Business culture: How to make sure your team stays healthy and energized

Companies like to say that people are their most important asset, but how many are actually committed to their words? For us at The Shepherd Group, we vote with our actions by watching out for the health of our employees. In fact, health and well being are one of our top priorities and is emerging as a major focus for our organization.There are many ways of ensuring team members remain healthy and energized. One is to lead a healthy lifestyle at the office and taking time off to recharge as needed. The other is to maintain a robust Health Spending Account to cover employees’ medical expenses.Read on to find out more about the ways in which TSG stays healthy and has fun.Strategic time offIn our view, there’s no point in working eight months to take three weeks off. Instead, putting a bit of thought into when we take breaks goes a long way to sustain us. For example, we can luxuriate in an extended weekend after going all out for 90 days (one quarter). This allow us to maintain a consistent pace without burning out or getting too rusty over a long vacation.And we’re not the only ones to have caught on. Adam Rifkin, PandaWhale founder and Silicon Valley entrepreneur, suggested taking small breaks every day instead of lumping all your vacation days in one big chunk. Think of these mini vacations as interval training where athletes perform intense activity in between brief resting periods.Health Spending AccountA great employee benefits package also goes a long way to ensure workplace well being. Here we’re talking about something much more robust than a standard benefits package. A Health Spending Account (or HSA) allows people to direct healthcare spending to where they deem it the most necessary.HSAs provide more flexibility because they extend coverage into areas not typically covered by standard benefits policies. Psychologists and other mental health specialists are one such service an HSA may cover that other policies may not.Parting thoughtsCombining brief but consistent breaks with precisely targetable health spending, our employees are able to refresh and refocus and be at the top of their game. There’s a reason businesses refer to their operations as “the grind” because business never stops. Nevertheless, we see it as a workable model in a market where some still see personal hobbies and time off as time wasted not being productive.How do you manage your vacation time? Do you prefer to “bank” it or take out one day at a time? Let us know! Comment below and tweet us @TheShepherdGroup