Create a Culture of Wellbeing
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Identify practical ways to bring your own wellbeing program to life.
- Name ways to engage employees in wellbeing activities.
Create a Brand and a Community
At Salesforce, Camp B-Well is the way we bring our vision for employee wellbeing to life. Many of the ways that we engage employees at Camp B-Well can be used to create your very own wellbeing headquarters. Here’s how we make wellbeing fun, build our Camp B-Well brand, and help employees feel like they’re part of the community.
The Building Blocks
To turn Camp B-Well from a dream into a reality, we served up wellbeing content in a variety of ways to help employees connect with the Camp B-Well brand, find useful information, and engage with one another.
Build a Destination. Our Camp B-Well landing page is the one-stop shop that brings together all aspects of the program in an easy-to-find spot for employees. Here we link to health and wellness benefits (organized by country), promote upcoming events, and highlight wellbeing resources.
Start the conversation. We use Slack, Salesforce's collaboration tool, to educate employees and spark conversation around wellbeing programs and topics. This is key to keep Camp B-Well engaging and get employees talking!
Example poll:
So many of us want to include a meditation practice into our daily routines, but aren’t sure how to fit it into our already busy lives. Is it better to start the day with some zen, take a break from our desks to fit into the work day, or wind down with a little mindfulness at the end of the day? For those of you who have a seasoned meditation practice, what do you think?
- Starting the day with meditation is the only way.
- Taking a break midday helps me come back to my desk refreshed and ready to work.
- Ending my day with meditation helps calm my mind for a restful night’s sleep.
- Something else? Tell us in the comments below!
Example conversation starter:
From smoothie stands to salad spots, we want to know your favorite place to eat healthy near you (wherever that is). And since healthy eating is better with friends, why not grab some coworkers and make it a lunch date? (You know, for research purposes). Just think, if everyone in the #SalesforceOhana posted their favorite healthy eateries, we’d have one of the best global food guides ever. So, go on and share your local faves in the comments below.
We often use the results of these conversations to create tailor-made resources, like rounding up our employees’ favorite restaurants into a healthy eating guide.
Share Resources and Successes
Camp B-Well is all about celebrating the wellbeing journeys of our employees. So, we make sure to share practical, bite-size resources that can help them on their way. Then, when they find success, we share their inspiring stories—we call them campfire stories —for the entire Ohana to enjoy. Here’s how.
Blog articles. Our internal Camp B-Well blog feed features encouraging campfire stories and tips for healthy living.
Videos. Who doesn’t love videos? We’ve created an employee video series for each pillar of wellbeing—Nourish, Revive, Move, Thrive, and Prosper. Video topics include cooking demos by Salesforce’s Executive Chef Bill Corbett (check them out in the next module), guided mindfulness exercises, desk stretching tutorials, and more.
If you don’t have the resources to create your own blogs or videos, sharing links to external blogs and videos is a great option. There’s a vast amount of helpful wellbeing content already available!
Trailhead. This one should sound familiar, you’re taking our Camp B-Well trail on Trailhead right now! You can choose your favorite modules from this trail—and add your own modules to create a Trailmix for your team. Trailmixes are custom learning paths you create from your favorite trails, modules, and projects. Keep this in mind as you go along!
Email journeys. Emails are another excellent tool for delivering timely, relevant content to employees. Using Salesforce Marketing Cloud Engagement we create custom journeys for employees to join (think of email journeys as a series of tailored communications based on a person’s profile, preferences, or actions). In our month-long meditation journey, participating employees receive a daily email with a short meditation to help regain their focus and build their resilience all month long.
Engage Employees with Activities
At Camp B-Well, we’re always offering new ways for employees to invest in their personal wellbeing. Here are just a few.
