It’s time to change up the office routine and enjoy some summer-time fun in the workplace! 

• Plan activities that take advantage of the summer weather allowing employees to step away from their computers. 
• Organize activities personalized to your employees current interests. Keeping in mind not all may want to participate and ensure activities will not create a liability for your company (ie. allowing alcohol). 

A good outing engages employees at the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual levels. Emotional activities help connect employees to their job and your organization’s values. Activities that engage employees on the emotional level give opportunities to get to know your employees on a personal level. Help celebrate work/life balance with mental-level activities that stimulate the mind and spark creativity. The last level to consider for activities is the spiritual level, where employees work together towards a shared responsibility. Fitting activities to consider are: 

• Ice cream social
• Lunch out
• End of workday family visit party
• Work walking groups
• Outdoor patio gathering
• Park outing
• Cook-off
• Scavenger hunt
• Company softball/kickball game
• Attend a sporting event
• Break-room games
• Hike
• Boat cruise
• Kayak/Canoe/Tube
• Go-kart race
• 5K race event
• Volunteer at a local school
• Work in a community garden
• Mentor students

The focus of summer activities should be to unite your employees, not make them feel excluded or uncomfortable. While creating and implementing meaningful company experiences is a time investment, it is balanced with the benefits of more productive, engaged, and loyal employees. With preparation and clear policies, you can keep your employees safe, while enjoying special summer perks.

Be smart and keep your workplace safe and fun this summer. Workplace summer safety includes preparing for weather-related disasters and preventing heat-related illness. As an employer, it is your responsibility to train employees on severe weather plans and provide necessary emergency supplies. See the “Natural disasters and weather workplace preparedness” graphic below for information about how to train your employees for earthquakes, floods, heat, hurricanes, lighting, tornadoes, and wildfires.

While OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) does not specifically have federal regulations to maintain a certain workplace temperature, the General Duty Clause, sections 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act requires a work environment that “is free from recognizable hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious harm to employees.” The recommended temperature range is 68-76°F and humidity range is 20-60%. Be aware that California, Washington, and Minnesota each have heat-stress standards that you must follow if conducting business in these states.

Certain jobs and locations put employees at greater risk of heat-related illness. At-risk jobs include agriculture, construction workers, emergency response, indoor employees in bulky clothing using heavy equipment, landscaping, oil and gas operations, transportation, and utility. At-risk locations that need reduction in heat via air conditioning and ventilation include but are not limited to boiler rooms, chemical plants, commercial kitchens, factories, food canneries, and laundries. Be especially mindful when the heat index risk level is moderate or higher; see the chart below for heat indices and protective measures. More than half of heat-related employee deaths occur within the first three days on the job. As employees return to work after COVID-19 kept them away, employers need to provide safety refreshers and time to acclimate.

Implement a heat-stress program to educate employees how to prevent, recognize, and treat signs of heat-related illness. To prevent heat illness, have employees drink a cup of water every 15-20 minutes. Require frequent breaks in the shade or air-conditioning. Encourage or provide employees to wear appropriate attire, such as hats, light-colored and light-weight clothing, breathable/wicking clothing, ice-packet vests, and heat-reflective attire. Allow them to work during cooler, less humid times of the day. Ask employees to download the OSHA’s heat safety tool on their phones. Use the chart below created from the CDC guidance to recognize symptoms and how to treat heat-illnesses.

Another factor to consider this summer is that wearing masks can intensify heat-related illness by trapping hot air and making it difficult to breathe. Be mindful of those that continue to wear a mask, whether by choice or necessity. With preparation and clear policies, you can keep your employees safe, while enjoying special summer perks.

There are similarities and differences in all facets of your employees’ lives. Diversity in the workplace is more than racial differences. Common aspects of diversity include, but are not limited to: accent, age, disability, ethnicity, family status, sex, gender identity/expression, introvert vs extrovert, language, neurodiversity, physical characteristics, political preference, race/color, religion/belief/spirituality, sexual orientation, veteran status, and weight.

Our recent work-from-home (WFH) global shift creates space for more diversity in the workforce, as people who were unable to work in a traditional setting are now being included, which strengthens your organization. WFH naturally removes location bias and increases an organization’s geographical diversity, which can broaden diversity in age, culture, ethnicity, gender, mobility challenges, race, and sexual orientation. Instead of focusing on hiring those who “fit” your company’s culture, shift to a “culture add” mindset; look for potential employees who expand your company’s outlook.

