Corporate Wellbeing Employee Engagement Employee Experience Employee Wellbeing Best Practices

6 Ways to Engage Your People in Q3: International Self-Care Day, Hispanic Heritage Month, HR Appreciation Day & More! 

Jul 05, 2023

Summer is here and, for many of your employees, this means more time outdoors, traveling, and soaking up the sun.  
 

To help your people start the second half of the year strong, we’re sharing 5 tangible ways to engage employees in Q3 around health and wellbeing. Don’t forget to bookmark this when planning ahead for next year! Let’s get into it… 

  • Protect Your Skin This UV Safety Month (July) 

1 in 5 Americans will develop skin cancer by the age of 70. 

In North America, the UV rays of the sun are strongest this time of year, which means it’s extra important to protect your skin if you plan to spend time outside. Yes, to prevent that painful first sunburn of the summer, but also to reduce your risk of more serious conditions, including skin cancer.  

What can you do as an employer to ramp up your preventative care efforts this quarter? A good place to start is advocating for regular screenings. All screenings are extremely important, but this UV Safety Month, remind your people to see a dermatologist at least once a year for a professional skin exam. 

💡 Bonus tip: Consider offering flexible scheduling or additional time off for employees to attend routine appointments. You can also negotiate with insurance providers to cover these screenings as part of the company health plan or offer a wellness program with a screening component. 

  • Share Your Self-Care Tips for International Self-Care Day (July 24) 

In need of some extra self-care? Who isn’t!  

In a culture focused on hustle and productivity, it’s crucial to take a step back to care for our mind, body, and spirit. This June, Virgin Pulse celebrated the 15th Annual Employee Wellbeing Month where we encouraged our employees, clients, and community to #ShowUsYourWellbeing.  

Check out some of their self-care non-negotiables below… 

International Self-Care Day (July 24) and Self Care Awareness Month (September) are great opportunities to lean on your wellbeing partners. Here are a few resources from our ecosystem partners you can use, too:  

💡 Bonus tip: Ask your employees what self-care means to them and share their responses on your internal website or social media channels. By encouraging employees, especially your leaders, to talk more about these topics, you’ll create a culture of care and help reduce burnout. 

  • Honor Diverse Cultures for Hispanic Heritage Month (September) 

One in four U.S. newborns are Hispanic and with a total buying power of $1.9 trillion, the Hispanic and Latino community plays a large role in shaping our world. Start planning now how your organization will recognize Hispanic & Latino Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15. 

Lasy year, we collaborated with our Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion team and individual employees to compile a list of suggestions for employees to read, do, and make to celebrate. If you have any Hispanic or Latino focused employee resource groups, be sure to engage them! Here’s a taste of what we shared last year: 

  1. Read about the difference between Hispanic and Latino.  
  2. Do support Hispanic and Latino-owned businesses in your community. 
  3. Make arepas, which are savory dishes with a corn dough base. 

💡 Bonus tip: Engage your entire organization in creating a unique recipe book with their personal favorite or family recipes of Hispanic or Latino heritage, then share it company-wide so everyone can learn about and try new dishes throughout the month! 

  • Recognize Suicide Prevention Day with Company-Wide Support (September 10) 

As an employer, you have the opportunity to educate your people and provide them with essential, even life-saving, resources. With more people working from home, it’s hard to know what’s really going on behind the Zoom screen. Given 22.8% of U.S. adults experienced mental illness in 2021, your people may be struggling silently, unsure where to get help. 

In honor of National Suicide Prevention Month in September and Suicide Prevention Day on September 10, make resources available and easily accessible to all employees – whether they are in a time of immediate crisis or managing daily anxiety and stress. 

💡 Bonus tip: Share these actions we can all take to prevent suicide from the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s #BeThe1To campaign: 

  1. Ask: Research shows people who are having thoughts of suicide feel relief when someone asks after them in a caring way. Findings suggest acknowledging and talking about suicide may reduce rather than increase suicidal ideation. 
  2. Be There: Individuals are more likely to feel less depressed, less suicidal, less overwhelmed, and more hopeful after speaking to someone who listens without judgment. 
  3. Keep Them Safe: A number of studies have indicated that when lethal means are made less available or less deadly, suicide rates by that method decline, and frequently suicide rates overall decline. 
  4. Help Them Stay Connected: Studies indicate that helping someone at risk create a network of resources and individuals for support and safety can help them take positive action and reduce feelings of hopelessness. 
  5. Follow Up: Studies have also shown that brief, low-cost intervention and supportive, ongoing contact may be an important part of suicide prevention, especially for individuals after they have been discharged from hospitals or care services. 
  • Celebrate HR Teams For Human Resources Appreciation Day (September 26) 

People want to feel recognized, valued, and that they are making a difference. They also want to be appreciated for the contributions they make to the organization, leaders, and peers they spend most of their waking hours with.  

Don’t forget to make your HR team feel valued for their work throughout the year, especially on HR Appreciation Day (September 26). HR leaders make sure employees feel appreciated, heard, and recognized for outstanding performance — it’s time we flip the script and show them our appreciation! 

💡 Bonus tip: Give a shout out! At Virgin Pulse, we leverage our health and wellbeing platform to deliver values-based shout-outs to each other. The benefit? Immediate acknowledgment, aligned to values, and you can see a running list of shout-outs to “like” and cheer on peers across the organization. Bonus for remote, hybrid, or dispersed workforces – it’s always fun to cheer on our peers in Bosnia or see what the person down the hall is working on. 

  • Support Parents & Caregivers During Back to School  

While summer is just getting started, back back to school season is right around the corner for your working parents! Challenged with arranging childcare, balancing competing work & life priorities, and battling sleep deprivation & burnout, parents and caregivers may need extra flexibility from employers as their kids head into a new school year. 

Did you know? 

  • 8 in 10 parents feel that when they are confident in their childcare they perform better at work 
  • 65% of parents believe there is a disconnect between employers and child support 

💡 Bonus tip: Your digital employee wellbeing program is a great tool for sharing messages and resources like these with the whole company. We help our clients support working parents through relevant and personalized microlearning opportunities, including journeys, daily cards, healthy habit tracking, & more. Take it one step further and incorporate specific family health and planning tools into your wellbeing ecosystem with integrated partners like RethinkCare & Ovia Health.   

Additional Q3 Awareness Dates 

July 

August 

September 

  • Employee Wellbeing Month 
  • LGBTQ+ Pride Month 
  • 4: National Cancer Survivors Day 
  • 5: World Environment Day 
  • 10: Global Wellness Day 
  • 12-18: Men’s Health Week 
  • 14: Blood Donor Day 
  • 18: Father’s Day 
  • 19: Juneteenth 
Jul 05, 2023