This article was updated on 8/2/2022
Although we tend to think of staying hydrated more often in the summer, water is an essential ingredient our bodies need to keep us hydrated any time of year — which has quickly made it critical for organizations and employers to prioritize their workplace drinking water.
Whether your employees are back in-office or working remotely, promoting greater daily water intake will prove vital to supporting employee satisfaction, productivity, and efficiency long term. We’ve gathered advice from the Quench Water Experts on how your organization can keep employees happy and hydrated — no matter where you’ve chosen to let them work.
The Importance of Drinking Water at Work
You don’t need to be a biologist to understand the importance of staying hydrated. In fact, without referencing Google, the average person can tell you that humans can’t survive more than 3 days without water. But if you want your employees to consistently deliver high-quality work, it helps to have a deeper understanding of hydration and water’s impact on the human body.
Laughter might be the best medicine, but water is a close second. After all, water is essential to every cell in your body. Without it, you wouldn’t be able to:
- Regulate your body temperature.
- Keep your joints lubricated.
- Prevent infections.
- Deliver nutrients to your cells.
- Keep organs functioning properly.
It may sound overdramatic, but a glass of water can change your whole outlook on life — just consider how much better you feel after you’ve had water first thing in the morning. We’re willing to bet that the colors are brighter and the flowers smell sweeter.
When you lack proper fluid intake, the synapses in your brain are slower to communicate, making it harder to pay attention, remember information, and recall long-term memory. These are all critical functions to keep employee performance high. Workers that don’t drink enough water are also at risk of negatively impacting their mental health, heart health, energy levels, and more. With all of these consequences in mind, organizations are quickly prioritizing strategies to improve their workforce’s water intake.
Signs That Employees Are in Need of a Refreshing Water Break
Unfortunately, the majority of Americans don’t drink water enough throughout the day. This only underscores the need for organizations to encourage their employees to increase their water intake. Without drinking at least the recommended amount of water per day — around 2 liters, according to a report from Medical News Today — employees can quickly become dehydrated.
Dehydration occurs when your body loses more fluid than you take in. This can lead to serious health issues including:
- Heat stroke
- Muscle damage
- Kidney stones
- Seizures
- Constipation
- Brain swelling
- Constipation
- And more
To ensure your employees are feeling their best, it’s vital to be on the lookout for signs of dehydration, or even mild dehydration, so you can step in before any serious damage is done. Here are a few signs that your employees are in need of a refresher — fast:
- A team member’s energy level is low or they’ve been consistently fatigued throughout the day.
- An employee complains of headaches, lightheadedness, or dizziness.
- A worker is having trouble regulating their mood during the day.
- It’s difficult for a team member to stay focused for long periods of time.
- An employee frequently chooses alternative beverages, like soda or other sugary drinks, over water.
Spotting these signals and addressing them properly will go a long way toward helping team members across the corporate ladder mitigate the risk of dehydration and encourage greater water intake moving forward.
How You Can Help Keep the Water Flowing During the Workday
If your organization has been in pursuit of ways to support, promote, and encourage proper hydration, here are a few strategies to consider:
Create office “neighborhoods”
For organizations that chose to return to the office, you might consider a strategy called “neighborhooding.” Neighborhooding is essentially an office setup that separates your building into work environment areas. Instead of creating an open floor plan for the entire company, a business can prevent the spread of germs and improve employee productivity by creating allotted spaces that suit different departments’ needs. Suppose you designate individual office water coolers to individual neighborhoods. In that case, you can reduce the handling of those communal coolers and lower the barrier to hydration by ensuring all your employees are conveniently located near a water machine.
Offer alkaline water
Overall hydration in the office also has to do with water quality. Quench research shows that 22% of employees don’t drink their office water because it tastes bad. Odds are unfiltered tap water isn’t going to get your workers excited, especially since tap water comes in many flavors and can vary depending on location. Instead, provide your office with the best electrolyte water, quenchWATER+. This Quench branded water consistently has a great taste and is mineral-infused and electrolyte-enhanced. Also known as alkaline water, electrolyte water allows the body to absorb water more readily and hydrates faster. So, adding Quench machines that include an alkaline water filter, such as the Quench Q-Series, can effectively and consistently keep a large group of people hydrated.
quenchWATER+ is particularly beneficial for people who work physically demanding jobs, such as manufacturing workers. Electrolytes are essential for supporting the body during strenuous activities like lifting heavy objects or operating machinery. Muscle contractions require sodium, potassium, and calcium — all ingredients found in quenchWATER+. If these electrolytes are not present in sufficient amounts within the body, muscle weakness or cramping can occur.
Offer branded water bottles
Providing individual employees with a reusable water bottle can be an incredibly effective way to encourage hydration while introducing important sustainability practices. This can help your organization and workforce cut down significantly on the amount of plastic waste you produce while offering a valuable opportunity for your business to leverage free branding. With a water filtration system in place, your team members can have access to an endless supply of clean drinking water to refill their bottles when needed.
Offer incentives for staying hydrated
Human resource departments can create engaging campaigns that encourage hydration, productivity, and health. One example of this is a month-long contest that challenges employees to set and track their water intake every day. Employees who meet their monthly goals would receive a prize that encourages wellness such as a Fitbit or an insulated water bottle.
A fruity, sparkling, or icy incentive is another great way to get your employees, guests, and patients to drink more water throughout the day. As you consider the best way to improve your workplace drinking water system, don’t overlook the possibility of specialty water units like the Bevi 2.0 brought to you by Quench flavored sparkling water machine or a high capacity ice machine like the Quench 980 Series — now with a touchless dispensing. With these options, employees and guests can easily create one refreshing beverage after another.
Encourage Healthy Hydration With a Touchless Water Cooler From Quench
Show your employees you understand the importance of staying hydrated at work by stepping up your efforts in the office.
At Quench, we’re always looking for new ways to support your guests, employees, and customers. We’ve created a line of touchless products that will offer users peace of mind as you work to increase water consumption and reduce the spread of germs in the workplace. The Quench Q5 features rugged paddles for touchless dispensing. With the Quench Q5, users push their glass or bottle up against the dispensing paddle to unleash a steady stream of clean, great-tasting water. Dispensing paddles can also be found on our Quench 980 Series, which includes four different models of infrared sensor-activated filtered water and chewable ice machines.
Those who would prefer to go totally hands-free can check out our sensor-activated (similar to motion sensor) dispensing technology on our Quench Q8 water machines. The Q8 bottleless water cooler fulfills all your top priorities, offering filtered water, hot water, and touchless dispensing. It’s sleek and clean with safe dispensing technology that offers leak protection. Simply hover your hand over the Quench Q8 safe dispensers to release a steady stream of hot or cold quenchWATER+. Our touchless options are especially convenient for manufacturing workers or healthcare workers who often wear gloves during the day.
Quench Water Experts are located across the United States and Canada. Therefore, clean, great-tasting drinking water is never far away. Head over to our local water experts page to find the nearest point-of-use water machine. If you’re ready to elevate your workplace water supply, try our product finder to get matched with the right water cooler for your business or get a free quote to get started.
