How Walmart, Puma and Gympass are improving workplace wellness

FINANCIAL WELLNESS: Being responsible for the health and well-being of nearly 1.6 million employees may seem like a tall order, but for Karen Light , group director of benefits at 沃尔玛 , it's been the best part of her 18-year tenure with the retail giant.?Light has focused her work as a benefits professional on helping people achieve financial wellness through budgeting and saving tools, as well as educational resources. It's a mission that aligns with Walmart's corporate goal: Save money and live better.

"I learned about how to achieve financial independence early in life, and it's important to share that with our associates," says Light. "It's not just coursework that you teach someone; it's helping them understand money."

Read more about Light's mission and how she manages a massive workforce with the right benefits: Walmart's director of benefits brings financial wellness to 1.6 million employees

DEI: As more companies rethink their approach to DEI, it may be a good time to get back to basics by reviewing the effectiveness of your recruitment strategies.?Puma has gone through their own recruiting audit, headed by Michelle Marshall, the company's North American head of DEI. When Marshall initially joined the company, their recruitment process often involved looking at candidates from their immediate networks around its U.S. headquarters in Boston. Marshall questioned whether PUMA Group was truly seeing the best talent out there, so her team worked to change things up.

"One of the immediate areas of focus was identifying partners that had databases of diverse [talent] who ranged from college students to professionals fully in their careers," Marshall says. "We started leveraging these partnerships to build more awareness of the roles and opportunities available at Puma."?

Read more about Marshall's approach to diversifying the recruiting process at Puma: How Puma's head of DEI transformed their recruitment strategies

WELL-BEING: There's no denying that wellness has become one of the biggest priorities for employers and employees alike. But have wellness benefits turned out to be a worthy investment? Gympass surveyed over 2,000 benefit leaders and found that 90% of companies believe they see a positive return on their wellness benefits, 85% said their wellness programs decreased the cost of recruitment and retention and 78% reported that their benefits saved them money on healthcare. Any investment in well-being, whether mental health, preventive or nutritional care, can make a difference, underlines Lívia de Bastos Martini , chief people officer at Gympass.

"If a company is not prioritizing well-being, they're seeing the impacts of that directly on their [employees'] lives," she says.

Read more about the importance of well-being on productivity and employee health: Are your wellness benefits improving employees' lives? 90% of employers say yes