3 Stress-Reducing Tactics for You and Your Employees

Don’t let stress make you a mess! Stressors in daily life are abundant and have been exacerbated for many as a result of the events over the last year. With a constant build up or lingering of stress, it can be easy to let one bad phone call, email, or interaction sour the rest of your day. But that doesn’t have to be the case. The following tips are opportunities for engagement and can assist you and your employees in finding some clarity and peace.

1. Start Meetings with a Clear Mind.

Ask managers to start their meetings with a focus on mental health “sponsored” by a Virgin Pulse Healthy Habit. One popular way to do this is to have them lead a few deep breaths with the group which pairs nicely with the Relaxation Breathing Habit of taking 3 deep breaths. Other healthy habits within the Reducing Stress topic that could be incorporated into a call or meeting are Calming Music and Laugh It Off. Calming music could be used to gather everyone’s attention and set the tone for the meeting. Likewise, telling a joke, sharing a funny story, or even playing a humorous video clip could be used to ease any tension prior to a meeting.

2. Empathize with Your Employees.

Send a company-wide email to let everyone know that WE are all going through a trying time. Everyone deals with stress a bit differently, but there are healthy outlets that can positively change your outlook in a matter of minutes. This email would be a great opportunity to promote the Reducing Stress Journey topic to your employees as a resource. The Reducing Stress Journey topic has five different Journeys including Choose a New Attitude, Find Your Focus, Make Time for Play, Stress Less in 10 Minutes, and Three Ways to Lower Stress - all meaningful Journeys to help manage or reduce stress.

3. Increase Rewards for Activities Focused on Mental Wellbeing.

To convey the importance of mental wellbeing, have you thought about incentivizing for activities centered on the topic? Rewarding members for completing destress-centered Healthy Habits, Journeys, and self-led actions can help drive participation in them. For example, add an action reward so that members receive points for tracking a “Mindful Moment" Healthy Habit for 20 days in a month. The 20-day threshold is a sustaining behavior reward that helps further build the habit over time (20 days), creating a lasting change that sticks.

Bonus Tip: Run your next Double Points Campaign with

mental wellbeing in mind!

Running a double points campaign for a month is a great way to boost participation on the platform by rewarding double points for completing a specific action (mentioned above) on the platform. 

About the Author

Luke Staebell is a Wellness Coordinator on the State of Ohio account. He is a native Ohioan and received his bachelor’s in Exercise Science from Bowling Green State University and a master’s degree in Recreation Administration from the University of Toledo. He is also a certified personal trainer, group exercise instructor, and Sports Performance Specialist. Luke has extensive experience working with a wide range of individuals in different corporate wellness settings. His personal stance on wellness is that everyone can improve themselves in some way.