Events. Our Press Pause Speaker Series brings in industry experts to speak on wellbeing. Past speakers include Dr. Matthew Walker who spoke about the importance of sleep, adventurer Bear Grylls who shared values to help build resilience and chef, author, and food activist Alice Waters to discuss the importance of organic and locally grown food. We also tap into our benefits partners to host informational webinars and workshops on topics such as building resilience and managing stress.
Challenges. As part of our camp activities, we host at least one challenge for each wellbeing pillar to encourage employee engagement. Challenges often spark friendly competition and can unite employees toward a common goal.
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Hydration challenge. We encouraged employees to Nourish themselves by staying hydrated. Employees used an app to log each time they filled their glass or water bottle. Those who drank at least 20 glasses of water during the challenge were entered to win a Vitamix blender. Bonus —for every glass of water employees scanned, our app partner donated clean water to communities in need (79,759 glasses of clean water, to be exact).
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Step challenge. Employees are encouraged to Move as part of the step challenge and tracked using a mobile app. The challenge motivates them to find ways to take the recommended 10,000 steps (or more) each day. Last year, we took more than 5 million steps together (it increases every year!), and to keep it fun we offer milestone prizes to encourage employees to keep moving.
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Random acts of kindness. Salesforce employees nominate teammates who Thrive on performing random acts of kindness. These acts can be anything from bringing in coffee for their team to jumping in and helping a fellow employee who is overloaded.
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Mindful time off. For a challenge centered on mindfulness, ask employees to celebrate how they Revive by sharing pictures or stories that show how they take time to rest and enjoy the present moment. From taking a walk with their family to turning off their phone in the evenings, these are impactful reminders.
Giving back. It’s more than a core value at Salesforce. It’s also a great way for employees to take a break from stress (and their desk) to connect with our communities and one another.
Plus, volunteering offers major wellbeing benefits. A study by UnitedHealth Group revealed that 76% of people who volunteer said it made them feel healthier, and 94% said volunteering improved their mood. The same study also found that volunteering helps lower stress, fight depression, and increase self-esteem.
The best benefit of all, of course, is that we’re working together to make the world a better place. Here are some of the ways we help others and spread wellbeing worldwide.
- Our Salesforce employees in London contributed more than 360 volunteer hours to build safe playgrounds for more than 500 disabled children. Learn more about our partnership with Habitat for Humanity Great Britain .
- Employees around the globe walked in Light the Night events to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, whether it was a LLS organized walk or one they planned on their own, together we raised a total of $2 million last year alone.
- Salesforce San Francisco has a special relationship with Project Open Hand, where we not only provide our software to help manage their support network, we also chop, dice, and slice veggies to help their team provide 2,500 nutritious meals and over 200 bags of healthy groceries every day to ill, aged, and isolated members of our community.
Building Wellbeing into the Office
In addition to our Camp B-Well activities, programs, and communications, Salesforce also builds wellbeing into our office spaces. We hope these ideas give you inspiration to incorporate areas for wellbeing in your own office.
Meditation lounges. Many of our Salesforce offices have dedicated mindfulness zones for employees to take a mindful break. Some of these rooms also include devices that play guided meditations throughout the day.
It’s not always feasible to build these dedicated spaces into every office, so think outside the box. What about that windowless conference room that no one uses? It can make a great meditation lounge!
Wellness rooms. These are comfortable, simple, and private spaces with a lounge chair or sofa. It’s where employees can take a breather and relax in quiet, whether they’re not feeling their best or they just need to rest.
Parent’s rooms. We know balancing work and life is already hard, and it can be particularly challenging for new parents. This space provides a private area with a lounge chair, and varying amenities like sinks, mini fridges, and lockers for parents who breastfeed.
Signage. We keep wellbeing top of mind with reminders around the office. Whether it’s a digital sign encouraging employees to take the stairs or stickers reinforcing healthy food choices in the kitchen—messages stick when employees see them every day.
So, next time you’re taking a lap around the office, look for opportunities (big or small) to infuse wellbeing into your workspace—it’s where employees spend most of their day, which makes it a great place to start.
Resources