7 Unique Employee Wellness Ideas for Your Start-up

If you’re looking to fuel creativity, invest in employee happiness and strengthen your brand as an employer, your start-up needs to look beyond outdated wellness benefits that a lot of companies have traditionally relied on. If you were considering weekly (awkward) office yoga, this article is for you.

1- Brands Millennials Love

Millennials tend to be pretty loyal to the brands that they love. Offering those brands specifically is a very easy way to make employees fall in love with your own brand. RXBAR is a good example of a trendy snack. At Fitnescity, when we gave people the option of a sweetgreen salad for lunch, it immediately gave a whole new twist to office lunch/snacks.

2- Company-Sponsored Races

Rather than giving employees access to a gym (that they don’t use), organizing a 4-mile race with the help of a local running organization, such as NYRR in NYC, can create a sense community, while bringing together employees over a fun, healthy event. All you need to do is register your employees for the race, create some internal buzz around it, and voila!

3- Biomarker Data and Tech-Enabled Assessments

Your Millennial employees do not really need a traditional (and somewhat outdated) wellness provider, with blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, audio and vision screenings. Make it cool by giving them access to cutting-edge, tech-friendly biomarker testing, nutrition lab testing and full body scans.

See how Fitnescity can help.

4- Nutrition Workshop with 1-1 Dietary Analysis

There’s a lot of confusion today about nutrition: Keto? Intermittent Fasting? Mediterranean?

Bring in an expert to educate your employees with science-based facts on nutrition. Make it more personalized by adding as 1-1 Dietary Analysis.

5- High-Quality, Company-Branded Athletic Wear

If you’ve ever seen (and maybe talked with) someone at the gym who was wearing a shirt from your alma matter, then you get this point.

As more and more people socialize at gyms and studios, this trend is slowing becoming one of the most overlooked (and cost-effective) branding tactics for employers.


6- No Office Yoga, Please

If your employees spend most of their waking hours at the office, the last thing you want is for their only wellness moment to be.. at the office. If you’re looking to organize a team activity, book a Barry’s Bootcamp class (they recently launched an offering for employers), a spin class, or just hire a running coach to teach tips on how to run safely (outdoors, of course!)

7- Unhealthy Snack or Drink

This is probably one of least expected tips, especially from a fitness company :) It’s important to remember that wellness is all about balance. It’s not about starving yourself or blaming yourself if 20% of your meals are not “healthy.” At Fitnescity, we eat cake (yes, we do!) every time there’s a birthday celebration. Also, we always keep a bottle of champagne in the fridge, just in case we need it. (It’s a great motivation for reaching milestones!)

Tell us what has worked for your start-up in the comment box below: