20+ Virtual Wellness Ideas for Employees Worth Implementing

In remote work environments, fostering employee well-being is crucial, and virtual wellness and stress relief activities are a key way to support mental health and resilience. These activities can be simple yet effective in helping employees unwind, stay connected, and reduce burnout.

Here are 20+ popular virtual wellness activities for remote employees.

Host workout sessions

Employees who work remotely may not always move very much. Too often, the workday begins only minutes after leaving the bed - and ends in a similar way as it’s started. Needless to say, that’s not the healthiest lifestyle. One way to keep people active and healthy is to introduce online workouts.

Have a trained coach or fitness expert guide the employees through timed workouts before or after work. It will help them release all the stress and tension from their jobs while maintaining health and wellness.

Set aside a few minutes to host these sessions at the end of work.

Daily steps challenges

Introduce daily step challenges for your virtual employees. They are fun, extremely easy to set up, and don’t require a lot of time or resources. Simply create a list of daily challenges for your employees to achieve.

It’s the perfect way to get them active and break the monotony of work. All you need is a smartwatch, smartphone, or fitness tracker to track activity. You can also introduce incentives such as bonuses and other rewards to motivate your remote employees.

Walk & talk routines

Another way to get regular exercise is through simple routines that pair up 2-3 people regularly so they can meet (in person or virtually) for a walk. It’s that simple.

Host a hydration challenge

Scientists recommend the average human consumes six to eight glasses of water daily. Unfortunately, most people struggle with maintaining their water intake. So, what better way to get your employees to hydrate than by making it a fun challenge?

Again, make it even more proactive by offering rewards to the winners. People are more likely to perform better when rewarded for their efforts.

Guided meditations

Working remotely can take a mental toll on your employees as it’s so easy to get lost in endless tasks and narrow screens. Hosting short, guided meditation sessions can help employees practice mindfulness, reduce stress, and improve focus.

Meditating has numerous benefits, including:

• Improving one’s self-awareness
• Reducing stress
• Improving one’s creativity
• Teaching people how to cope with stressful situations
• Giving people a clearer perspective on issues that may be stressing them
• Improving quality of life
• Helping to enhance the quality of sleep

Virtual yoga or stretching classes

Incorporating virtual yoga or stretching sessions into the workweek encourages movement and relaxation. These can be done during breaks or as part of a wellness hour to help relieve tension and improve posture for employees sitting at their desks for long periods.

There are several types of yoga, each with distinctive benefits. Hatha yoga, for example, focuses on improving breath control and flexibility. It uses poses that build muscle endurance while improving lung capacity.

Another example is hot yoga. This style of yoga uses heat and humidity to achieve maximum relaxation. Participants perform various poses for ninety minutes in hot conditions. It has numerous benefits, such as:

• Improving flexibility
• Improves cardiovascular function
• Reducing stress

Provide access to online learning and seminars

Online learning and seminars are the perfect opportunities to teach your employees soft skills. It’s also an extra advantage for your company as your people will grow in a fast-paced and ever-changing environment.

What’s more, online learning allows employees to pursue higher education in the comfort of their homes. Lastly, it improves employee engagement, which leads to higher retention rates.

Host cooking masterclasses

Host a virtual cooking activity where employees share their favorite recipes.

Sometimes, remote work can get hectic, making cooking a chore. However, our bodies need energy to function, and this fuel comes from food. So, neglecting essential tasks like cooking can negatively impact your health in the long run.

To combat this, hire a professional chef to guide employees through cooking classes. We recommend spacing the activities in weekly intervals to get enough time to apply the lessons.

Introduce an office cookbook

This activity is an excellent way to complement your cooking classes. Host an open forum where employees can share and teach new recipes. Make the activity more interactive by creating an office cookbook.

It’s the perfect way to foster collaboration, thereby improving office relations. In addition, employees get to share their cultures and heritage. This way, you bring people together, promoting good relations even outside of work.

Offer meal subscriptions

“What do I eat for lunch? What do I cook for dinner?” These are questions that most of us dread. Cooking every day can be a chore, especially when juggling work. So, do your workers a favor by offering meal subscriptions.

The best part is that meal planning services are available for people who either hate the hassle of cooking or simply cannot spare the time. A healthy diet is vital for good health and productivity.

Introduce comedy sessions

Studies show that laughing improves one’s immune function by releasing antibodies against infection. To add to that, laughing releases feel-good hormones called endorphins that reduce pain and improve your well-being.

