How to Make Well-Being a Part of Your Return-to-Office Strategy

Creating a successful return-to-office policy that prioritizes employee satisfaction and promotes a healthy, positive workplace experience is an essential business practice in 2024—especially given wide-spread employee burnout and the number of employees reporting that return-to-office mandates will have a negative effect on their mental health. There are many factors that may strengthen a company’s approach, but human resource executives, corporate decision-makers, and directors of workplace experience can help assist the overall cause with an elevated fitness offering including the Peloton App as a benefit for employees and Peloton’s state-of-the-art commercial equipment in office fitness centers. 

We chatted with Erika Storrs, Vice President, People Business Partnerships & Workplace Experience at Peloton, and Peloton’s corporate fitness center partner, human performance coaching company, Exos, to examine how corporate fitness benefits encourage overall employee well-being and a supportive workplace experience, as well as ways that companies can give a boost to their own wellness benefits. 

Building Community and Connectivity Through Wellness Programming

Offering an elevated fitness experience as a corporate benefit encourages movement and employee well-being, and it can also help build a greater sense of connection and community in the workplace. 

Stefan Underwood, Senior Vice President of Methodology at Exos, says clients frequently report that the employee experience during in-office days is similar to working from home. For instance, employees find that they’re still logging onto Zoom calls all day due to the nature of a dispersed workforce. 

“Especially when it comes to the newest generation in the workforce (Gen Z), employees are feeling increasingly alone and craving community,” he says. “There is a tremendous opportunity for employers to deploy return-to-office policies that help build a sense of community and truly ‘earn the commute’ of their employees. However, if a day in the office looks just like a day working from home, employees aren’t necessarily going to want to return en masse.” 

Erika Storrs, Vice President, People Business Partnerships & Workplace Experience at Peloton, echoes this point. “Knowing that their team members often spend more time at work than they do at home, companies should show their team that they care by creating an environment that they feel good about.” 

Providing a welcoming, dedicated fitness space where employees can utilize state-of-the-art equipment (like Peloton’s equipment for commercial spaces) and world-class wellness programming (which they may not have access to at home) may motivate an employee to take advantage of in-office days and may even help them connect in person with their fellow coworkers. 

Peloton’s Corporate Wellness benefit can also help build community both in person and virtually. The new Peloton Teams feature offers the opportunity to create a fitness community within the Peloton App, where groups can partake in challenges and motivate one another. 

“Every day upon waking  up, most of us immediately grab our phones to turn off our alarm, to check our social media, or perhaps to do a meditation,” says Storrs. “As we think about how the Peloton Corporate Wellness benefit can offer a strong workplace fitness experience, the Peloton App is the perfect entrypoint, as most people are already reaching for their phones.” 

The Peloton App offers fitness and wellness programming from beginner to advanced levels and includes an extensive library of meditation and stretching classes that can be easily worked into an employee’s day.

Storrs adds that creating moments of fun and connectivity for team members can contribute toward a healthy, supportive workplace. For example, she says leveraging employee resources groups (ERGs) can help employees connect with team members that they may not necessarily talk with regularly. Peloton team members, for example, also have the opportunity to connect with one another while making fitness part of their workday routine by visiting the on-site Peloton gym managed by Exos or by partaking in engaging programming and activities.

Charlie Lolak, an Exos coach, has witnessed a rise in popularity in Peloton’s wellness and recovery programming, powered by Exos. “I think people are realizing that although hard workouts have a time and place, dedicated recovery time for the mind and body are just as needed for longevity,” he says. “The cold plunge we have at Peloton Headquarters is a great way to get both these physical and mental benefits.”

Allowing for Personal Customization in Corporate Fitness and Wellness Offerings 

“Fitness is a highly personalized journey and means something different to everyone, but the key takeaway here is that it is so much more than just fitness,” Underwood says. “Exercise helps with mood, mental health, creativity, resilience, and so much more. With all of this in mind, it’s easy to see that exercise isn’t just about exercise. It is about helping employees improve their biology and psychology, building their capacity so they are able to show up at their best in the moments that matter most.” 

Given the deeply personal nature of fitness and the abundance of ways it can improve one’s life, companies may consider corporate benefit options that allow for customization and offer various exercise modalities. 

“It can fit into each employee's workplace experience in a different way because of the personal nature of it, but the company that integrates fitness into their corporate culture is one that we believe will have a healthier, happier, and more effective workforce,” Underwood adds. 

Both the Peloton App and Peloton equipment for commercial spaces offer dynamic programming that cater to a wide range of interests and movement methods, including Cycling, Running, Walking, Hiking, Rowing, Dance, HIIT cardio, Pilates, and more.

Modeling the Importance of a Healthy, Supportive Workplace 

When it comes to contributing to a healthy workplace, Storrs stresses the importance of an open and honest feedback loop, “ensuring leaders create the psychological safety for team members to provide feedback.” Team members, Storrs says, should be empowered to leverage their voices to get the support and resources they need.

“Another element that contributes to a healthy and supportive workplace experience is modeling behaviors that contribute to work-life harmony,” adds Storrs. “This can be as simple as reminding team members to take time away from work to unplug, rest, and recover.” 

Underwood agrees that it’s important for an organization to model the behavior they’d like to see as part of company culture.

“When an individual recognizes that they have an important sales meeting in the afternoon and a midday movement ‘snack’ is an important part of them showing up focused and prepared, you are starting to see the benefits of a well-being-based culture,” he says. “Companies can enhance their current fitness offerings by having leadership speak about the value and actively model the behavior themselves. It is one thing to offer a well-being benefit, but it is another thing to have leaders visibly engage with it. That is how company cultures are formed.”

Interested in bringing Peloton to your workplace?