Employee well-being programs aren’t one-size-fits-all. Great wellness initiatives meet employees where they are, supporting a spectrum of lifestyles and needs.
People often think of wellness in terms of physical health, meaning nutrition and fitness. But wellness includes mental, emotional, occupational, social, intellectual, environmental and financial needs too. These aspects all impact an individual's quality of life. And it offers a new way for teams to broaden their approach to well-being.
A holistic well-being program might look like organizing peer gratitude recognitions or offering tax support from a CPA in the spring.
Inclusive wellness offerings are an easy and practical approach to building employee engagement for your workplace wellness programming.
Remote-friendly wellness activities
Online wellness activities encourage employees to connect, whether they work at home or are on the go. Host your program on your employee engagement platform or your internal communications channel to make it accessible.
1. Start a step challenge
Friendly competitions like step challenges encourage team members to add more movement to their day. For this fitness challenge, teams aim to hit a daily step count, earning reward points that can be redeemed for gift cards or other incentives.
Team members can track steps using apps like Fitbit, MisFit or Apple's HealthKit (which syncs to ITA Group's Cooleaf engagement platform). To add a little more competition, reward the person with the highest number of steps with a trophy or team swag. You can also ask participants to share a fitness selfie on the platform to encourage others to get moving.
2. Reframe quick snacking with a balanced lunch challenge
Challenge your team to prepare healthy weekday meals with a balanced lunch challenge. Team members can share their favorite healthy recipes, snacking tips or meal prep, along with posting pics to a live newsfeed.
You can add incentives to motivate employees, like points or making it a competition where employees vote on their favorite recipe. The more people join, the more accountability and encouragement participants receive.
3. Build a culture of recognition through a peer gratitude challenge
Strengthen peer recognition within your organization using a peer recognition challenge. The sender and recipient can earn an incentive or reward as you encourage team members to recognize a peer each day of the week. You can also incorporate your core values and ask employees to recognize one another for embodying a key company value.
We love to host this challenge during the holiday season or after a busy season for teams to reflect. Expressing gratitude reduces stress and increases our appreciation of our daily lives.
Related: Build a culture of recognition
4. Overcome screen fatigue with an unplug challenge
From mindless scrolling or answering emails on your phone after work hours, we spend most of the day looking at screens.
Mindfulness and taking breaks throughout the workday help us recharge and prevent burnout. Challenge your team to take an hour a day to unplug. Then ask them to share what they did with their time. When we did this challenge with our own team, people shared how much of a difference it made in their energy and mental well-being.
5. Inspire curiosity with a TED Talk challenge
Professional development is a major component of holistic well-being. And learning and development is a key driver in building employee engagement. A TED Talk challenge is an easy way to spark discussions within your teams beyond the day-to-day scope of your work.
Teams select relevant TED talks on topics like leadership, current events, financial education, innovation or inspiration. Employees participate in a discussion and what they learned or answer critical questions. Make this an ongoing monthly challenge by having different staff post a video each month!
Related: How your learning and development program can better support a connected culture
6. Help the planet with a sustainability challenge
Wellness and sustainability often go together. Mindful practices can lead to less consumption, which leads to less waste. Active lifestyles can reduce carbon emissions. Connecting with nature encourages us to be more present and to express more gratitude.
Challenge your teams to adopt a more sustainable practice at home for a week. For example, a small task like organizing household recycling not only reduces waste but helps families be more aware of overconsumption. You might notice all of the deliveries you receive in the mail or takeout containers your family accumulates. That awareness can prompt you to make different decisions to reduce online ordering and to increase cooking at home.
7. Learn about sleep hygiene with a relaxation challenge
Sleep plays a vital role in mental and emotional health, which makes it one of the most important wellness activities of one’s day. And sleep quantity and quality are usually the first to take a hit because of stress and poor sleep hygiene.
Host a relaxation challenge where you share helpful sleep hygiene information and suggest best practices. Employees can set their own “wind down” habit to ensure a good night's rest. That can be less screen time before bedtime or even making your bed in the morning. Team members can keep each other accountable and track how they're adapting to changes.
