5 wellbeing ideas for remote workers

Health and wellbeing is vital for the modern workplace. As the role of the office evolves, wellbeing ideas for remote workers must too. There are many ways to approach remote wellbeing, and that’s exactly what we’re exploring in the post. 

We want to give HR leaders the tools they need to create healthier, happier employees, wherever they are in the world. Below, you’ll find out about 5 wellbeing ideas for remote workers; and not just any ideas. We’ve cherry-picked, what we believe to be the best of the best.
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Wellbeing ideas that can really be a game-changer for remote workers. Why? Because as the working world battles the ‘War for talent’ and the ‘Great Resignation’ more must be done. 

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The making of must-have wellbeing for your remote team

Think back to pre-pandemic times. For many of us, commuting dictated our mornings and evenings. The same streets, the same train, the same route. We’d do it each day, every day. 

That’s not to say it was bad, just majorly disliked. As the pandemic hit, however, organisations were forced to rethink everything from the way they work to how they manage remote wellbeing, onboarding and more.

It wreaked havoc on systems and processes that otherwise worked for years. It forced one of those ‘fail fast and fail forward’ kind of moments for a lot of companies. And since then, they’ve learnt a lot. 

Ultimately, remote working has created a win-win scenario for many businesses. Their employees are generally happier, and their business no longer needs one of the more expensive overheads. 

Fast-forward to the present time, and organisations are beginning to really lean into things like remote benefits, work-from-home allowances and all other inventive ideas. If anything is certain, it’s that employee wellbeing must exist both in and outside the working environment. 

It’s not enough to provide free snacks for employees that do make it into the office. As a leader, you’re responsible for making everyone feel recognised and rewarded for their hard work. So without further ado, let’s just into these five wellbeing ideas for remote workers.

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How to use this list

This list is by no means exhaustive. It’s also not tailored specifically to your business. If you think some of these wellbeing ideas for remote workers won’t benefit your company, don’t try them. Take what you need from this guide and use what you will. 

What we do recommend, however, is that you continue to research other wellbeing ideas for remote workers. Find out how you can best support your workforce. Success is trial and error, right?

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Wellbeing ideas for remote workers

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Promote healthier habits in remote workers

It’s not just in the workplace that leaders should consider health and wellbeing ideas for remote workers, it’s outside of the workplace too. According to more than 8,000 employees and leaders, 52% reported working longer hours when working remotely compared to pre-pandemic times.

The figures don’t lie. Part of any wellbeing ideas for remote workers should include encouraging realistic work expectations. This means letting employees know that it isn’t healthy or expected that they work in their free time.

Rather than having too much work that it seeps into their lives, employees should be encouraged to come forward. That’s not all, leaders should promote physical wellbeing, such as regular walks and other activities.

Things that employees may forget to regularly do without encouragement and with very little communication with us while working remotely. 

It’s always good to have someone to push us to be the best we can be, and it’s the duty of a leader to take on this role for all employees, whether they’re office based or at home.

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Regular catchups and social interactions

Socialising is good for our mental health, and loneliness is one of the downfalls of remote work. It’s an issue that organisations are failing to address, hence why it makes our list of wellbeing ideas for remote workers.

Social interaction isn’t just good for relationship building and a sense of belonging in the workplace, it’s also good for your brain health. In fact, loneliness and social isolation have been linked to poor physical health in addition to mental health. It’s believed there’s an increase in the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke. 
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According to the HRdirector, around 67% of employees have found it difficult to make friends and maintain relationships with colleagues, with 54% of respondents attributing remote work as the reason. These statistics are relatively new, given the rise of remote work in the past couple of years; and portray a growing epidemic in the workplace.

As an HR leader, you should look for ways to create more social interaction amongst your team. Think virtual gatherings, planned in-person get-togethers and more frequent 1-2-1 wellbeing calls with managers. 

There are plenty of opportunities, and leaders should look at ways to improve collaboration and communication in both professional and social settings.

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An employee wellbeing platform

It wouldn’t be right for us not to mention Heka. As an employee wellbeing platform, we’ve made it our mission to bring health and wellbeing to employees, through employers – and that counts for every member of your team. 

Wherever they live, there are 3,000+ experiences across 50 categories. This means your team can be spread across the UK, and still make the most of healthy meal deliveries, mental health support, learning and development and more.

The Heka platform is clearly a work in progress, and always will be. That’s because we’re constantly adding new partners, with new experiences, products and services to offer. It’s obvious how this can ultimately benefit a remote team like yours, and why it makes our list of wellbeing ideas for remote workers.

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Similar read: The power of wellbeing gifts for staff

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Encourage the use of technology to support wellbeing

Technology is a great tool that helps us achieve many things in life. One of the ways employees can (and should) use it, is to support their wellbeing. From meditation apps to the heaps of free content available through platforms like YouTube.

Technology is there to be leveraged, and it can make for an affordable wellbeing idea for remote workers. Think about it, if you can regularly recommend meditation or stretching content that’s helped you, you can share this with the rest of your team.
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There are a couple of ways to adopt this idea. HR teams could put together an email or newsletter about the different webinars, podcasts or other content they’ve come across that can help people improve their health and wellbeing.

Alternatively, HR teams could recommend sites and resources that are great for regular self-care, self-improvement and general wellbeing support. 
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With this idea being so simple, it should undoubtedly be included in your approach to wellbeing ideas for remote workers.

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Personalise, personalise and personalise some more (wellbeing surveys)

Last but not least, leaders must recognise that wellbeing is a personal mission. What works for us, might not work for someone else. That’s why we recommend regular wellbeing surveys, conversations around benefits and generally listening more to employees.

Granted, this isn’t a specific idea that can be given to employees and be immediately beneficial, but it is the means to create a more practical and meaningful employee wellbeing strategy for your remote team.

It can be hard to gather feedback from a remote workforce, but it is essential. Like office-based surveys and meetings, the same effort must be carried out for a remote team. 

Here at Heka, we’ve put together a resource for conducting a wellbeing survey. However, we recommend other tools like Typeform and Google forms to quiz your remote team on what they’d like to see in terms of employee wellbeing.

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So, what next for worker wellbeing?

Now you’ve read through our list of wellbeing ideas for remote workers, what now? Well, it really depends on your approach. We recommend that you include these in your wider employee wellbeing framework. It’s also a good idea to bounce these ideas off others in your HR team and come up with some more to try.

Remember, wellbeing is incredibly important for your organisation. This is what we suggest for wellbeing ideas for remote workers. If you’d like to dive into other areas of employee wellbeing, take a look at our blog — we’ve written more than 100 articles around the topic.