Summer Wellness Programs Are FunSummer is just around the corner and with it comes the sun, vacationing, BBQs, and school break for kids! To this day, most of us still experience that childhood, “school’s out” feeling on the first sunny day of the year. The downside is, that with that feeling comes decreased employee productivity and increased vacation time. It’s extremely important that wellness programs do not suffer during warmer months, as wellness campaigns should not be limited to cold and flu season. Summer is fun—take advantage of it with summer wellness programs while educating employees that the heat poses its own health risks.

If you’ve been racking your brain trying to come up with fun campaign ideas for the summer, stop right now! We’ve done the brainstorming for you and we’ve got you covered! Many of these campaigns have been utilized by our clients and proven to be extremely successful in making employees feel valued, incentivized, and ultimately, healthy.

What To Do?

Offer sun protection. Everyone loves free stuff! So, why not hand out branded, keychain sized sunblock that employees can bring everywhere? If you want to do something else to promote sun safety, provide UV blocking sunglasses, visors, aloe, or hats. Take it a step further by including a postcard with the dangers of sun exposure and the benefits of utilizing the product offered.

Keep employees hydrated. While we are talking about freebees, offering branded water bottles is an excellent way to ensure employees are keeping hydrated both in the office and outdoors. Utilizing the aforementioned postcard idea, include one with tips for avoiding heat exhaustion and dehydration on extremely hot days.

Offer fresh seasonal fruits. Once a month, or biweekly in the summer months, offer cooling, seasonal fruits such as fresh berries, cantaloupe, watermelon, grapes, peaches and more. There are many delivery services that offer this, or if you are close to local farms, support local businesses while feeding your employees healthy snacks!

Make a game of it! Health challenges are a great way to keep employees engaged – plus, they’re fun! There are plenty of ways to make them exciting, including points for participating in summer activities such as swimming, hiking, walking, eating servings of fruit and more. We like to call our summer health challenge the “Funner Summer Challenge,”. You can check out this and all of our challenges here.

You can also host an “Olympic Day” at the office or off-site with team games – making employees get into the team spirit while getting physical activity in! These types of events are fun because family members can participate as well!

We also love the idea of culinary competitions – and they don’t have to be limited to unhealthy snacks. See who can make the most creative salad or sculpt a watermelon in the most artistic way!

Offer Summer Fridays and encourage vacations. Now that you’ve equipped your employees with sun protection, healthy snacks, and physical activities, give them a little break to use their positive energy with their families. “Summer Fridays” are becoming extremely popular—especially in large metropolitan areas like New York City.

As things slow down in the summer months, increase employee morale by offering early dismissal on Fridays. If you’re not comfortable doing so every week, offer it a one or two Fridays per month. And don’t forget to encourage vacations – your employees deserve it, and they will come back feeling rejuvenated and productive!

There are a ton of fun and cost effective ways to keep employees health conscious and engaged in the summer. Wellness campaigns that are fun, incentivized, and that show appreciation are proven to be the most effective ones of all. If you like one of these ideas, but you are not sure how to execute it, feel free to reach out to us directly—we can help customize your campaign!

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