This is Part 3 of a 3-part Series: The Non-negotiables of a Breakroom.

Creating a modern, inviting breakroom for employees is essential for maintaining an efficient, productive workplace. You first have to ask yourself, what is the point of a breakroom?  A break room is a designated area where employees can take a break from their daily tasks. It is a place where they can socialize with co-workers and relax. A break room allows workers to re-energize and refresh. It can also be used as a space to collaborate, share ideas, and work on projects together.

In talking with some of the experts in the field, there seems to be 3 “must have” aspects to consider when you are creating a break room that employees will love and appreciate. 

Fun

The more serious your work is, the more you need to have fun on your breaks. 

• A great way to unwind and destress is to play games. Pool tables, air hockey, darts and other interactive games can add a greater physical element to sideline stress and help employees regain focus.  
• If space is limited, consider having a community puzzle everyone can work on, or a community white board where a trivia question is posed or a story is started and each person adds a word.
• Decorations for the season, events and holidays; a bulletin board with an employee highlight of the month: favorite foods, pets, family, hobbies.

Functional

Quick – what are the top three things you think when you hear the words “take a break”? 

• Put your feet up and relax
• Have a cup of exceptional, fresh coffee
• Grab a snack or some lunch

If your break room allows for those three, you have yourself a functional break room.  But don’t stop there!  There’s coffee… and then there’s coffee. Is your break room truly a place where people can go to relax, or are there TVs blaring & fluorescent lights glaring? Are the fridge, microwave, and coffee pot clean?  Is it a place where people can enjoy their lunch, helping your employees to “rest & digest”?  Your answers to these questions will help you determine if your break room is serving its intended purpose or not.  
At garten, visual merchandising is a cornerstone of our brand experience. We’ve built our experience to influence healthy and productive decisions, while making it a place where your team can connect, refuel, and relax. We always use the best materials, natural elements, varied textures and eye-catching pieces.  Let us know how we can help you design a functional break room that ticks all the boxes!

reFreshing

Ultimately, if you are not walking away from your break feeling refreshed and ready for another round of work, then there is room for improvement.  We at garten put the emphasis on “fresh”.  You can’t “re” fresh without it.  And, when we think fresh, we think of food.  You have to ask yourself if the snacks available in the break room are reflecting this ideal.  When your employees eat from the food that is available, will they tank 90 minutes later?  Will their blood sugar crash from the rushed energy buzz they get from over-processed, sugar high carbs?  Or will they stay steady through the afternoon by having a balance of healthy carbs, good fat, and high quality protein?

When we asked, “What are ‘must-haves’ in a Fun, reFreshing, and Functional break room?”, the answer was fresh healthy food providing energy to get through the day.  But variety is also key, keeping the selection fresh and seasonal as well, with great merchandising to draw the eye in and options that are healthier overall.  That’s why, at garten, we are committed to providing the best training for our partners that aligns with the “look and feel” of the vision of the program through 3 different avenues:

1. In-Office Kitchen: One solution for offering employees healthy food during work hours is to have an in-office kitchen. This kitchen can be equipped with a refrigerator, microwave, and other appliances that allow employees to prepare their own meals. Having an in-office kitchen also allows for the implementation of a company-wide initiative to reduce processed and unhealthy food options.
2. Catered Meals: Another solution is to offer catered meals for employees during work hours. Garten works with local catering companies that specialize in healthy and nutritious meals. This option can be especially beneficial for companies that have a high employee turnover rate or for those who have employees that work long hours.
3. Employee Education: A third solution is to offer employee education on healthy eating. This can be done through our self-serve garten Experiences platform with workshops, seminars, or online resources. By educating employees on the importance of healthy eating and providing them with the tools and resources they need to make healthier food choices, companies can create a culture of health and wellness.  From a recent nutrition class held, “Janine was well knowledgeable about nutrition and Nuance employees had wonderful feedback!”. 

Overall, by providing employees with these non-negotiable resources, companies can improve employee productivity, reduce absenteeism, and promote a culture of health and wellness. It’s important to remember that different solutions will work better for different companies and it’s important to find the right combination of solutions that work best for your organization and employees.  Let us know how we can help!

