How to Keep Your Employees Happy and Healthy Through the Winter

How to Keep Your Employees Happy and Healthy Through the Winter Winter The dreaded flu season. Its cold outside, half your office have got the snuffles and you just know that most of them would much rather be snuggled underneath a duvet at home watching daytime TV. If the Winter blues have struck your workplace  you may want to think about introducing an employee wellness program within the organisation in order to keep your staff happy and healthy in the stretch up to the light at the end of the tunnel, aka the Summer. The Winter months can be a particularly tough time for keeping employees engaged, as the rise in illness  and Winter blues can leave people feeling a bit out of sorts. This not only means a peak in staff absences, but work performance can also deteriorate as team morale drops. By encouraging your staff to look after their health and providing them with support to do so, you can combat the cold weather and keep a smile on your employees faces! This infographic created by Limeade provides us with some helpful tips about how you can achieve this. Encourage your employees to get moving: The majority of weight gain happens  over Christmas and New Year no surprise there! Many will set themselves the resolution of losing weight, but only half will actually do so. The cold weather also contributes to weight gain, as people are less likely to be active, as in the Summer months. To combat this you can encourage employees to get involved in outdoors activities and sports and offer prizes as an incentive to get involved. Combat cold flu  among your team: December-February are the most popular months for employees to call in sick, due to a weakened immune system during the cold season. The average company loses around $100,000 due to employee illness each year. To counter this encourage your staff to stay fit over the Winter, as this will give their immune system a boost. Something as simple as taking the stairs instead of the elevator will help. Champion a healthy diet: Christmas aside, people are much more likely to turn to unhealthy comfort food when its cold and this can lead to weight gain over the Winter and a weakened immune system. Though you cant control what your staff eat, you can help them to adopt a healthier diet by removing unhealthy snacks from vending machines, and replacing them with healthier options like fruit and nuts. Over 70% of workers want healthier cafeteria and vending machine options, so its win-win. [Top Image Credit: Shutterstock]