Staying Hydrated at Work – How To Incorporate Hydration Into Your Workplace Wellness Plan

Your workplace wellness plan should include practices for proper hydration. By doing this, it becomes second nature for your team to reach out for a beverage to keep them hydrated, without being prodded to do so. It also means that right there in your office, there are provisions for proper hydration. Your employees need not go far or out of the workplace to purchase a bottle of water or any drink.

Employee wellness program plans should include hydration, given the important role hydration does in the body. Remember that the human body is made up predominantly of water, so it’s just but fitting for it to need a steady supply of water as well. If not, no matter how well-fed you are, your body will still feel sluggish and tired when you’re dehydrated.

With that said, this article gives you insights on how you can incorporate hydration into corporate wellness programs and workplace wellness plans.

Create A Hydration Station Or Office Pantry

Yes, you may already have an office pantry. But, is it enough to keep your employees hydrated?  Remember that coffee doesn’t necessarily hydrate a person, even if it may keep your energy levels up. Caffeine is a natural diuretic, which can also dehydrate you if not supplemented with water.

Your employees are going to reach for a glass of water when this is provided for in your office pantry. Make water easily accessible—by doing so, they’ll no longer have to buy water. Plus, water becomes their first beverage of choice whenever they feel thirsty.

If you don’t have an office pantry and a hydration station yet, here are some useful tips to start one:

• If you can only have the basics, at least have a water dispenser. Purified water in big gallons can be pretty inexpensive, so it’s worth having a water dispenser in your office.
• Provide ample storage space for employees’ water bottles. Encourage your employees to have a water bottle they can leave in the office. With one, all they’d need to do is to refill it at the start of every day. Then, when the day ends, upon going home, they can simply wash it and leave it in the office. Provide enough space for this.
• Have options other than water (and coffee). While water is always the best beverage for good hydration, not everyone will want to keep drinking water always. So, if you can provide juice in your pantry, then that’s great, too!

If it’s too costly to provide juice every single day, then you can also do so once in a while, or when there are special occasions to celebrate at work. Or, you can have other options available in the pantry, but for a minimal purchase price by your employees. To give you an idea of other excellent beverages you can offer, here’s a great post to read. 

Mandate Water Breaks

Apart from the lunch break employees get to enjoy, make it a part of company culture as well to have mandated water breaks. This means that no employee should feel afraid to get out of their cubicle or work area to stretch and drink water.

Water breaks are very important, for the following reasons:

• It’s needed to generate saliva. Without water, then the person’s mouth gets dry. This is also a matter of hygiene as you wouldn’t want to have employees suffering from dry mouth, as well as bad breath, especially if they’re facing clients.
• It can protect your spinal cord, joints, and tissues. This means that even when your employees have to sit for long hours, the chances of suffering from pain or any discomfort may be significantly reduced.
• It maximizes physical performance. This is all the more important, especially if you’re working in highly physical environments. For your team to be able to continue a good physical performance, proper hydration is needed to fuel the body with needed energy boost.
• It helps with nutrient absorption. Your employee wellness plan becomes more effective as their human body is now able to function more effectively. As more nutrients are carried across the body, the immune system gets the nutrients it needs to fight off illnesses. Healthy employees are always an asset for any business as it ensures better productivity.

Post Hydration Reminders

With the use of the right software, you can also incorporate regular reminders for your employees to fuel up. This means, for instance, setting up automatic pings or reminders on your company group messaging app to encourage employees to take a break and drink water.

This may only be a small detail, but it does help. Some employees can forget to stay hydrated, particularly when they’re too focused on their job. Notice who actually stands up to get a beverage or who takes that three-minute break after sending out that ping—many will actually do. Such small breaks aren’t a distraction to their work. Rather, it can even boost your employees’ productivity. Remember that the body needs to stay hydrated while at work, and when it doesn’t, focus and quality of work can be hampered.

Offer Water Bottles

If there’s any useful and meaningful thing you can give your entire team as a part of your wellness program, you can’t go wrong with offering water bottles. Make this hit a double purpose by incorporating your logo into the water bottles. It’ll also make your office look so much more aesthetically pleasing when there aren’t different bottles or mugs on each employee’s desk.

Giving out free water bottles may only be a small gift, but it can create a big difference to encourage your employees to refill the free water in your office. You see, there are some who’d rather save their money or spend it on their family’s needs than get a good and decent water bottle for themselves. So, when you provide these to your employees, you’re giving them no reason not to refill their containers and keep themselves hydrated.

Conclusion

As you can see, it doesn’t take much to encourage healthy practices in your workplace, such that your employees are all encouraged to stay hydrated. It’s all about creating that company culture wherein health and wellness are the norm. If you notice your employees are constantly getting sick more than usual, then you may need to elevate your wellness practices. Remember that a high sick leave rate among employees is costly for any business. More than anything, you’ll want to foster a team that’s healthy and happy, and you can do so by implementing the practices above.

Want to learn more about wellness benefits? Schedule an introductory call with IncentFit to discuss ways you can keep a pulse on employee health, or offer incentives for participating in important health screenings!