Emily Bonzi, Author at Body Techniques

May 19, 2021October 19, 2021

8 Tips to Host the Best Employee Appreciation Event

Companies can show gratitude to the vital staff who work behind the scenes by hosting an employee appreciation event. Filled with massages and treats, these events help boost morale and offer thanks to the people working tirelessly to deliver premium service throughout the year. Recently, the Fairmont Hotel was one such company to successfully host an event to honor their essential workers. To thank the teams of people who are committed to ensuring everything runs smoothly, the Fairmont leadership filled tables with treats like cozy socks and provided the staff with a relaxing chair massage. Each employee was able to take a moment for themselves while at work to receive thanks for all they do each day.

With employee appreciation events on the rise, we’ve captured some pro-moves to share with you.

1. Set the Date

If you’re booking an event, we suggest a minimum of two weeks to plan and pull it all together. Ideally, a month allows enough time to finalize all the little details, like making sure there is a space set up, lining up any giveaways, ordering food and beverages, confirming vendors, and getting your team engaged and excited. If there is a holiday in the near future, pairing the event with that can help to heighten the festivities. Still, we here at Body Techniques think that every day is worth celebrating, so choosing a weekday is equally appreciated.

2. Find the Space

When deciding where to host your event, we suggest a quiet room for massage. If that’s not possible, our team works with you to create a semi-private area using drapes and massage equipment. Conference spaces, communal areas, or empty offices all work well for employees to trickle in throughout the day to receive a massage. Although not necessary, displaying a company banner, signage, or photo zone helps to elevate the room and make it feel like a celebration.

3. Spread the Word

To ensure a successful event, people need to know about it. Internal communications like staff newsletters or bulletin boards are great ways to spread the word. The old adage is true that a picture is worth a thousand words, so if this is a recurring event, share photos from past events to build excitement. If you’re working with the Body Techniques team to schedule an employee appreciation event, we have materials and templates for internal promotion to help encourage staff to participate in your event.

4. Everyone Loves a Snack and a Little Swag

In addition to massage, setting a table for employees with extra treats can take your event to the next level. We’ve seen t-shirts, notebooks, backpacks, and tote bags filled with treats all bring smiles to employees’ faces. Setting the room with water bottles, granola bars, and snacks, or boxed lunches also help to create an environment that indeed says, “Thank you for all you do.”

Employee appreciation events for teams across the US and Canada

5. The Massage Station

When you work with Body Techniques, our certified Massage Therapists (MTs) are dedicated to releasing tension and providing relief with chair massage. Our MTs will set up their space, listen to each employee’s needs, and deliver comfort through massage. To keep bookings on time and organized, we provide proprietary booking software that helps ensure your massage is stress-free. In addition, our MTs all undergo rigorous sanitation training and adhere to the highest level of safety. To read more about what we’re doing to keep you safe, click here to view our Clean Wellness Policy.

6. Raffle Prizes

If you’re really looking to wow your team, having a few larger raffle prizes adds to the fun. Prizes like full or half-days of PTO, massage credits, parking spots, or a “Lunch on Us” always seem to be crowd favorites. You can choose to host the raffle in a few different ways. One option is to give all employees a ticket and let them drop it in for the prize they want, or you can enter everyone for all the prizes and randomly select a winner. Either way, your team is sure to get excited about these additional perks.

7. Remain Flexible

You’ve planned, double-checked, and confirmed all the details. However, we don’t live in a perfect world so last-minute changes can happen. The event’s focus is to say thank you to the team that keeps the doors open and the lights on. Should issues arise, we suggest grounding with a deep breath and remind yourself that everything will be okay. Our team remains on hand to help you navigate any uncertainties, so don’t hesitate to reach out for additional support.

8. Share the Success

After the employee appreciation event, it’s time to celebrate! Share photos with your staff and announce any winner of prizes offered. If you’re able to capture a few quotes day-of or, even better, a video, share that! Sending a final email with another message of appreciation helps to wrap up a successful event!

