Wellness program ROI can reach up to 300%, provided your program is well-designed and well-executed. The most obvious payback comes in the form of reduced healthcare spending, but there are other financial benefits as well. Wellness programs can boost employee productivity and morale, which, in turn, reduces absenteeism and turnover.
But the key phrase here is “well-designed and well-executed.”
Eating better, working out, getting more sleep … taking care of our physical self is relatively straightforward (even if it’s often easier said than done).
Achieving good emotional health may be a bit more complicated—but it’s just as important as achieving good physical health. And yet, emotional wellness often lands squarely on the back burner, particularly in the workplace. Why isn't emotional health more of a priority for overall employee wellness?
Wouldn’t it be great to have an unlimited budget to invest in your employee wellness program? Imagine the rewards you could offer, the unique challenges you could try, the workplace wellness perks you could provide.
A full-time, onsite health food chef? Sure! Smartwatches for everyone? Why not?
Sadly, the sky is rarely the limit when it comes to creating an employee wellness program. You will likely have to make tough decisions and pass on some appealing—but too costly—options.
For your wellness program to succeed, it requires participation. But when an organization’s staff are scattered across multiple field offices, it becomes much harder to motivate people … or even to keep them informed in the first place.
The good news: Most employees are enthusiastic about wellness programs, with nearly 77% of employees agreeing that wellness programs can positively affect corporate culture, and 45% of workers in small- and medium-sized businesses reporting they’d stay at their jobs longer if their company had a robust wellness program.
The bad news? A lack of awareness may be your wellness program’s Achilles heel. In fact, as much as 60% of your workforce may not even know your wellness program exists.
What motivates you in wellness?
Some people love 5 a.m. boot camp workouts with a hard-nosed trainer who verbally whips them into shape. Other folks shudder at the very thought, greatly preferring a Sunday afternoon run with a group of friends.
Much as every person’s wellness journey is individual, so is their reason for staying on track. And by tapping into the type of motivation people respond to, your wellness program can be a powerful driver of success.
Who has time for wellness? We hear this question all the time on the individual level, from stressed-out parents, career-driven workers, and just about everyone else trying to balance busy lives with demanding jobs.
But just as often, the question comes from organizations. Businesses of all sizes have so much on their plates—from hiring and managing a workforce to satisfying customers and clients, to developing new and profitable products and services—that designing a wellness program can sometimes seem like one task too many.
January is the biggest month of the year for buying things we struggle to use.
In the rush of excitement to stick to our fitness resolutions, we splurge on exercise equipment, gym memberships, and sporty new workout clothes. All too often though, by February the equipment is gathering dust, the gym membership is nothing more than a monthly debit from our bank accounts, and the workout clothes still have their tags.
It’s a well-established fact: When employees make healthy choices, eat better, exercise more, and learn to reduce the stress in their lives, they engage more with their jobs. Absenteeism, presenteeism, and turnover go down, while productivity, creativity, and morale go up.
But as you probably know from your own life, reversing long standing habits is easier said than done. If you’ve become accustomed to grabbing fast food for comfort after an exhausting day of work, you may have trouble psyching yourself up for fresh produce. If you’re used to waking up to your Twitter feed, a 20-minute meditation may, at first, seem like a disappointing substitute.
That’s where an employee wellness program comes in. A good wellness program nudges your team toward healthy habits with a combination of fun challenges, community support, and education. But the best wellness program in the world won’t make much difference if your employees don’t use it.
Alcohol is a ubiquitous part of our culture. Socializing with colleagues after work, the office holiday party, unwinding after an exhausting day—all of these occasions often revolve around drinking and can be awkward for people who don’t partake.
Until recently, that is.
Health is a sensitive subject in America. Anything that touches on the health of your employees must navigate a tangled web of federal and state regulations designed to protect the privacy of your employees and ensure everyone is treated equally, regardless of their health status.
Designing a corporate wellness program can involve a significant amount of legal planning. Making matters more difficult, laws concerning corporate wellness programs aren’t always clear.
Here are some of the compliance regulations to keep in mind:
