Why you should ask for a wellness retreat

When considering your choice of holidays, have you ever thought about a wellness retreat? Spending a week focused on self-improvement and relaxation which gets you away from everyday life sounds like a dream getaway, right? But could there be potential in workplaces offering retreats to employees to increase job satisfaction and increase mood?

Picture the scene: it's a cold mid-January evening and you've just finished another mundane working day, but before you leave, your manager explains this great idea to send you and a few fellow employees on a retreat to say 'well done' for meeting organisational targets. This is where Health Fitness Travel come in through their approach at boosting productivity whilst also producing healthy and happy employees via body breaks, lifestyle changes and detoxes.

The downside to working for some organisations is that employee satisfaction and wellness is not taken seriously enough. This is often evident when feeling guilty for calling in sick (unless you're not actually ill, then you should feel utterly ashamed). An organisation should value the employees wellbeing enough to acknowledge that working from home is okay every now and then. There is huge value in the employer-employee relationship and the developed trust between both; especially when considering the current political and socio-cultural climate.

The question posed is, does it work? 

The need for wellness has been slowly increased within workplaces, as the need for mental health awareness and a focus on decreasing employee burnout rises to combat lost working days (Lieberman, 2019). A recent study has also proven that the intervention of wellness retreats does actually achieve what it sets out to do (boost wellness), whilst also improving group affinity and group working experiences (Haber et al, 2019).

Health Fitness Travel offer such a wide range of tailored breaks that almost anything can be participated in (even a windsurfing retreat). Whilst they offer expert advice and a multitude of destinations to travel to, they also give lifestyle management tips and advice for long-term mental wellbeing. With such a host of benefits, surely the time will come when GP's prescribe such retreats to combat depression or health conditions. 

Why don't more workplaces utilise wellness retreats?

Well, to put it bluntly, some businesses just can't afford to. The large costs that come attached to providing retreats are a massive restraint and some organisations would rather provide in-house team-building exercises at a much cheaper cost.

As also mentioned, a lot of organisations just don't care or value the wellbeing of their employees. They would much rather focus on turning a profit or spend the money on more stock than take responsibility for the upskilling and wellbeing of individuals at their place of work.

However, this isn't every workplace; some organisations place the employee at the very centre of their organisational operations and thrive because of it. These workplaces often provide courses to enhance employee learning and may even promote the idea of working from home. Why? Because evidence shows that by placing trust in the employee comes a boost in productivity and overall work satisfaction (Nakrošienė et al, 2018).

To conclude

You just have to consider the Seven Dimensions of Wellness to understand the wider reaching benefits that this idea would have on the workplace. If wellness is underpinned by factors such as environmental, social and emotional, does this not also give rise to employees that should portray elements of interconnectedness, empathy and altruistic behaviours? Although these values of wellness are evident, I suppose we'll just have to wait for businesses to catch on!