Whether your team is returning to the office or has continued to work onsite throughout the past year, employee appreciation events are a fantastic way to boost morale and foster a team environment where staff can feel appreciated and supported. At Body Techniques, we work with you to ensure your employee appreciation events succeed with our skilled and dedicated team of administrators and massage therapists.

If you are considering honoring your employees with massage, we’re ready to discuss options with you.

Written by: Emily Bonzi
Marketing Director at Body Techniques

August 6, 2020December 16, 2021

Being Present is a Present: Ripples Effects of Mindfulness in the Workplace

Mindfulness is the ability to be fully present and engaged at the moment. It lets us step back from unpleasant thoughts and emotions (aka stress) that arise because of challenging situations. Mindfulness helps us calm the mind, get in touch with our body, and gain perspective of the world around us. When we do that, it catapults us into the present. It makes us more sensitive to context and perspective. It’s the essence of engagement– it’s energy-begetting, not energy-consuming. And in our current climate, anything uplifting deserves some light and sure gets me excited. Kanye famously raps “My presence is a present” and I totally feel you Kanye, being present is the gift that keeps on giving.

The gains (as our fitness friends would say) from mindfulness are infinite. One of the most important reasons that companies all over the globe are incorporating stillness and silence to their daily routines is because of its direct impact on performance. Studies have shown mindfulness improves your performance on all types of tasks. Let’s not get it twisted, mindfulness isn’t catching fire solely based on people crushing their OKRs and KPIs out of the park, but it’s adding to the flame. Here are some of those fire-producing examples of how mindfulness uplifts the workplace environment.

Mindfulness is the Ultimate Stress-Reliever

Stress is more than a performance killer; let’s be frank, it’s a people killer. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly two-thirds of all hospital visits are for stress-related problems, and 75% of healthcare expenses are stress-related. Stress can cause high blood pressure, autoimmune diseases, cancer, heart disease, insomnia, depression, anxiety, and more. Mindfulness is a great stress reliever because it takes us out of fight-or-flight mode and brings us into a relaxed state of mental clarity and calm.

Mindfulness Boost Creativity

Creativity hinges on our mental state. Mindfulness helps foster a creative frame of mind by defeating the negative thoughts that stifle creative thinking and self-expression. We are back to the facts from earlier, that mindfulness focuses us on the present and helps us all think freely and creatively. Think of it as the perfect balance between allowing the mind to freestyle and giving it some control. Mindfulness strengthens both but more importantly, aids in maintaining the balance of creative thinking and self-expression by deciding which is activated and when.

Improves our Ability to Focus

Mindfulness improves our ability to focus on one thing at a time. This focus carries over into everything little thing we do. Mindfulness teaches us to avoid distractions and bring a heightened level of concentration to our work. While some of us may have fallen prey to multitasking in the past, mindfulness will help to karate chop this productivity-squashing habit. A focused mind is a productive mind.

Strengthens our Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the “something” or the sauce as I like to say, in each of us that is a bit intangible. It affects how we manage behavior, navigate social complexities, and make personal decisions that achieve positive results. EQ is our ability to recognize and understand emotions in ourselves and others and to use this awareness to manage our behavior and relationships. It’s like our EQ is the operating system, and as we practice mindfulness we shut ourselves down, only to reboot with more functional features and way cooler emojis.

Improves us as People

Lastly, mindfulness just overall improves us as people. Many studies have connected mindfulness and prosocial behavior. Subjects who meditated showed compassion and kindness to others 50% more often than those who didn’t meditate. And all this time I thought it was the espresso and Beyonce that was bringing the best out of me. I guess there’s something about feeling present and calm that really gets the people goin’!

We're bringing mindfulness to work. Join us in building a better tomorrow .

