When it comes to companies who devote time and money towards workplace wellness programmes, surely they benefit from happier and healthier employees?
The benefits of helping employees with their health and wellness may seem nebulous, but research surrounding the issue has shown that there doesn’t tend to be a huge return on the companies investment. But, despite this, many companies still offer health and wellness programmes to their employees and these still prove to be popular.
So, is it worth investing in an employee wellness programme for your company? Before you launch or redesign a health and wellness programme, there are things you should consider.
Why Devote Money and Resources to Workplace Wellness?
Traditionally, workplace wellness programmes are focused on containing costs, which is often their main reason for existing. But, it can be difficult to measure an ROI as workplace wellness programmes tend to vary from company to company, with very different levels of investment from the employer and the involvement of employees.
Over the years, research has produced conflicting reports as to whether wellness programmes in the workplace actually work and reduce employees insurance and compensation claims, but a recent study looked at the possibility that wellness programmes are underrated and are a valuable asset for both the employer and employee.
Rewards Other Than Savings
As wellness programmes continue to expand into more businesses and companies, more people are beginning to understand the broader range of rewards which come from such programmes. Businesses, in particular, have started to recognise that when employee wellness programmes are implemented, they lead to increased productivity levels, fewer sick days and a lower employee turnover rate.
Due to this, more companies have decided that taking some course of action when it comes to employee health and wellness programmes are worth it, as it is likely to curb healthcare and sickness costs when compared to taking no action.
Contributing to a Happier and Healthier Workplace Culture
A workplace wellness programme can play a huge role in promoting your company’s culture of health as well as productivity and improving your employee’s quality of life. Having a workplace health programme in place can also help you to compete for top talent in your field, whilst encouraging healthy lifestyle choices within the workplace. When you show your staff that you care about them and their wellbeing, especially when it may be beyond what they contribute to your company, then they are much happier.
How to Further Employee Wellness
There are many ways in which companies can further the health and wellness of their employees and benefit from the mutual benefits that they offer. If you want to promote healthy eating, then you could set up regular fruit deliveries to the office. Many offices also offer water coolers in order to keep their employees hydrated, which then reduces the number of illnesses and headaches.
If you want to improve the wellness of your employees, then consider flexible working hours or set up a corporate gym membership. You could even bring in a dietician or nutritionist to do a talk on the benefits of adding digestive health supplements or probiotic capsules to a healthy diet or to carry out a healthy cooking demonstration.
In order to be effective, wellness programmes should focus on all aspects of health and wellbeing, for all abilities and ages and include everything from mental health and exercise to healthy eating and smoking. You want to offer incentives to your employees which meet where they are in their own health and wellness journey. This may mean finding ways to fit exercise into their day to day routines or having access to a specialist health practitioner.