When the pandemic first hit back in March of 2020 and offices closed around the world, the pressure to stay connected through video conferencing technology was unparalleled. Who can forget the long workdays spent in Zoom meetings followed by hours spent on video chat with friends and family members? It was unexpectedly exhausting!
While many companies have now found a healthier balance between different modes of virtual communication, some offices require the use of Zoom and video calls more than others. While offering wellness programs that help combat burnout, fatigue, stress, and depression is a great idea, what if those programs are all on Zoom too?
This might sound a little strange coming from a company that runs webinars and online classes with companies, but taking a pause from this type of programming doesn’t mean you can’t continue to provide engaging wellness programs for employees.
There are plenty of virtual wellness programs out there that don’t involve Zoom meetings or video conferencing. For example, our 4 or 8 week Wellness Challenge (links to Dropbox) that we run with companies doesn’t involve any video conferencing, other than a 20-30 minute virtual kickoff.
Every weekday during the program, employees receive a daily email that includes their challenges to complete for the day. Challenges focus on a mix of nutrition, movement, and mental health/mindset and for the most part, encourage employees to get off their devices and away from their screens. Some examples of challenges include:
Despite not involving Zoom meetings, we’re still able to have employees engage and connect with one another in different ways. In fact, between March 2020-June 2021,
88% of our wellness challenge participants surveyed felt more connected to their colleagues.
While video conferencing has helped many of us feel more connected, you need to work harder to send and receive signals, which can be tiring. Having attendees keep their video on is nice for us as presenters, because it helps us keep a better tab on engagement, but it can also make employees feel like they’re being watched. If employees are feeling burnt out from Zoom, give them the option to keep their video on/off if they’d prefer during video calls.
It’s important to keep a pulse on how employees are feeling, and if they are feeling burnt out, and why. When you’re considering new programming, we recommend surveying employees and listing out specific topics you’ve sourced, to see which ones would be the most appealing, as well as the best times to run them.
If you find employees are expressing interests in topics but then don't attend live, something you can try is to have them only choose the 1-2 topics they’d be most likely to attend, rather than to check off everything they’re interested in. This can help to narrow down your list so you’re only offering webinars and online classes that will get the most attendance.
If you’re interested in booking a webinar or online class with us, we’d be happy to create a survey for you to circulate amongst your teams to save you time. We are also happy to present in person in Vancouver and Toronto to companies that have transitioned back to the office.
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