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In most cases what’s good for the individual employee is good for the organization. When the organization cares for its employees – the employees are simply more open to using their discretionary effort to care for the organization. 

This observation comes from direct experience, and it holds up.

After all, an organization is made up of individuals – all with energy, all with emotion and all with a desire to do great things. 

However, in the post-pandemic era, it has become increasingly clear that employees’ well-being has taken a significant hit. Burnout looks to be at an all-time high and doesn’t seem to be getting any better with the chaos/confusion surrounding a return to the office and a potential recession staring us in the face.

What can we do? It Starts With You.

As leaders, I believe we have a 2-part obligation 

a) To be at our best  

b) To create an environment where everyone can be at their best 

I’ve thought about, researched, and tried several things that will build well-being into your culture. As I list them below, please remember what they say on the airplane…put your mask on first…meaning, wellbeing at your organization starts with you. 

Leaders hold the vision of what is possible. To create a company fueled from wellbeing, you first have to live it. It truly does start with you. 

5 Practical Steps Toward Workplace Wellbeing

#1 Priorities – Stop sacrificing ourselves

Trying to have energy like a superhero and being at your best are different things: When did “I was working on this until 4:00 am” actually become a badge of honor? I get the hustle – in fact, I’m all about hustling. And grit. However, hustling until the middle of the night isn’t something to brag about. “Pulling an all-nighter” is better left to college students who sleep until noon the next day. 

What if we changed the mindset FROM one of being obligated to sacrifice your own health with long nights TO one where wellbeing is good for the company? Instead of being obligated to sacrifice your personal health to get the work done, the obligation is to care for your wellbeing because that’s what success is built on. The company needs productive, high-performing people so the obligation is to stop working and get some rest.

Ideas for application:
Companies can implement more strict working hours to ensure employees are getting enough rest. Offering flexible or unlimited PTO, or switching to a 4-day work week, like garten has, can ensure productivity in the office is optimized and employees are getting enough rest.

#2 Food – Prioritize food because it’s what we’re made of

It always comes down to the food: As someone who has been watching my weight almost my whole life, eating right was very discouraging. Then I learned about using food to propel me forward in almost every aspect of my life and something clicked for me. Food is directly correlated to the energy I have and the work I’m able to produce. When I eat better, I feel better and therefore I produce better results. Sounds reasonable, right? 

YET…I worked for a large company not too long ago that subsidized their food service/cafeteria. Every day there was a ‘special’ that was usually heavy. Heavy protein, heavy sauce, heavy carbs, maybe some veggies… and a sugary dessert.  

Trying to do a good thing by creating affordable meals was actually detrimental to the health and wellbeing (and definitely productivity) of their employees. People would eat the special and wonder why they were dozing off during their afternoon calls/meetings. It’s called a ‘sugar crash’ and we’ve all heard of it. 

The food doesn’t have to be limiting, doesn’t have to taste bad, and it’s absolutely more than salads. In fact, it can be delicious, fresh and energizing – so when we go back to work we are no longer exhausted – instead, we are ready to take on the world.

Ideas for application:
Companies like garten can offer better-for-you catering & snacks in the office. Nutrient-dense, low sugar & simple carbohydrate food options can prevent the mid-day slump.

#3 Sleep – Everything we do improves with adequate sleep

It’s funny the way we can think biology doesn’t apply: For those with young children, it is obvious how important sleep is to feel great (or simply functional).  Remember how it was before children…you went to sleep and then you woke up – after 7 or 8 hours, feeling refreshed. The point is, lack of sleep leaves negative impacts everywhere. 

Let’s all agree to never police how many hours of sleep employees get. Instead, the magic comes from changing the culture around self-sacrifice for the sake of “productivity.” Setting the conditions for a successful career AND enough sleep is what business leaders can strive for. 

Improving sleep not only helps employees succeed at work, but it is also foundational to enjoying the rest of life. If we recognize that a company is made up of the individuals who work there, we’ll want to take note. 

