Some people love going to work. But not everyone does. In fact, the workplace can be a huge source of stress for many people.
Our Favorite De-Stressors
- Encourage employees to give each other shoutouts on social media or team chatting channels
- Set aside a few hours for revitalizing the physical office space and letting employees decorate their desks
- Give your employees a Friday afternoon (or an entire day) off for some extra free time
- Host a memorable and entertaining company event
- Get physical in the office by hosting yoga or karate lessons
- Host a mental health awareness workshop with trained professionals to give your employees the resources they need to thrive
- Set aside a few minutes each day for some office meditation
- Host a wellness gift exchange where employees can share self-care gifts with each other
As a leader in the workplace, it’s up to you to help your employees feel supported and comfortable in the workplace. Here are eight mental health activities to help you do so!
See Related: 4 Fun Ways To Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day In The Office
#1. Give Shout Outs, And Encourage Employees To Give Them To Their Peers
Sometimes, work can be a fun place to explore passions and discover empowerment. Unfortunately, however, it’s easy for our workplace to turn into something negative.
Many employers have expanded mental health benefits during and after the Covid pandemic. In fact, nearly 40% of employers did so. So, if you haven’t, you should!
The advantages of prioritizing mental health awareness and employee wellness are endless. For starters, it can help to:
- Reduce stress
- Increase employee engagement
- Contribute to a positive company culture
- Promote a healthy work-life balance
- Improve employee morale
We could keep going. But already, it’s clear to see the vast importance of mental health awareness and resources in the office!
As a workplace leader, it’s up to you to find ways to implement this priority on mental health. And one way to do so is by involving your team in mental health-boosting activities.
A Surefire Way To Boost Morale And Get People Interacting
Your employees deserve to be recognized. Actually, employee recognition and reward are one of the most important things you can do as a workplace leader.
Employee recognition is essential for increased job satisfaction, improved employee retention, and a boost in teamwork. When people feel their work is recognized, it motivates them to keep going and stay positive!
There are plenty of ways you can recognize your team for a job well done. But one of the most effective, simple, and easy ways is with shoutouts.
Practicing positive feedback through shoutouts can increase trust in the workplace and provide your team with a purpose.
Simple But Effective
Here’s how to do it. You don’t even need to wait for someone to do anything. Anytime you want to let someone know that you appreciate them and want to support them, give them a shoutout. Simple.
The perfect place to do so is on a message channel like Slack or Volley. Just kick it off by sending a message!
Then, encourage employees to do the same. Peer-to-peer shoutouts are often the best because employees tend to trust each other more than management. But that’s not to say they don’t trust you!
Either way, shoutouts are simple but effective ways to improve people’s mental health and help them feel appreciated.
#2. Have An Office Upkeep And Decorating Day
Clear desk, clear mind. Or something like that.
Keeping your area clear of clutter can actually help boost mental health. So, apply that principle to the office!
We’re not saying you should force your team to spend a day elbow-deep in some cleaning solution, crawling around the employee bathroom to scrub the floor. That doesn’t sound appealing to anyone.
We’re talking about a relaxed day spent decluttering, redecorating, and energizing the office. Or, you can just set aside a few hours for it.
Start by removing junk and things hanging around that no one uses. Then, take some time also to clean areas frequently touched and tidy up the coffee station.
Encourage workers to bring decor and items to make their desk area their own!
Allowing your employees to personalize their area gives them extra freedom to express themselves and feel at home. And when people are comfortable, their mental health flourishes!
#3. Take A Friday Afternoon (Or An Entire Day) Off
Sometimes the best mental well-being activities aren’t even in the office.
Give your team a Friday afternoon off to let them have some extra free time. Feeling generous? Give them the entire day off!
The benefits of a mental health day are almost endless. Giving employees the freedom to have extra time outside of work can do a lot for their mental health.
Many times, the stress and anxiety that employees feel at work stem from a poor work-life balance. When you are in the office 40 hours a week, it can feel like there’s not enough time for everything else in life!
Giving your team a little extra free time can really do a lot. Even just spending one extra day recharging and relaxing can do wonders for the mind.
#4. Host A Meaningful Company Event
To give your team the treat they deserve, it’s time to go big. Smaller activities in the office are great, but you can always do more.
Hosting a company event is the perfect way to give your employees some recognition while boosting their mood. With the right entertainment, you can turn a boring organizational gathering into something for the books!
The key here is finding a centerpiece for your event that gives it that bang. You need to find a corporate speaker or comedian that is both funny, enlightening, and inclusive.
And we know the best way to find that person!
