The New Year is upon us, which means many will be considering their New Year’s resolutions, and naturally, self-care and becoming healthier remains top of the list for both men and women.
Sadly, for many of us who make resolutions for the New Year, a tiny percentage of people actually stick to them. The 19th of January, in fact, has been nicknamed ‘quitters day’ as it’s the most common day for people to give up on their resolution.
How Does This Work Itself Into Your Workplace?
At some point, you’ve probably read or heard about the rate of obesity or those who are overweight and how the workplace can impact this. Traditional desk roles and shift work require unconventional work hours and can force many individuals into unbreakable habits.
Fortunately, there are many resources out there that provide in-depth advice on how businesses can tackle poor health, not just on an individual’s BMI but also on their mental health, which can impact a person’s decision when it comes to deciding what to eat and drink.
As an employer, you can take certain steps to help employees stick to their New Year’s resolution and not just for January but the New Year and beyond.
Invest in Education Your Staff
A great first step to helping out your employees is education. By this, we don’t mean reading books on what you should and shouldn’t be eating but by understanding the basics of nutrition and how certain foods impact a person’s focus, lasting fullness, and overall health and wellbeing.
Sometimes certain decisions have to be made for us; this could come in banning unhealthy snacks during meetings. Instead of the usual biscuit selection, people can choose fruit or protein-rich foods – which keep us fuller for longer!
Another side of education is providing your employees with the necessary tools to make better decisions.
This could include better kitchen equipment, which allows them to cook or warm up homemade meals and keep food stored throughout the day if they want to snack – in which case, they may have prepared something already.
If you can’t squeeze in larger cooking facilities, table-top items such as smoothie makers, toasters, or even a microwave oven will still give them more opportunities to eat differently at work.
If, however, some workers don’t have the time to create extra food for the working day, there are other ways to incorporate good food decisions.
Modern-Day Vending Machines
Vending machines have long been associated with snacks, chocolates, fizzy pop, etc. but as time moves forward, so has the vending machine industry as it understands that people’s diets change, and so do their decisions.
You can now invest in healthy snack vending machines that can provide staff with substantial meals kept refrigerated and fresh until required. If you know most of your staff would rather stay on-site during their dinner, then go to the local supermarket, giving them a convenient but healthy alternative can do wonders for their health and morale.
Although most businesses may have a canteen area or shared kitchen space with sufficient room for cooking appliances, those who perhaps have neither of these but wish to provide other food alternatives could find healthy vending machines to be a great investment.
There’s More to Health Than Food
We say this because healthy food is just one part of your employees being able to stick to their New Year’s Resolution. The right liquids a person intakes daily can change their entire mindset, may it be they’re more focused or even feel fuller – because they weren’t actually hungry.
So, you’ve installed your healthy snack vending machine, but now your employees need a drink. What do they choose from? Fizzy drinks, energy drinks? Which as part of a balanced meal can be considered a treat.
However, when you get into the nitty-gritty, energy drinks, for example, mainly contain sugar and caffeine, sending your staff on a high before they crash and require more sugar and caffeine. In some cases, energy drinks have three to five times more caffeine than your average fizzy drinks.
As adults, we should be able to understand what this is doing to our bodies, but as previously mentioned, if you’re working unconventional hours and need something to kickstart your energy, this type of drink is an easy go-to.
But what about the simple staple of water. From 1.6 liters for women and 2 liters for men, when we consider the amount of tea, coffee, and fizzy drinks we have, a couple of liters of water a day should be easy, right?
Robinsons carried out their own survey to discover that around 62% of Brits are not drinking the recommended amount of water, mainly due to many of us finding water boring or disliking the taste.
Next time you hear a staff member complaining they have a headache or are feeling sleepy, ask them if they’ve drunk enough water – the answer will probably be no. This is a problem in itself, but business owners can make decisions to tackle this.
Getting Hydrated
Water coolers, fountains, and water vending machines are all products that are readily available to ensure your employees drink enough water throughout the working day. With water vending machines, staff can choose a water brand they would prefer to drink instead of the water that comes already with fountains and coolers.
You may also want to consider providing your staff with hot drinks, which can also provide benefits for your employees. It was recently surveyed that many workers would enjoy a barrister style coffee at work instead of the usual instant coffee.
Coffee vending machines are more than capable of this by offering staff a variety of coffee styles such as latte’s, cappuccinos, and even hot chocolate and tea.
Of course, coffee isn’t always the healthiest option. Still, it has been a beverage that has received a significant amount of research over its existence and has been discovered to offer some positive benefits to our mind and body.
New Year’s resolution – DepositPhotos