8. Lead with purpose in a give-back challenge
Charitable giving and volunteering can promote wellness, reducing stress, increasing dopamine and encouraging socialization. You can work with your teams to understand what causes they care most about and organize around it.
Host a giving challenge where individuals can compete to raise the most donations for a key cause. Each year, our teams support a United Way campaign that culminates with a United Way Spirit Week. From trivia and happy hours to a Wacky Wednesday dress-up day to a final celebration, each activity ties to a purpose. The goal? Raising funds to support United Way’s many community programs.
In-office wellness activities
In-person wellness initiatives double as cultural moments. They also set your brand apart as an employer, attracting potential hires and keeping valuable team members.
1. Community service days
Doing good feels good, and it also gives us a sense of purpose and belonging with our local communities. Offer service days to replace a workday or two.
Or set a number of volunteer hours teams can use throughout the year, at their own pace. To offer flexibility, you can host different service days or events that anyone can sign up for. Employees can decide on what volunteer program or cause is most meaningful to them.
2. Smoking cessation programs
Cessation programs can help employees looking to quit vaping or smoking. Tobacco cessation treatment is offered under most comprehensive insurance plans and is a great way to support your team members seeking preventive support.
These treatment plans often include counseling support, medication or educational resources. The most successful cessation workplace programs ensure their employees know about the resource.
3. Mental health education
Workplace mental health training offers employees an opportunity to learn emotional vocabulary to support one another. It creates a more successful collaborative environment where employees and leaders can effectively communicate.
Mental health literacy helps leaders set the tone for the organization. As a result, employees, policies and accommodations follow, creating a more inclusive workplace.
4. Flexible workplace policies
Workplace flexibility is one of the most meaningful ways an organization can accommodate employees. Adaptations include schedule, location, technological flexibility and more. Employees with greater work flexibility are 25% less likely to experience workplace stress or anxiety.
The practice creates a more inclusive work environment, creating a more equitable space for different groups like working parents to those with unique needs. Everyone has their own lifestyle. This accommodation gives employees the freedom and trust to accomplish their work on their terms and thrive.
5. Transit incentives
Encouraging alternative methods of transportation, including transit, ridesharing and cycling has positive impacts on employee health. Transit incentives can help employees cover commuting expenses like fuel, transit fare or parking, reducing stress.
It also promotes environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives like sustainability. By offering sustainable or alternative transportation, like trains, e-scooters or shuttles, it supports your ESG values.
6. Lunch and learn
Meals are always a good reason to gather and mingle with peers outside of deadlines and meetings. Organizations can host “lunch and learns” with speakers and experts covering rotating topics on mental, professional, financial or social well-being. Consider polling your team to see what sessions they’d be interested in attending. That could be anything from stress management techniques, time management strategies or even an intro into AI.
Structure these events as a round table discussion or breakout tables where team members can can enjoy a catered lunch and apply the new information to themselves and socialize.
7. Financial counseling
Offering financial advice and counseling to employees is a health benefit that can have a positive impact on their well-being and their ability to focus more in the workplace. Financial stress can lead to symptoms like loss of sleep, poor concentration and reduced motivation, which can impact employee performance.
Often, financially stressed employees are 36% more likely to leave a current role, and 73% said they'd be attracted to employers that care about their financial well-being. Financial wellness programs offer proactive support. Whether it’s one-on-one counseling, educational webinars or access to financial planning tools, these resources promote confidence, reduce stress and support long-term employee well-being.
Key takeaways
Happier, healthier and more productive teams come from engaged employees who feel supported and satisfied at work.
Holistic employee well-being enables teams to provide for a diversity of lifestyles, wants and needs. For one employee, that step challenge might encourage them to get moving more often. For another, that shorter commute or access to financial coaching can minimize burgeoning stress.
Employee wellness doesn't just support individual health. It boosts morale and strengthens your employer brand. When organizations invest in whole-person wellness, they create the kind of work environment where people want to stay.
If you're looking for more employee engagement activities for an inclusive workplace, check out our 2025 DEIB calendar.