When Streamers aren’t hard at work delivering retail traffic for their clients, you can often find them playing a game of softball or participating in the Stream Running Club.
These fun, fitness-based activities are a good example of how Stream employees support each other both on and off the clock. They also show something else important to the company culture: A focus on wellness. In fact, we were recently named a 2019 Healthiest Employer by Philadelphia Business Journal.This focus on wellness takes many forms in addition to what we mentioned above. Though it all boils down to three main steps: First, make wellness accessible to employees. Then, make it fun. Finally, make it a habit.
Making Wellness Accessible
If you think about it, a lack of accessibility is one of the biggest barriers to people’s well-being. We counteract this by offering a range of health insurance plans to our employees, but we don’t stop there.
We also offer fitness center reimbursement. That way, if the weather’s not nice enough for running club, you can still head to the treadmill to get some cardio in. This also offers a chance for people who are more into weightlifting or group classes to access the type of fitness they love.
In order to receive this reimbursement, employees need to show proof of attendance. That means they’re not just provided access to fitness—they’re also encouraged to use their membership.
We also offer opportunities for our employees to learn how they can take control of their health. At the personal level, this means providing access to one-on-one health coaching. If an employee knows she wants to make healthier choices but doesn’t know where to start, this program can help.
Meanwhile, we host several Lunch and Learn seminars throughout the year to teach employees about wellness-related topics. While space limits put a cap on in-person attendance, each seminar is also streamed via Skype. This allows employees at our satellite offices to attend, as well.
Some recent topics we’ve covered in these seminars include:
- How to be a Smart Healthcare Consumer
- Nutrition: Eating for Health
- Social Well-Being
- Your Gut and the Role it Plays in Everyday Health
Make Wellness Fun
Of course, just because a healthier lifestyle is within reach doesn’t mean everyone will hop on board. That’s why we host fun wellness challenges. These get more Streamers building healthy habits by appealing to their competitive side.
For instance, we recently finished up a 4-week physical activity challenge to get everyone moving around more. This is important since many of us spend a large portion of the day sitting at our desks.
This challenge didn’t score participants based on how much weight they could lift or how flexible they were. Instead, it simply measured whether or not they completed each challenge. That way, those who were just starting out on their journey to a healthier lifestyle weren’t at a competitive disadvantage next to someone who hits the gym multiple times per week.
Stream also incentivizes healthy habits with fun giveaways. We recently held a ping pong ball raffle to keep our employees hydrated. Every time they refilled their water bottle at our Hydration Nation Station, they could drop a ping pong ball into a water jug to enter a raffle. The benefits of this initiative included:
- Chance for employees to win fun prizes
- Motivation to stay hydrated at work
- Incentive to use refillable water bottles instead of single-use plastic
Making Wellness a Habit
Once folks are on board with the idea of transforming their personal wellness, how can we help them turn healthy behaviors into healthy habits? True wellbeing requires a sustained commitment.
There are multiple ways we can help out here, too. Remember that fitness center reimbursement we mentioned earlier? We don’t just want people to join their local gym—we want to make sure they’re using its facilities at least once a month.
We also want to help our employees stay on top of preventative care. That’s why, this year, we ran two separate campaigns to incentivize preventative doctor visits. In one of these campaigns, each employee who completed a yearly physical exam received a $75 gift card.
Taking time for regular self-care is also essential to overall wellbeing. We help our employees with this by offering free chair massages at our headquarter offices twice a week. That way, they can take a break from their busy workday to sit back and relax.
Let’s Make the World a Healthier Place
At Stream, our employees are our biggest asset, so it makes sense that we would want them to stay healthy, happy, and strong. However, our wellness initiatives are about way more than just improving our bottom line. It’s also our responsibility as a socially conscious company to help prevent chronic disease where we can. Won’t you join us?