Ideas for application:
Providing employees with times of day for purposeful pauses – of rest and relaxation – can help employees take a break, even nap when they are low on sleep. When working from home, you can offer more flexibility in scheduling to allow sufficient sleep for employees. This is something garten implements 2x times daily.

#4 Movement – Moving our bodies improves cognitive work

After all, the brain is connected to the body: I love to exercise. Actually, that’s not exactly true. I love how I feel after I work out. That feeling of finishing a tough hike, a workout using heavy weights, or crossing the finish line on the 5K (or 10K, or more…). 

There seems to be a direct correlation between how sweaty I am and how accomplished I feel. But, I learned something else during the pandemic…I learned that walking, just moving, is sometimes all we need to clear our brains and get rid of some stress. I mean, I always knew this intellectually – but during the pandemic – especially at the beginning – there was so much stress. There was so much unknown that I was able to feel it coming on in my body. I learned that when I started to feel that way, the best thing I could do for myself was go outside and take a walk. I walked a lot in March, April, and May of 2020. Just moving our bodies seems to give our brains a rest. It allows us time to take a few deep breaths and move forward.  

Ideas for application:
Providing employees with times of day for purposeful pauses – for walks, yoga, or movement – can help break up the monotony of meetings and improve employee performance. Think about offering a yoga or workout Zoom class to your employees, such as the garten Experiences team events. 

#5 Being intentional – Video calls aren’t the same as in-person meetings – we can experiment to find what works for our teams

Don’t treat a Zoom call like an in-person meeting: Why bring people together if they are going to be staring at a zoom screen? 

I love being with people face to face – problem-solving, thinking out loud, innovating, and collaborating. And while some of that can happen on a video call (or even less on the telephone), the magic just isn’t the same. There are plenty of things we can/should do that do not require facetime with anyone. Experiment with your team to find the right balance.

For this hybrid strategy to work, leaders need to understand exactly what our people are doing and parse the work accordingly. 

Ideas for application:
Companies should create hybrid policies around when it’s completely necessary to have employees come into the office.

Wellbeing Is A Great Investment 

My company wants long term performance and I imagine yours does too. To support long term performance, we must invest our focus into building systems that correlate with human biology. The fundamental issue is when company culture expects sustained productivity at the expense of wellbeing. 

Instead, let’s use these 5 steps as a guide to make the culture at our companies compatible with long-term productivity. 

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” 

-African proverb 

The definition of a company is going together. It’s time to start thinking and acting in ways that support productivity on the foundation of wellbeing. 

—

Alicia Mandel has 30+ years of experience in high-profile companies as a thought leader in learning and leadership development, change management, organizational development, executive coaching, and workplace culture. As the Chief People Officer of garten, she puts her expertise to use working with leaders of organizations that want/need to make a change. She coaches high-potential and high-performing leaders to remove barriers to success. 

Today Alicia lives in Phoenix and enjoys traveling to see her clients all over the country. She has two adult (sort of) children – a 21-year-old son and an 18-year-old daughter. She has two dogs and enjoys a great glass of wine (or bourbon) as much as a great workout.

The post Building Wellbeing Into Your Culture To Improve Productivity Starts With You: 5 things business leaders need to do appeared first on garten.

In a nutshell, first principles thinking is asking questions with the purpose of uncovering your assumptions. Assumptions have a way of proving themselves wrong in spectacular ways. 

James Clear describes it this way,

“In theory, first principles thinking requires you to dig deeper and deeper until you are left with only the foundational truths of a situation… In practice, you don’t have to simplify every problem down to the atomic level to get the benefits of first principles thinking. You just need to go one or two levels deeper than most people. Different solutions present themselves at different layers of abstraction.”

Source: https://jamesclear.com/first-principles

First principles thinking is a way to be more objective, which is why its insights are so valuable. 

Turning First Principles thinking from products to personnel 

It’s great that Elon Musk can use first principles thinking to reduce the cost of a rocket and end up creating Space X. But what could happen if we stop thinking about how to make a product and instead apply first principles thinking to the people who actually create the product. 

Now we’re really using first principles!

