attend; such as a yoga class, journaling workshop or mindfulness activity like lego or pottery making.
At FUEL, wellness is a huge part of our EVP. We are lucky to enjoy a range of ongoing wellness activities throughout the year; including (but not limited to) meditation sessions, lunchtime spin classes on-site, ‘Back to Nature’ afternoons where we get outdoors together as a team to get some fresh air and exercise, mindfulness app membership, Reiki sessions and more!
If your company needs help creating an EVP, or implementing an employee wellness program, we would be more than happy to help. As the team behind WellFest, Europe’s largest outdoor health and wellness festival, we have access to best in class experts from all different wellness backgrounds who can help us to design and implement an employee wellness strategy for your team.
- Positive Reinforcement
Something that should be implemented regularly within every business, but can especially help to lift employee’s spirits on a day like Blue Monday, is the simple yet effective method of giving positive feedback.
This could be as simple as a company-wide message to commend someone’s hard work or positive contribution; or you could take it to the next level by hosting an employee awards ceremony.
Employee awards ceremonies are a fantastic way to implement employee recognition within your business, and make sure your employees know how valued they are by giving them their time to shine in the spotlight. Blue Monday could be the perfect day to get those nominations sent out to your team… And as for putting on a one-of-a-kind event for the awards ceremony itself, we can certainly help with that part!
Employee recognition is a hugely important part of your employee experience strategy. If you’d like some suggestions on how best to implement such a strategy for your employees throughout the year, please don’t hesitate to get in touch via info@fuelhq.ie today.
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