July 1, 2020July 1, 2020

A Resilient Body through Massage

Maintaining a positive outlook and the ability to bounce back can be challenging in the best of times, but what about during times of high stress with competing demands on our time, energy, and resources? Layer in the stresses of Covid-19 and the potential of re-entering our places of work and it can start to feel more difficult to keep one’s thoughts and outlook positive. It can feel as though our reserves are depleted just when we need that extra bit of energy or spark of motivation to get us through the next challenging moment.

At this point, it’s likely that we’ve all heard the word “resilience” tossed about as an attribute that helps people face difficult and trying times. The question one might then ask is; how do we build resilience in ourselves, our families, communities, and workplace at a time when it is most needed and during a time of stress?

There are many ways to approach building our resilience, such as breathwork, mediation, and movement. At Body Techniques, we think a good place to begin building and maintaining our resilience is through the body. We view wellness as a holistic practice, eating thoughtfully, exercising, and taking time to slow down and receive massage are all components of building a resilient body. Below are three reasons massage therapy is an excellent first step towards developing our resilience toolkit.

Reducing Stress

Between Covid-19, ambiguous direction about states and counties reopening, and the possibility of returning to the office or having to find a new job, we are all stressed to some degree. Prioritizing our own well being and finding ways to reduce levels of stress are key to building our overall health and maintaining a positive outlook. Making time to slow down and tend to ourselves is a first step towards resilience. Whether it’s hands on massage in a safe and hygienic way (as counties permit) or enjoying a virtual 1:1 guided massage, the act of releasing tension through massage therapy is known to lower cortisol (a stress hormone), quite the mind, and soothe the body. By disengaging from the pressures and expectations of the day for even 15-minutes, we allow for the breath to deepen, the mind to relax, and the “pause button” to take the reins. Hands-on therapeutic touch gives us time and space to focus on our own relaxation so that we can return to our day to day in a more relaxed manner.

Relieving Physical Discomfort

Many of us are stuck at home working from the kitchen table or sofa, many others are taking on responsibility as essential workers and supporting our communities by delivering goods and services while working long hours. All of this can lead to our body feeling stiff, sore, and overworked. If our bodies are in pain or discomfort, it makes it hard to be fully present and it also siphons off our body’s resources. If we are busy thinking about the pain in our knees, neck, or back, we are more likely to further injure ourselves, miss workdays, or struggle to look after our kids. Scheduling time to receive hands-on massage therapy helps relieve injuries and muscle strain. When we feel able in our bodies, it allows us to have a more positive outlook, which can help us feel less stressed and more prepared to face challenges.

Better Sleep

When your head hits the pillow does your mind kick into high gear? Do your thoughts swirl and seem to be running on repeat? Do you start making lists of all the things you need to do the following day or didn’t get done today? If so, you aren’t alone! Lack of sleep is detrimental to our health and overall sense of well being. When we aren’t clocking a solid seven to eight our body takes the brunt in many ways; such as a weakened immune system, being more prone to accidents, weight gain, memory loss, and mood changes to name a few. In these hectic and uncertain times, it’s hard to shut off our thoughts and get the rest we need.

There are ways we can help ourselves power down, such as taking an epsom salt bath before bed, enjoying a calming herbal tea, or taking time to read something other than the constant newsfeed. And, because we are firm believers in the health benefits of massage, we definitely add it to this list of sleep resources.

Massage therapy is an excellent way to release the stress of the day and allow ourselves the time and space to relax. Expert guided massage or hands-on therapeutic touch is proven to be effective in helping people relax and restore the ability to sleep more deeply, which in turn supports our immune system and overall health status.

Let me see the science behind massage!

As we face the future, our health and wellness are a critical component in our ability to show up and build our resilience, as individuals and as communities. Making time for ourselves to destress and relax will help us be present for our friends, family, and coworkers. Remember to build into your day time for just you. Take a walk, stretch, do some jumping jacks, or meditate. Time for you is time well spent.