Here is the thought process:

• Companies are completely dependent upon their human workforce
• Human beings are biological life
• Chronic stress has MANY well-understood, negative effects on biological life
• Chronic stress has MANY well-understood, negative effects on cognitive performance 
• Therefore, a reduction in chronic stress and/or greater resilience will positively influence both the human workforce and the company

How much better can your company perform when you implement smart practices that create an environment for productive creativity?

Where is first principles thinking for supporting your workforce? 

A core belief at garten is that aligning your company’s systems and policies with whole-person wellbeing is foundational to getting the most out of your business.

It is an impossibility to get the best out of employees who are tired, overworked, stressed, and physically declining. 

The problem is that we don’t use first principles to think about the human beings making the whole operation work. A high salary alone cannot offset growing daily stress. 

Which employee will be a better investment?

One who is working in a state of stress, overwhelm, diminishing energy, and diminishing motivation

OR

One who is holistically supported to the level they are expected to produce 

Before, the idea was to hire high performers and motivate them with money, responsibility, promotions, etc. which add stress. What’s more, taking care of yourself was seen as becoming soft. 

What we observe is that nowhere in the natural world does this approach turn out well. 

Instead, the natural world thrives when the surrounding conditions are right. But what do we see at large in the corporate world?

• Burnout
• Stress
• Long hours
• Sacrificing your personal health 

garten is helping business leaders challenge the prevailing paradigm of productivity. We believe that your company will be more productive by addressing 3 overlapping areas of holistic wellbeing: mind, body, and environment. 

Getting started in a practical way is incredibly simple. Start with higher-quality food and drinks. 

Foundational things are simple. And simple is powerful. 

Why Invest In Workplace Wellbeing?

Investors make money by spotting trends and capitalizing on them. Can you spot the trend from these two numbers?

The data is clear, the state of whole-person health is greatly affecting the cost of doing business.

The good news is that implementing smart practices can directly combat many of these rising costs while simultaneously creating a workplace environment that attracts and retains top performers. 

From looking at the data with our own clients, we’ve seen that a $1 investment in corporate wellbeing yields an ROI of $5.81 primarily because of increased productivity, reduced absenteeism, and lowered healthcare costs. 

Taking care of your people isn’t simply a conscientious thing to do, it is one of the smartest investments companies aren’t making. 

The post The Smart Investment Companies Aren’t Making appeared first on garten.

Help with their education

Many employers choose to help their workers fund their higher learning experience if it applies to their job, or if it could help them secure a promotion. You might offer tuition assistance, or match a certain amount. With a Bachelor of Science in Accounting, your employees can learn accounting and auditing skills that will help your business run efficiently, and there are several programs available online that will ensure they can keep working while earning their degree from the comfort of their own homes. Talk to your employees to find out what their goals are, whether they would be interested in pursuing a degree if they have assistance, and how you can make this move mutually beneficial.

Focus on health

While helping your employees reach their goals is important, it’s also a good idea to give them the tools to boost their wellness at work. Sometimes it’s the small things that make a big impact, such as offering water, coffee, tea, and productivity-boosting snacks. You can also go a little bigger and create a wellness initiative that will help everyone make movement a priority, especially if they sit at a desk most of the day. You could even provide standing desks, yoga classes, or health videos that can be accessed anytime. garten offers these through their own channel. Not only does focusing on the health of your employees help them take action for their own benefit, it shows them that you’re invested in their wellbeing.

Keep their mental health in mind

Physical health is important, but it’s crucial not to underestimate how big an impact a person’s mental health has on their ability to do their job efficiently. It’s extremely challenging to focus on work when there are family problems going on at home, or when financial troubles are causing stress. The best way to assist your workers with their mental wellbeing is two-pronged: offer things like paid time off, child care assistance, counseling services, and remote work opportunities; and follow up with them in a private meeting. Let them know that you care about what they’re going through, and remind them that they are part of a team that will support them with you.

