Wellbeing Resources: Virtual Wellbeing Fair, Improving Meetings and More

When it comes to wellbeing, employers often find themselves challenged by how to approach a shift from a traditional wellness model to a comprehensive and holistic program that supports the whole person. Below you’ll find this week’s curated list of wellbeing resources. Feel free to share these resources, as appropriate, with your team. 

You're Invited! Alera Group's 2021 Virtual Employee Wellbeing Fair – Join Alera Group for our Virtual Employee Wellbeing Fair where your teams can hear from experts on how to pursue a healthy life. We’ll host the event; all you need to do is invite your team. During this two-day event, employees can engage in our daily fitness and mindfulness breaks and attend our keynotes on the six pillars of wellbeing. Join the fun on September 22nd and 23rd. 

Career Wellbeing

• 20 Tactical Ideas to Improve Your Meetings – We’ve all been to “this could have been an email” type meetings. To help you run more effective meetings that don’t waste time, here are some best practices.

Social & Family Wellbeing

• Back to School: Supporting Youth Mental Health – With many kids attending classes in person for the first time in over a year, they may have difficulty adapting to new expectations and learning environments. Spring Health is hosting this panel discussion to address the social and emotional challenges adolescents and their families face when re-entering school, and the personal and institutional tools available to parents, educators and companies positioned to help. They’ll suggest ways in which adults can talk about mental health to their dependents, and they’ll give pointers for navigating transitions with more ease. You can join the conversation on Tuesday, August 17th at 3 PM ET.

Financial Wellbeing

• Nearing Retirement Financial Checklist – If retirement is finally approaching for you, or will be in the next few years, congratulations!  Before you take the big leap into this next phase of your life, make sure you haven’t overlooked anything from a financial perspective. Do you know how much you’ll need saved for retirement? What about making sure you don’t outlive your savings? Join Principal Financial for this webinar and learn seven important items to check off your “nearing retirement checklist” that will help you enter retirement in confidence.  Wednesday, August 19th at 12PM ET.


• When to Opt-Out of Monthly Child Tax Credit Payments – Monthly child tax credit payments have finally started to arrive! The IRS sent the first round of advance credit payments to eligible families on July 15. For many families, these payments will mean the difference between financial stability and financial collapse. But for other parents, it may make more sense to decline the advance payments and take the full credit (if any) on their 2021 tax return. If you fall into the latter group, you need to opt-out of the monthly child credit payments. This article walks you through the steps to do that.

Physical Wellbeing

• What is Driving Your Poor Sleep and How Can You Fix It? Inadequate sleep quantity and quality is a major problem for so many of us. Not only does it leave us feeling bad, but it is also detrimental to our overall health. Poor sleep can lead to everything from mood swings to blood sugar imbalances, hormonal imbalances, weight gain, poor memory and much more. In this podcast episode, functional medicine MD, Dr. Cindy Geyer shares essential tips to get better sleep and she also discusses specific concerns that affect women’s sleep issues.


• Bugs are Biting: Safety Precautions for Children – If you spend time in the great outdoors, you are likely to encounter biting bugs. Aside from the annoyance of painful or itchy bites, some bug bites can lead to illness, such as Lyme disease from ticks or West Nile from mosquitoes. Here are some simple precautions to keep your kids and family safe. 

Emotional Wellbeing

• Learn How to Handle Re-Entry Anxiety – If returning to your pre-pandemic routines and activities causes your stomach to flip and your heart to beat a little faster, you are not alone. A recent study by the American Psychological Association reported that nearly half of all surveyed adults felt nervous about returning to in-person interactions. Here are some tips from a therapist on how to manage re-entry anxiety. 


• DBT Skills to Quickly Ease Stress and Distress – Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) focuses on teaching patients and families several strategies to help tolerate painful emotions and to manage difficult situations in the best way possible. We all face situations that are out of our control, that are difficult to tolerate, and that cause us to feel emotionally out of control. Here are some skills to help us manage strong emotions.

Community Wellbeing

• 6 Ways to Build a Culture of Compassion – Scott Shute, the head of Mindfulness and Compassion at LinkedIn, shares a few simple gestures that can help foster compassion in our workplaces, families and communities.

Employer Focused Wellbeing

• Adjust Your Organization's Total Wellbeing Strategies to Integrate Top Trends and Support an Evolving Workforce – Employee wellbeing needs are shifting, and you as employers may need to shift too. Join Alera Group to learn more about three wellbeing trends that can help you with your recruitment and retention of your top talent. Alera will provide you with practical tips and ideas to implement these strategies with your workforce. This webinar has been approved for SHRM and HRCI credit and will be hosted on Thursday, August 19th at 1 PM ET.