Before the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, the work in the office was the standard. However, then the world went under quarantine and people, who were used to working in the office at that point, found themselves working out of their homes. Today, over five years after the beginning of the pandemic, hybrid work schedules became a reality, with many employers allowing their workers to go to the office two or three times a week and work remotely the rest of the time.
Indeed, one of the most recent surveys conducted by Gallup revealed that most employees (59%) in remote-compatible occupations would choose a hybrid work mode over the fully remote one. And only 9 percent preferred a full-time schedule in-office.
As hybrid work schedule rise, there has been an increase in requests of wellness-promoting, community-promoting, and clarity-promoting engaging activities. This is how the employers can help their hybrid employees and employers can avoid burnout working at home.
Why Hybrid Workers require Better Breaks
Working at home can usually equate to distractions either as work needs to be done like laundry or the kids need to have their home work assisted. A person is not only supposed to take breaks to maintain his or her mental health, but an employee on a hybrid schedule must be more deliberate about the quality of breaks during his or her workday.
The Graying of Work and Life
Offering a flexible work schedule can be of great assistance to employees that are interested in enjoying in-office experience but also benefit to have the freedom of not commuting to work at least once or twice in a week. However, similar to fully remote employees, hybrid employees can experience screen fatigue since they are less likely to schedule breaks on their work-at-home days than they would at the office.
Burnouts may also be a problem and employees report experiencing energy dips mid-afternoon. And after the working day they could be checking their emails, finishing their assignments instead of communicating with their families or enjoying their hobbies.
Finding Place of the Physical and Mental Healing
You may believe that being so busy all the time is the same thing as being super productive but the truth is the contrary in majority of situations. Taking brain breaks can enable you to become more focused and perform better in and outside your work place.
Structured breaks allow your mind to rest and come back to the job refreshed and capable of accomplishing a new task. The best thing you can do is walking away on a complex project. In case of taking a break you will be able to come back to the task with a fresh view and finish it more effectively.
Mental energies can also be replenished through physical exercise to increase creativity. In case you lack physical activity, you may increase the risk of cognitive decline. When you are usually working at home and you have all the time to work, you can feel like sitting in front of your desk within several hours. However, a short walk around or a quick workout session, as well as a jump or two or lunges, can wake your blood circulation and your active thinking brain.
Activities In the Indoors That Are Transforming the Hybrid Workday
Having known the significance of breaks and body movement during working hours, though, you may have a question to what you should prefer, especially when you are limited by the walls of apartments. Fortunately, you will find a number of indoor activities that will cheer you up and improve your productivity.
The Indoors Golf and the Executive Play Rise
Golf is the perfect sport to take out some steam and get exercise. However, when you work at home, it may not be easy to reach the golf course to play a round. Fortunately, indoor golf has gotten very trendy recently, with some credit owing to the commodity of placing mats and simulated indoor golf centers.
Indoor golf provide an unusual, social, low pressure method of re-charging at work, or on leaving work. Major pros of playing golf are physical exercise, reduction of stress and social networking. You will be able to train in the putting and talk to the friends and relax after the tiring working day. The indoor golf is there all year round it does not care whether in the middle of winter or in the hottest time of summer you can still play this game.
Other Famous Indoor Games of Achievers
Golf is not the only activity which may help you to refill your brain with energy and enjoy this process indoors. Other high performer popular activities involve:
- The concept of virtual reality (VR) fitness and games
- Training in an indoor sporting facility or gym within a community
- Yoga sessions to relax and become powerful and stretch
- Mentally, gamified apps to train your brain in case you are not in a mood to exercise
- The idea of mindfulness lounges where facilitated meditation and relaxation in a secure and relaxed environment are promoted
Finally what is the best indoor activity to you will depend on what you like to do. Experiment with some variants and then choose the one you prefer most of all.
The way companies are promoting active hybrid breaks How Companies are facilitating active hybrid breaks
In most occasions, the worker has to go to the extent of reminding himself/herself to take planned breaks, so as to relieve his mind and boost productivity. Other businesses, however, may assist workers by rewarding or urging them to take active breaks when working a hybrid or distance reserve. These are some of the changes that companies need to implement as a starting point in having a healthier and more productive hybrid workforce.
Partnership and Subsidised Memberships
Individual companies that are ahead of their game also provide employees with health and fitness discounts or stipends, including indoor types such as gym, golf, yoga studios and so on. This assists to motivate the employee in attending to their physical and mental well-being by either paying part or the full amount of joining a gym or purchasing a fitness or well-being application.
Lots of companies also join local venues in order to provide their employees with discounted membership. As an example: you may receive a discount of 25 percent on membership of a local chain of gyms, so it would be cheaper to join than another chain.