Prejudices hamper growth, while diversity fights unconscious bias. Ultimately, embracing diversity in the workplace allows organizations to develop creative solutions that relate to our diverse world. McKinsey’s research shows that ethnically diverse and gender-diverse companies perform 35% and 15% better than peer companies, respectively. Fostering an inclusive, diverse organization improves company culture, employee retention, and engagement. Increased employee engagement can lead to collaboration, communication, and ultimately company success. As employees with a variety of skills work together, they generate innovative ideas that are productive, progressive, and profitable. A diverse workforce’s insights into a range of clients and their needs helps your organization thrive. Ultimately, this appreciation of your customer base improves employer brand and global reputation.

Does your business/organization have a DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) plan? A quality DEI encompasses diversity in work styles, characteristics, and experiences that set employees apart. Your organization needs to learn how to leverage these attributes in conjunction with your business objectives. A team composed of individuals with diverse attributes, insights, and work practices will be more prosperous.  However, DEI is not a one-off training; it is continuous education that evolves with your employees and organization. It takes years to build a strong DEI program and there are specialists who can help you. HR Synergy encourages you to reach out to these specialists to create and implement your company’s DEI plan. 

If you are unsure how to navigate more diverse hiring practices, HR Synergy is happy to help you. Click here to contact us.

Workplace wellness is in the forefront of your employees’ minds. You can RETAIN and ATTRACT employees with holistic wellness programs. Especially now during the pandemic, 90% of millennials want training on their mental, physical, and financial health, aka integrative health benefits. Employee stressors impact your bottom line. Whereas, connecting employees and your business’s mission through initiatives empowers your employees, raises engagement, improves productivity, and can lead to retention. Integrative health benefits are a key to attract new employees and are a major factor in retention for 56% of employees. Healthier employees over six years also correlate with up to 75% greater stock appreciation. Bringing integrative health benefits to your employees gives you a return-on-investment (ROI) by reducing days lost per year to illness. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), every $1 invested in employee mental healthcare, gives a $4 return in productivity (via reduction in healthcare premiums and absenteeism), over a 400% ROI.

Keys to develop successful integrative care:

1. 1. 1. 1. Hybrid offerings
         2. Eligibility/voluntary EAP (employee assistance program)
         3. Streamline access
         4. Inform

It is important your business’s integrative care is accessible, streamline, and transparent. Including digital and physical integrative care through a hybrid model during this time of increased work-from-home employees is important. It is crucial to include full-time and part-time employees as well in the programs. You can provide services to part-time employees, employee’s family members, and employees under different health plans through a voluntary employee assistance program (EAP). Over half of Americans have misconceptions about what benefits and programs are offered, specifically mental health care. You want your employees to be able to easily access and use the programs offered through a single platform. Incentive programs and wellness challenges are a wonderful way to educate employees on offerings and about the platform itself. Have the employees use the platform itself to track their wellness challenge points. To increase visibility, have employees include a link to the wellness platform in their internal email signatures. Incentivize participation by offering health-related prizes, like money added to their health spending account.

Employee Wellness Challenge Ideas:

• • Stair Challenges: bell at top for encouragement
  • Walking Challenges: step number or distance
  • Habit-Building Challenges: water consumption, sleep hours, mindfulness
  • New Hire Exploration Challenge: organizational culture, important locations
  • Nutrition Challenges: healthy free group lunches, “accountability partners”, live/virtual nutrition webinars/seminars
  • Financial Wellness Challenges: education
  • Sustainability Challenges: personal health and environmental health
  • Charity Challenges: monetary, item, volunteer time donations
  • Vacation Exploration Challenge: encourage use of PTO
  • Social Challenge: community-building virtually/live

In order to build your wellness workplace, you need to plan, allocate, and execute. An effective plan requires employee buy-in. Once you have earned that, determine how everyone will track their initiative activity and determine what workplace improvements fit with your organization. Through a survey and initial biometric readings, chart the most pervasive health risks and access employees’ ideas for office enhancements. Next, decide leaders for your initiatives and for your workplace enrichments. Implement the wellness challenges and workplace improvements. Lastly, create and utilize a tool to assess employees’ health and wellness advancements due to your wellness program.