Build Employee Resilience, part 1 – Move
What do you think of when you consider your most basic needs? Food, water, shelter, and sleep might come to mind. Your physical well-being has a major impact on how you feel and function. Without taking care of our bodies, everything else gets just a bit more challenging, and our resilience often suffers.
When we think specifically about employee resilience, we have to consider the basics of self-care and well-being before we can delve deeper into supporting an experience of developing self-awareness and exploring emotions.
The 5 Building Blocks of Well-being and Self-care:
In this 5-part series around building employee resilience, we start by focusing on movement. Aside from the important health and mental health reasons to move more, it can feel difficult to encourage employees to increase their activity level. We recognize that struggle at Aduro and we have some simple tips from our very own Human Performance Coaches that you can provide to your employees today!
Encouraging your Employees to Move More
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the biggest impact we can have on our health is moving at least 150 minutes each week. To break it down, that’s about 22 minutes each day. To some, this minimum recommendation of movement may seem easily attainable, but for many, even taking 20 minutes in a day for some basic self-care is out of reach.
The good news is, being active doesn’t need to be complicated. All movement is beneficial! Research shows that every minute of movement we do is helpful – from taking a walk to our mailbox to taking an intensive exercise class.
Regardless of your employee’s current level of activity or ability, finding ways to be active throughout their life is one of the most powerful things they can do to care for their physical and mental wellness. When our coaches work with a member who is looking for ways to move their body more, one of the first questions they ask is, “What are activities do you already like to do?” Finding an activity that they know helps them feel good, and they know they can accomplish is the first step. Rather than spending a lot of time thinking about what you “should” do, they encourage the member to make it personal. The biggest takeaway at this stage is to not be afraid to change things up and try something new.
Ways to get your employees moving:
- Organize “virtual” group walks and exercise classes. It’s not a new idea to organize lunchtime walks between co-workers as a way to not only get some movement and connect with peers, but COVID-19 has changed this option for many industries. To encourage this connection-point while keeping your employees safe, help organize virtual walks and exercise classes.
- For your remote/at-home workers, share this video from one of our coaches focused on finding movement and strength from the convenience of their desks.
- Utilize your well-being program activities to encourage more movement. The ability to track steps and even compete with others is a great motivator for many people. Taking advantage of a group steps activity in your well-being program can be a great way to encourage some healthy competition and add a level of peer-motivated movement.
- Encourage employees to connect with a coach to overcome barriers to meeting the 150/week goal. Every member of Aduro’s employee wellness programs has unlimited access to one-on-one coaching. Our coaches develop personalized plans to help each person meet their unique goals. Learn more about our coaching programs and hear real stories of how we’re impacting people’s lives.
- The most important aspect of making movement a normal part of the day is building positive associations with activity. Our brains are hardwired for pleasure. Hack into that pleasure system by pairing activity with something positive! That way, the brain will start to associate activity with that positive feeling. So, providing fun options for employees to get more movement in their day can help them feel good, mentally and physically.
For more information about how our Human Performance Coaches help support our member’s well-being and mental health, plus boost their resilience, visit our solutions page. When you work with us to help your employees become more resilient, you can simultaneously make your organization more resilient.