Designing Formatted Break Periods on Hybrid Workdays
Aware of how structured break gives rise to productivity and efficiency, there are firms that advise workers to engage in active breaks when they are working at home. The companies can do this in the following ways:
- establish routine no-disturb lunch sessions of every team member
- It is better not to text or send any emails during break times or out of the working hours
- Repeat about the necessity of taking breaks to team members on a regular basis
- Hold managers accountable and make them put into practice what they preach and take non negotiating breaks in their workday
- Make team members know that the company approves of self-care
Managers are also able to incorporate the indoor activities with work events. An example of this tactic is that the company may conduct a fitness competition with employees who get points when they visit the gym or engaging in some form of activity takes 30 minutes habitually. Alternatively, they can organize team-building activities, such as happy hours, at an indoor golf or bowling club in case they want their employees to be active.
Brands Getting It right Case Study Highlights
Firms which desire to initiate the concept of an employee wellness program can take a cue of other brands. The following are the examples of brands that provide high-end hybrid wellness solutions.
Zappos
Zappos has always been recognized as the company that takes care of its staff physically and mentally. Besides its own onsite fitness center and activity classes, the firm arranges employee involvement activities, such as golf activities or visits to indoor trampoline park. Zappos further involves breaks on a weekly basis, known as the Recess Tuesday, during which employees are allowed to play basketball, four square or volleyball on the company breaks. The firm also reimburse its workers their entry charges in the races that they have participated in.
Houston Methodist
Houston Methodist is a Texas-based hospital system, which builds its employee wellness program around data. All workers are given a Fitbit, the use of which allows them to monitor their activity and the number of steps. The company frequently conducts step competitions and provides rewards to the employees who attain a previously conceived step target.
Once this program was adopted, absenteeism declined and the level of employee stress lowered in Houston Methodist.
Johnson and Johnson
Johnson and Johnson have a full wellness program provided to the employees. The Healthy & Me program offers points to employees who monitor their physical activities, book preventive screening, and complete the health risk assessment. The company sends out messages to the employees every day to remind of quick and healthy steps such as drinking more water or taking a walk.
Research indicates that Johnson & Johnson enjoys a payback of $1.88 to 3.92 to each dollar it invests on its wellness programs.
Overcoming the challenges: The intentional breaks
Undoubtedly, there are difficulties that accompany structural changes, which include implementation of employee wellness programs. Here are the ways to overcome them.
Handling Accessibility and Time Barriers
Business organizations may be trying to identify ways of making the indoors more viable and convenient to their employees. Onsite gym facilities in the office is actually a good benefit, except that those who need a hybrid or remote work schedule will not find it convenient as the office workers. In a bid to address this possible challenge, exercise a hybrid strategy in planning team events by ensuring the events are available to the participants physically and virtually.
Another reason that the employees may say is that they lack sufficient time in their day to exercise. But, spending a day behind the desk may cause both physical and psychological effects. Sedentary occupation may cause muscular and articular disorders, such as back and neck-pains. Taking short breaks to stretch and walk, doing a relaxing physical activity such as yoga, or training how to eliminate neck pain in a short time during workday may be a smart move towards eliminating neck and back pains.
Working too many hours usually implies having less time to take care of oneself, to exercise, or to eat well. That is why hybrid workers have to cut out daily breaks to pay attention to their well-being. The idea of working straight through a long list of things to do may be the ideal approach, but sometimes it is better to be able to work to a higher level of concentration and efficiency, which means less time and more work to be done.
The Danger of the Ever Availability Trap
It is a fear those who work at home may have since there is the fear that they must be noticed online 24/7 or that they are considered lazy or idling around. Nevertheless, it is tiresome to be accessible at all times and energy sapping. In place of what it has always been on the net, do the following:
Take frequent breaks to get out of work and refuel yourself
- Put your breaks time on your calendar so other people can know when you are free and when you are engaged
- Discuss work expectations with your boss so both of you are on the same track
- Be an advocate of your mental and physical health, as much as you should be
- Turn off your computer every day at the end of the day
- Do not be tempted to check your email and other work messaging applications after you have logged out at the end of the day
The Hybrid Work Wellness of the Future
There are literally dozens of employees who have a hybrid schedule and thus companies have to accommodate this. We can only expect each business to practice employee wellness in different ways, but here are some trends that we think will become increasingly widespread over the next couple of years.
- Individualized wellness data that accommodates every single worker. An example is that instead of a weight loss fitness challenge, a fitness challenge based on how long someone could work out could be implemented so that everyone can be involved either they need or want to lose weight.
- Fitness offerings in the coworking space e.g. onsite gym facilities and fitness classes to the individuals who pay to work in such setting.
- Online group exercices, which stimulate movement without the need to be in the same place.
Final Thoughts Building Sustainable Hybrid Lifestyles
By investing in the wellness of the employees via organized indoor programs, it is possible to achieve an improvement in the performance, satisfaction, and mental endurance. This indicates that workers will be more productive and efficient in their job dealing and companies will enjoy the dividends. In case you have joined the so-called trap of the hybrid schedule when breaks are skipped and you are always available, it is not late to change. Change the ways in which you organize breaks and recharging habits- and persuade companies to follow the examples of well established wellness measures in order to maximize their workforces.