Startup life can be bad for your health, but even the smallest companies can create a wellness program – for free.
As a physician who has spent almost a decade in “startup life,” I’ve been thinking a lot about the health challenges faced by entrepreneurs, lately. Last month, I was amazed by the number of people who reached out to share their stories after reading the blog “Mental health risks among startup entrepreneurs.”
Companies of all sizes (not just startups) have employees facing health risks tied to their work life. Over 40% of workers describe their jobs as “very” or “extremely” stressful, and 25% of workers list their job as the number one source of stress in their life. But for startup founders and employees, the health risks associated with work are often worse due to small team size, limited financial resources, and industry pressures. A staggering 76% of startup employees report that they are ‘struggling’ or ‘suffering’ in regard to their physical well-being. There is a 67% increased risk of developing heart disease for workers who put in 11 hours per day, and the average startup employee works 50+ hours per week.
Over the years, I’ve worked with many entrepreneurs who have developed health conditions as a result of their startup lifestyle. One young founder, a slim male with no family history of cholesterol disease, had to go on a statin for hyperlipidemia at the age of twenty-eight. Two different clients developed carpel tunnel syndrome, requiring surgery, as a result of overuse injury from laptops and smartphones. Another founder lost 12 pounds (which her petite frame couldn’t healthily support) in 2 months – as a result of the anxiety and insomnia that fundraising was causing. Personally, I went through a period of time where I was apparently grinding my teeth so intensely in my sleep that I cracked a molar (through a hard, acrylic night guard)!
For most early stage startups, the idea of a company wellness program seems out of reach. Fancy catered lunches, yoga classes, and expensive wellness consultants come to mind. But there are many low-cost or no-cost actions that even the youngest startup can take to promote wellness for their team.
1. Cross-train the team
Invest the up-front time to cross train team members and document basic operating procedures. Most entrepreneurs get trapped into long hours and stressful deadlines because there is often only one person on the team that can execute a certain task. Cross train people on internal commercial tools like the CRM, content marketing software, and design tools. Have more than one founder who knows how to use Quickbooks or access benefits and bank accounts. Make sure there is never just one engineer that knows how to do a particular technical task. These things can make the difference between an employee working on his vacation versus taking a break to reenergize.
2. Have contests
Most startup employees will have some sort of fitness wearable. Create a “leaderboard” approach to wellness with contests for employees to record their fitness metrics, and have one winner per month. Have competitions for things like biking to work or taking the stairs. Prizes can be as inexpensive as a small Amazon gift card.
3. Promote movement
Set a culture where walking meetings are encouraged. Find charitable events like walkathons that employees can do as a group. Not only are they typically free, but these community activities promote team building. Make low-cost investments in equipment like a $300 treadmill for “walking” conference calls or a couple of standing desks from IKEA.
4. Make lunchtime fun
Let’s face it – startup life and healthy eating rarely go hand-in-hand. When you’re a small, early stage company, you can have lunch contests where employees take turns preparing a healthy brown bag lunch to share. The best recipe wins a prize. Find a local budding chef that would provide a weekly brown bag drop off for a low cost. Have an “alphabet contest” – where someone draws a letter of the alphabet each week and brings in a healthy food to share that start with that letter. Too much? Well, even the most resource-strapped startup can make a $50 weekly investment in fresh produce, and steer clear of fruit snacks and sodas.
5. Support mental health
Most of us are aware of the significantly high statistics around mental health conditions among startup entrepreneurs. Make investments in low-cost meditation apps like Calm for your employees. Find local life coaches or counselors, like Madison-based Homegirl Consulting, to provide small group sessions a couple times per month (with a discounted upgrade option for employees who want individual sessions). For organizations with a little more funding, offer small subsidies for online therapy or coaching – which can begin as low as $49 per session with companies like DotCom Therapy.
6. Encourage downtime
Finally, one of my favorite vacation models is unlimited paid time off (PTO) with a mandatory minimum. Studies show that startup employees with unlimited PTO take less vacation than those with a traditional, fixed amount. But how about requiring people to take a minimum amount of time off, in the unlimited PTO model? At one of our startups, we actually required managers to have a meeting with employees who didn’t take time off to understand why and help them get one scheduled!