Recognize hard work

Your employees work hard for you everyday, and while offering perks is a great incentive, it’s also important for you to recognize specific achievements. You don’t have to spend a ton of money to make someone feel great about a success; you might work shout-outs into your team calls, or take them out to lunch. If you do want to go bigger, you can put together prizes or trophies to hand out at company-wide events, or surprise your team with a party. Recognizing your employees for all the good they do is a great way to boost team morale and keep them on track.

 Finding new ways to offer creative benefits to your workers doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming. Remember that sometimes, it’s about the small things. Keeping communication open with your team will help you learn more about their needs as you move forward.

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Listen to the podcast below:

Original content can be found on the Authentic Avenue page.

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When it comes to healthy eating at work, employees at most companies are hindered by limited choices and poor habits. According to a recent survey from CareerBuilder, “nearly half of U.S. workers (45 percent) believe they’ve gained weight at their present jobs. Of these workers, 1in 4 say they’ve gained at least 10 pounds in their current position, and 1 in 10 say they’ve gained 20 or more.”

The good news is that office cultures are shifting and companies are now recognizing the role they play in the health of their employees. Employers are beginning to realize that health status not only affects individuals but also have an impact on the entire company’s bottom-line. The CDC estimates that productivity losses due to missed work cost employers $225.8 billion, or $1,685 per employee annually. Unfortunately, employers don’t know how to start or what is the best approach to bringing wellness into the workplace. We believe you should start by making healthy food and snacks a benefit.

When employees are busy and on the go, they tend to eat what is quick and convenient. This often means hitting up the vending machines which are filled with sugar-packed and nutrient-void drinks, snacks, and candy. In order to encourage better eating, consider increasing healthier convenient options and offer it fully, or even partially, subsidized as part of your company benefits. Employees will feel supported by their employer and be incentivized to make better choices, leading to a more healthy and productive workforce.  Truly a win-win situation. 

At garten, we understand the wellbeing of your employees matters now more than ever. We take a holistic approach to wellbeing founded on mind, body, and environment. We strive to offer programs that attract and retain talent, keep teams healthier, and bring more creativity into the workplace, wherever that workplace happens to be.

Be sure to join our community on Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, and Twitter. 

Find us as @getgarten

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At garten, our vision is to bring a modern approach to workplace wellbeing. We are focused on developing and delivering innovative offerings that support companies’ efforts to invest in employee experience. While at Perks NYC, garten presented how we are pivoting to support employee wellbeing through the impact of the pandemic. Please view our Perks NYC presentation, “Workplace Wellbeing: Supporting the Remote Workforce” led by Senior Director of Marketing Gary Batara. 

Like garten, HR professionals know that employee experience is the energy that drives the pulse of a company, the manifestation of company culture and organizational values. Studies reveal that companies who are known to foster a great employee experience, one that taps into overall employee wellbeing, through attentiveness to their mind, body, and environment needs, also tend to deliver an exceptional customer experience.   

Traditionally, the employee experience is fostered, in large part, by employees coming together and engaging in team-building activities, whether that is as low-key as a one-on-one meeting with their manager or a colleague or a company-wide event, humans are social creatures. Remote working presents challenges to building and maintaining meaningful relationships in the same way that working on-site allows. It’s difficult to foster a great employee experience and generate enthusiasm about company culture without ample social engagement.

Despite the challenges, there are benefits that have come with this shift to remote work for both employees and the companies. While companies may have initially shifted to remote work with safety and compliance as their top priority, they are also experiencing sizable cost savings benefits, as well as other advantages such as an expanded talent pool. 

The uncertainty of our future, along with these silver lining benefits, are prompting HR leaders to think long-term about the shift to a remote workforce and how to solve for the challenges and potential negative impact on the employee experience.

Garten is asking these same questions, for their own workforce as well as their clients’. At garten, our innovative offerings help to attract and retain talent, keep teams healthier, and bring more creativity into the workplace. Overall employee wellbeing, with attentiveness to mind, body, and environment, it’s what we do – workplace wellbeing for every employee, even when the workplace is also their home.

If you’re looking for a way to adapt to the change of your employees working remotely, wondering how to still keep them engaged and provide a great employee experience, please visit us at https://garten.co to join the conversation. 

blog post written by Kathleen Donnelly

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