What is a wellness incentive break you ask? Well, first of all let’s look at what a wellness incentive actually is shall we? A wellness incentive is a strong emotion or desire that impacts the well-being of an individual and can be present in both internal and external forms of motivation. Wellness incentives are often used by employers to promote wellness within their workplaces, to offer rewards and recognition to their employees as a result of hard work and meeting business goals.
Incentives are also used in order to help promote healthy behaviours and habits. Whether it be to quit smoking, improve mobility or even to start practicing regular sports or activities.
If the last few years has taught us anything it's that our personal and professional lives are much more closely intertwined than we think. Elements such as our diets, how much exercise and sleep we get, how stressed we can all have a profound on our working performance.
And whilst every effort should be made to have helpful corporate wellness components in our everyday working lives, a wellness incentive break could really make a difference to your employee’s wellbeing both in and outside the office. They also have fantastic benefits when embarked on as a whole team.
Having the power to inspire employees to reach any goals that either you set them or they set themselves isn’t always the easiest of tasks to up keep. Offering a wellness incentive break can be a great source of motivation to hit a crucial sales target, finish an important project or even to celebrate an internal milestone. Not only will this prove to be an important factor in terms of drive and determination for employees, a healthy break can be the perfect chance to bond and achieve your wellness goals as a team!
Coming from the viewpoint of a general manager, HR manager or even director, your employees are your most valuable asset. So, taking the time to get to know who you work with on a day-to-day basis well is very important so that you know how to customize their incentives based on their needs and interests. Maybe there’s a select group in the sales team who have a shared interest in golf or tennis. You can use this helpful information to offer a tailored wellness incentive, that if they hit or even better exceed their sales target for a select period then they will be rewarded with a corporate sports break. Not only will this provide a collective incentive to reach this target, but they may appreciate the time and thought gone into setting this up for them, encouraging future retention and motivation to work for you at their highest level.
Wellness incentive breaks can evidently present managers with numerous benefits both in the short and longer term. Well planned and executed incentives can help employees stay motivated as they have a personal benefit in sight that will help them to achieve their professional ones within the workplace.
When it comes to choosing a wellness incentive break for an individual or even a team there are some important things to consider such as will they find this incentive a fun idea? Will this motivate them? How might this be valuable for them? What do they need to achieve in order to gain this incentive and how will you measure it?
Sometimes being able to know what will incentivise your employees is a difficult thing to figure out. It may be that you know some of them have varying interests, you have someone or some people new to the team, or you just don’t know them well enough to land one specific break. In this instance it’s worth talking to your team to find out what they feel they would benefit from best as both individuals and a collective.
This is where our friendly and knowledgeable Wellness Travel Specialists come in too – whether you have a clear idea of what you want to do or offer be it a golf holiday or a spa retreat or you need some guidance on what a wellness incentive break could look like for your entire team. They’ll listen to your criteria and provide you with a number of quotes based on your needs and are also able to tailor-make entire itineraries and trips for your company.
If a wellness incentive break seems out of reach in the immediate future, could you consider a wellness team away day or even a workplace wellness workshop to boost employee health and wellbeing in the interim?
The bottom line is, wellness incentive breaks can form a comprehensive part of mental and physical health promotion as well as a competitive HR strategy. We’ve gone through several aspects of how incentive breaks can be beneficial for every party involved, including corporate performance and reputation. Boosting morale and the motivation to lead a healthy lifestyle doesn’t just have all the perceived benefits you’d expect, but we think you’ll find over a longer period, providing incentives can produce a high return on investment.
So, even if you’re not sure how to approach this within your internal structure and cultural norms, take the time to sit and talk face to face with some colleagues and see what they think... You never know, they might have some fantastic suggestions! I think you’ll also find they’d be very grateful that you’re looking out for them and their well-being, both in and out of work!
If you’d like to explore our corporate wellness offering – from team away days in the UK and abroad to team holidays and incentive breaks, please visit our corporate wellness page and fill out the form or call us on 0203 397 8891 today!
You can also sign up to our corporate wellness newsletter here and receive monthly insights into boosting your corporate wellness offering.
Join our mailing list to receive the latest news, offers & £50 off your first holiday.
