If you’d like to make adjustments to your IncentFit wellness program, contact us at support@incentfit.com or call 1-844-246-2368 Monday through Friday. Our phones open at 8 a.m. ET.
You’ve already made a commitment to your employees’ health, well-being, and safety through a wellness program, or through broader wellness in the workplace. And we applaud you for that! In these uncertain times, exercise and healthy activity is so important to keep spirits up and stress (relatively) low. And the community connection that comes from your company culture of health — that’s priceless.
But what’s the best way to extend that commitment during this COVID-19 quarantine? How can we help each other when gyms, fitness classes, running clubs, and most of the ways we’d normally stay active are now off limits? We have a few ideas, and we’re available to fine-tune the plan based on your needs.
Here’s what we suggest:
Allow at-home exercise
If you normally reward your employees for clocking gym visits, consider adding an at-home exercise option.
With IncentFit, where your employees may previously have registered their local gyms and checked in for credit, you can now allow them to register home gyms. (That’s what we’re doing for our own team!)
You can also allow for a new activity type, for example a “20 minutes of at-home exercise” for a smaller reward — say $1 per day, instead of $5 for a usual gym check-in.
Reward for cardio activity
If you’re not already, try rewarding employees for activities like walking, running, and cycling. These exercises can be tracked via fitness tracker, wearable, or phone. (Experts say solo outdoor activities are still okay, as long as you are keeping at least 6 feet from others.)
Try wellness challenges
Wellness challenges are an excellent way to keep people active, engaged, and connected, even from afar! And it’s not just exercise based either. You can run challenges for nutrition, sleep, financial wellness — even work-life balance.
We’ve updated our challenge library to include a “remote” tag on any challenges that work without being in-office or visiting a gym. (Be sure to check out the brand new Self Care and Connection challenge, too.)
Temporarily remove attendance requirements
Does your plan require a minimum number of gym visits per year? Since it’s unclear exactly how long the restrictions on businesses will last, we recommend removing or suspending this restriction for the time being.
Stream it
There is now a wealth of online health and personal wellness content available during this time. Many of these resources are already compatible with IncentFit. If you’re looking for ways to add fitness classes to the mix, you can try these services temporarily:
- Grokker (Free until April 30)
- Daily Burn (Free for 60 days)
- Peloton (Free for 90 days)
Many independent fitness instructors are now offering online classes as well. If your employees prefer a more local business, in that case, we’d recommend adding “Streaming Workout” as a new manual activity to your plan.
Shift your focus
Spend time educating employees about disease prevention, safety, stress reduction, and ways to practice basic self care. That means a focus on hygiene, nutrition, and a good night’s sleep.
Share resources and information via lunch-and-learns, email newsletters, and internal webinars.
If you’ve been considering conducting health risk assessments or surveys, those can still be done remotely.
SHRM also recommends using this time to remind employees about the other important resources available to them: “As part of your wellness initiatives, make sure that employees understand the resources available to them. These could include an employee assistance program for those experiencing severe stress or mental health issues triggered by virus fears.”
Above all, now is the time to be flexible and compassionate. For further reading, check out our blog post on 5 ways to compassionate support your employees during COVID-19.
We’re here to help answer questions, make suggestions, or work through any tech troubles. Contact IncentFit.