Introduce open mic and stand-up sessions to your weekly meetings. Encourage employees to participate by offering incentives. For example, offer a bonus or reward for the employee who makes the best joke.

Incentives encourage more employees to participate, thereby improving teamwork among your workers. These comedy sessions help break the ice, creating a conducive environment where employees can be their true, authentic selves.

Play virtual games

Introducing interactive online games, whether cooperative or competitive, can give employees a fun and engaging break from their daily tasks. Games like virtual escape rooms or multiplayer trivia foster teamwork while lightening the mood.

Offer group therapy sessions

There are a lot of misconceptions about therapy. As a result, people are often reluctant to seek help whenever they encounter mental or emotional challenges. Take the initiative and demystify these stereotypes by introducing group therapy sessions.

Your employees are more likely to respond better to therapy if they attend sessions in pairs or groups. Create a safe space for them to discuss the challenges they face while working remotely.

Encourage them to share their experiences in both their professional and personal lives. You can also invite a licensed therapist or mental health professional to chair these forums. Your employees are more likely to participate when they have a qualified person to guide them through the process.

Add life coaching to your coaching programs

Consider providing life coaching classes for your remote employees as part of your out-of-the-box wellness ideas. These sessions will teach them how to:

• Improve their self-awareness
• Appreciate different perspectives
• Cultivate a healthy work-life balance
• Grow and maintain healthy relationships - in their professional and personal lives.

Teach financial education

Conversations about money and finances are usually sore topics for most. The lack of openness and conversation about the subject makes people prone to bad financial decisions. Bad credit statistics show that nearly 20% of Americans have a subprime credit score.

A solution is to introduce finance classes where you bring experts to talk to the employees. These classes will give them tips on:

• How to avoid debt and bankruptcy
• Improving credit
• How to create a reasonable budget and stick to it.

These lessons will help employees make better financial decisions and teach them essential skills such as investing and saving for retirement.

Host online book clubs

Hosting an online book club is another great addition to your list of wellness ideas for remote employees. It’s the ideal way to get them to socialize and make long-lasting friendships beyond work.

Book clubs have other proven benefits, such as:

• Improving skills such as creative writing and critical thinking
• Improving imagination
• Lowering stress levels
• Boosting teamwork and collaboration.

Create a buddy program

Put your remote workers in pairs through a buddy program. Pairing them up gives them a support system they can lean on whenever they’re going through tough times.

They get a safe space to share their wins, give progress updates, hold each other accountable, and even look for solutions together.

Introduce subsidies for health services

Some companies offer health benefits such as dental care, medical insurance, and life insurance. These perks are often a great incentive.

However, not all companies have the funds to provide these perks. Luckily, you can reach a middle ground by offering subsidies. It’s a great way to create a favorable working environment essential for productivity.

Encourage frequent breaks

It’s easy to lose track of time, especially when you’re working from home.

As such, you’re more likely to ignore breaks or even lose track of time altogether. Breaks are essential to employee wellness because:

• They’re a great way to decompress
• They’re excellent stress relievers
• They promote good health
• They improve productivity.

Encourage your employees to take regular short breaks every one to two hours. Five to ten-minute intermissions are perfect—they promote employee wellness while maintaining productivity.

Add virtual coffee breaks and social hours to teams’ calendars

Offering non-work-related social interactions like virtual coffee breaks, trivia games, or themed happy hours provides employees with the opportunity to connect informally, share experiences, and decompress.

Organize art therapy and creative workshops

Hosting virtual workshops where employees engage in creative activities like drawing, journaling, or crafting helps boost creativity and serves as an outlet for stress. These sessions can be a fun way to express emotions while building team cohesion.

Integrating these activities into your remote work culture can help employees better manage stress, stay connected, and maintain a healthier work-life balance. Regularly offering such activities signals that the company values employee well-being, resulting in higher morale and engagement across the team.

Promote virtual wellness and engagement with Deel Engage

Create a culture of wellness for your employees with key Deel Engage features:

• Create a psychologically safe space by checking in with employees through regular one-on-one meetings
• Take the pulse of your employees’ stress and satisfaction levels
• Help employees feel connected across your organization through programs that promote meaningful connections with their colleagues, managers, and senior leaders, whatever their background or location
• Offer access to diverse learning resources that can help employees build critical skills like resilience and stress management

Learn more about Deel Engage and how it can help you build a highly engaged and highly-performant workplace.