An investment in the wellbeing of your employees as individuals is an investment in the company itself. One of the best ways to show that your company is committed to its people just as much as it is to its customers and profits is by building a well-functioning wellness program. Establishing an employee wellness program impacts more than just the individual, it creates a more productive, motivated and engaged workforce.

As part of our commitment to employee health and wellbeing here at Achievers, we offer four extra fully paid days off, designated as company-wide “Recharge Days,” to our employees. Essentially, Recharge Days offer our employees an extra day off to disconnect and do whatever they want to feel recharged once they come back to work.

So, in honor of World Mental Health Day on October 10, we’re sharing our top three wellness program tips and ideas and including snapshots from our A-Players' Recharge Days activities for wellness inspiration at your company:

1. Rewarding and incentivizing wellness

92% of employees are more likely to repeat behavior they’re recognized for, so start recognizing your employees for their wellness wins!

Wellness incentives shouldn’t take the form of one-size-fits-all rewards like mugs or t-shirts. These rewards mean little to employees and require a significant amount of effort on the part of managers and HR to manually track and recognize employees’ wellness progress.

An employee reward and recognition solution that integrates with a wellness platform makes the process easy. Everyone at your organization can then automatically earn reward points when they achieve wellness goals and milestones tracked in the platform. Since they can redeem these points in a centralized rewards marketplace for products and experiences they actually want, they’ll remain motivated to practice healthy habits on and off the job.

1. Combating burnout

Burnout is a chronic problem for many organizations, and if your company is serious about wellness, fighting burnout must be at the top of your agenda.

Start by gathering data to reveal the state of burnout at your organization and what’s causing it, preferably using tools like anonymous pulse surveys. Sources of burnout might include overwork, lack of necessary support or resources, or unfair treatment. Don’t disregard what you discover, even if it reveals uncomfortable truths about your organization’s work environment.

After you’ve identified the causes of burnout at your company, implement the necessary measures to fight them at both the organization and team levels. Prioritize transparent communication, support work-life balance, and address feedback from employees quickly to minimize the effects of burnout at your company.

A great way of fighting burnout is truly taking advantage of time away from work to do what you love. Example? Sean Siow, Software Engineer at Achievers, leverages Recharge Days to keep up his camping hobby, and, for the first time ever, got to spot a moose at Algonquin Provincial Park.

1. Flexibility and time off

Empowering employees with the flexibility to get the job done in the way that fits them best — without negatively impacting the rest of their team — has big wellness benefits. Together with purpose and connection, it’s one of the three pillars of employee wellness identified by Gartner.

Beyond flexibility, give employees more freedom in what tasks they handle and how they complete those tasks. Variety is the spice of life, especially at work, so even if it’s just taking on a new responsibility for a few days, changing things up can renew engagement and stave off burnout.

Providing employees with enough time to recharge is just as important as providing control over how they work. When work-life balance is skewed, you feel burned out and exhausted. So, clearly communicate that employees should use their PTO when they need it as well. Make sure employees know that using PTO is not only acceptable but encouraged. Emphasize to managers that balancing workloads to facilitate time off is a priority.

When it comes to PTO, our A-Players do it best. Chantal Aco, Customer Experience Manager at Achievers, used her PTO and Recharge Days to travel to Croatia. She relaxed on the beach and read a good book.

Making wellness a way of life

If you’re looking to boost wellness at your organization, there’s no need to go it alone. Achievers can help. Achievers Recognize — a mobile-friendly, comprehensive recognition and reward solution — integrates with WellRight, a leading corporate wellness platform. Your employees will love redeeming points they earn for meeting their wellness goals. And Achievers Listen is the all-in-one employee engagement solution with the pulse surveys and always-on feedback channels you need to stay on top of the impact of your wellness programs.

With these powerful tools, soon wellness will become a seamless part of the routine at your company. Like how Chrystal Shortall, HR Program Partner at Achievers, has made tending to her watermelon garden part of her Recharge Day routine.