Society is forever changed after the COVID-19 pandemic. While people, companies, and industries are still figuring things out, we can already see massive workplace changes.
Specifically, changes to how companies are starting to measure, retain, and even entice their employees.
Say what you want about the pandemic, but it has underlined the need for comprehensive wellness programs to holistically address a person’s health. Companies are also realizing that they are not just the main factor influencing a person’s financial life. They also play a huge role in their employees’ wellness.
The Stats on Corporate Wellness Programs
A Gartner Survey of 52 HR executives found that companies are doubling down on their wellness programs:
- 94% invested extra in their wellness programs
- 85% increased support for mental health
- 50% increased support for physical health
- 38% increased support for financial health
Wellness isn’t just the employee’s responsibility anymore. Companies are realizing that through comprehensive wellness programs, they can better predict and improve employee performance and even increase employee retention.
Because it’s not just companies warming up to these programs: individuals are seeking services to improve their well-being in different ways.
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What Should a Wellness Program Include?
If your organization is now looking to establish its first wellness program, the first step is to assess the current well-being of your employees.
Wellness programs work best when they can directly speak to employees’ needs, expectations, and individual circumstances. For example, a company with many young adults may need family planning services. Notoriously competitive industries and high stress should strengthen their mental health services.
By asking your employees, you can effectively learn what they need from a wellness program. In general, such programs will take a holistic approach to help employees lead a balanced life, such as:
- Physical health services – Such as adding health and fitness services to the program, providing tools and resources of education, or binding on a health coach to help employees improve their physical health;
- Mental health services – Implementing stress-reduction protocols, educating employees about their mental health, improving their access to mental health services, etc.
- Financial health – Helping employees plan their financial future, save money, invest, and even create safety nets in case of emergencies.
Of course, the wellness program can have many additional layers, depending on your employees’ needs and expectations.
Do Wellness Programs Work?
Helping someone improve their well-being isn’t one-sided; it takes two to tango.
But wellness programs offer employees an easy, accessible way to take care of their health and well-being.
Whether it will work at an individual level generally depends on the person. Some thrive better with one-on-one wellness coaching than with broad coaching programs.
But even so, wellness programs work towards improving the company-employee relationship and offer people all the resources they need to care for themselves and their well-being.
Creator of the KASHBOX: Knowledge, Attitude, Skills, Habits
Helping You Realize Your Potential
I help people discover their potential, expand and develop the skills and attitudes necessary to achieve a higher degree of personal and professional success and create a plan that enables them to balance the profit motives of their business with the personal motives of their lives.