The Best Way To Make Your Corporate Event Entertaining
At Clean Comedians®, all our speakers are experienced in hosting corporate events and know how to appease a professional audience. Our content is 100% clean, and our entertainers don’t use crude, dirty, political, or inappropriate content.
Often, comedians and corporate entertainers don’t keep their content clean. But there’s no place for stuff like that at a corporate event. And we understand that completely.
Plus, our team will do a deep dive into your company before the event to tailor the content to your unique team. The more personal the jokes, the more fun they’ll be! No one likes to hear generic content that is off-brand.
We can accommodate your needs through the screen, even for hybrid and remote teams. So give your team what they’re really needing!
Bonus: 7 Tips From Stand-Up Comedians To Improve Your Next Presentation
#5. It’s Time To Get Physical!
Regarding mental health, you don’t just need to find ways to stimulate and relax the mind. In fact, your mental health is often vastly affected by your physical health!
So, it should go without saying that a great way to get everyone’s mood boosted and mental health flourishing is by getting a little physical.
Engaging in any physical activity has been proven to improve depression symptoms regardless of age. Plus, being active helps reduce the risk of developing depression in both kids and adults.
Even if only for one day, help your team stay active. A great way to promote positive mental health in a fun and enjoyable setting is by bringing the activity to them!
Promoting Physical Health In The Office
You can either host yoga lessons, bring in a karate instructor, or do anything similar that your team might be interested in. This will help them stay active for a day while engaging in some team-building exercises at the same time.
Physical sports such as karate can boost the confidence and strength of those participating and even spark some newfound interest in your employees. Yoga benefits both the body and mind and can relax muscles and relieve stress that may be building up.
Don’t neglect the power of physical activity regarding mental wellness. It’s all connected!
#6. Host An Educational Mental Health Awareness Workshop
Everyone can benefit from stress relief tactics and self-care, but not everyone knows all the ins and outs of it. Self-care is essential for mental health, and you can help guide your team toward understanding that.
Hosting an educational mental health awareness workshop at work can help raise mental health awareness and promote positive well-being. It’d be a win-win for everyone!
Here’s how to organize your own mental health awareness workshop for your team for maximum benefits.
How To Host Your Own Mental Health Awareness Workshop
Before you start planning the workshop, you should identify the goal and objectives of the workshop. For example, your primary goal may be raising awareness and reducing the stigma around mental health, or perhaps you want to focus on building a supportive workplace culture.
Figure out the details of your workshop, such as location (in-person or virtual.) Then, look for a qualified mental health professional who specializes in mental health awareness. They can provide expertise and guidance on the workshop’s content and lead the workshop itself!
Lastly, you’ll need to work on developing the content for the workshop. Promote it if you’ll open it up to more people, and then participate in the event with your team members!
#7. Take Time For Some Office Meditation
Meditating is for more than just Sunday afternoons when you have nothing better to do. The benefits of regular meditation are endless, and it can help bring about positive mental wellness effects.
Meditation is key for reducing stress and anxiety and has been shown to help reduce cortisol levels in your body, contributing to stress. It’s also been shown to help improve focus and concentration and help people enjoy the present moment.
Meditation can also boost immune functions, promote better sleep, and increase self-awareness. With so many incredible and vast benefits, you should start implementing meditation in the office right away!
The great thing about meditation is that you don’t need any tools. Just your mind and body are all that’s required! Office meditation is as easy as setting aside a few minutes daily to breathe, relax, and feel the moment.
#8. Have A Wellness Gift Exchange
One of the best ways to care for our mental health is to get involved with those around us. As humans, we are social creatures, and it’s necessary to regularly interact with others, regardless of how anti-social we might feel on the inside.
Hosting a gift exchange is a great way to get people interacting and socializing while promoting great mental wellness. Everyone likes getting new things and putting a self-love spin on it can help make that self-care day more enjoyable.
Make it similar to Secret Santa. Any gift exchange should have a price limit with each person in the office assigned to another team member.
Encourage people to give self-care gifts to each other. That can be something like a scented candle, a hydrating sheet face mask, or a self-help book.
Not only will receiving a gift be beneficial, but the act of gift-giving itself can be very beneficial to one’s mental health.
Gift-giving can help boost our social connections, reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation, improve our mood, and foster feelings of gratitude between each party.
You don’t need to get a super expensive gift for everyone to enjoy a great gift exchange and feel a bit more connected. Just interacting is enough to make everyone feel a bit more warm and fuzzy on the inside!
Keep Reading: 4 Ways To Promote A Positive Workplace Culture
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Adam Christing is a professional comedy magician, virtual MC, and the founder of CleanComedians.com. He is a member of the world-famous Magic Castle in Hollywood and a popular corporate entertainer, magician, and virtual speaker.