What Is an Employee Wellness Program?

Employee wellness programs foster physical and mental health among teams. Whether your company is hybrid, fully remote, or completely in-office, a wellness program provides incentives and resources for team members to take care of themselves (and one another).

As employers place a bigger emphasis on employee health and wellness, many companies adopt holistic, cohesive wellness programs to encourage better mental and physical health. These workplace wellness programs provide incentives and resources for team members to take care of their physical and mental health.

According to CDC data , almost half of all companies in the United States offer some type of wellness program or promotion. Because employees spend most of their daily time awake in the workplace, creating a healthy work environment (including for remote employees) is key to reducing stress.

But not all workplace wellness programs are created equal. Wellness in the workplace offers several key benefits. But do those benefits include turnover? How does employee wellness impact insurance premiums? Let’s take a closer look.

Employee Wellness Programs Defined

Employee wellness programs take several shapes, but most provide help to stop smoking, manage diabetes and other chronic illnesses, weight loss programs, and other preventive health screenings.

They also often feature rewards to incentivize participation. Some of the most common perks include:

• Insurance premium discounts for employees
• Cash rewards
• Gym memberships

The Importance of Having an Employee Wellness Program

Employee wellness programs foster healthier employees. But their other tangible benefits include reduced workplace tensions and minimized absenteeism. Thinking about employee health is not a “soft” HR benefit, according to a recent editorial from Forbes .

Danielle Guzman , global head of social media at Mercer, says the importance of corporate wellness programs support employees’ physical, mental, emotional and financial health.?

“The catch is that alone though they’re not enough,” said Guzman. “To truly yield sustainable results, employers also need to create a culture of wellbeing, where caring for employees and creating an environment for people to thrive is ingrained in the company’s DNA. Creating a culture of well-being together with offering wellness programs improves employee engagement. And engaged employees show up every day with passion, purpose, presence and energy. That is priceless.”

While wellness programs may not have a concrete impact on healthcare costs — thanks to the complicated systems of community rating and health pools — it allows employers to generate a return on investment in the following areas:

Reduced Turnover

Employee well-being is a huge indicator of a business’ risk for turnover. Employers that create cultures of health see significantly lower turnover than those that do not. But employee wellness programs are not as simple as offering perks to quit smoking or lose weight. A focus on employee health really means investigating your company’s practices from the top down. That includes compensation and management effectiveness.

Suzanne Penny, career and leadership coach and founder of Career Studios, a coaching and training company, elaborates on how employers investing in employee wellness programs reduces employee turnover by noting that stress is a major cause of long-term absence from work — and that to manage people effectively, it’s important to know the factors causing work-related stress.

“That doesn’t mean a one-off training course or annual appraisal,” said Penny. “Sure, employee assistance programs can be beneficial, and lunch and learns around key well-being topics can be great too, but it’s also about looking at organizational culture.”?

Increased Employee Engagement

Healthy employees are engaged employees. They leave problems at the door and tackle company objectives with gusto. Wellness initiatives that boost employee engagement often help employees find satisfaction and purpose in their roles.?

Penny also stresses the importance for people to regularly talk about health and wellness and she states that organizations should be constantly checking to make sure there are systems in place to support employees to do their jobs effectively, including onboarding of new staff and hiring the right people.

“Having managers and leaders equipped to hold coaching conversations, lead with empathy and give leadership and resilience techniques to support employees, as well as knowledge of how to refer employees for additional support if needed all plays an important part [of increased employee engagement].”

Better Service

Employees who believe in the organization are better able to serve clients or customers because they are bought into the culture. Employees who are overworked or stressed bring those problems to work and subsequently let them impact engagements and interactions with customers or clients.

By providing employees with opportunities for personal enrichment and incentives to pursue wellness, companies like Trader Joe’s and Costco — on the retail side — boast high customer service rankings.?

Components of Employee Wellness Programs

What constitutes an effective employee wellness program? For starters, it should be open to all associates. Employee wellness programs tethered to health insurance coverage can alienate or exclude employees who choose not to purchase that coverage. Common components of employee wellness programs include:

• Fitness activities: Reimbursement for fitness-related purchases or encouragement to exercise is key to employee wellness. Some companies offer free access to fitness wearables to encourage movement.
• General health benefits: In addition to exercise, providing employees access to flu shots and on-site resources like first aid kits can keep employees healthy during the winter months. Other policy details include written instructions to stay home when ill (and supportive time-off policies to make sure they do).
• Mental health and stress-release activities: Physical health is not the only aspect of wellness. Stress and mental health trigger serious issues and affect physical wellness. By creating policies to encourage work-life balance, employers positively impact the mental health of their team. Mandatory office closing times, ensuring employees use available paid time off (PTO), and decoupling sick time off from vacation time keep employees focused and healthy.
• Team social and community service activities: Build out time each month for social engagement and community service among your team. When possible, create opportunities during the workday for these events. Some employees may not want to or cannot commit to additional time outside the office.
• Incentives for participation: It does not matter if your employee wellness program exists if no one participates. Creating buy-in from your team involves rewarding them somehow. Sometimes that looks like additional PTO. Other times it may be cash prizes. Some insurance companies that offer wellness programs will reduce participants’ premiums by a set amount.

The Rise of Virtual Employee Wellness Programs?

As more and more employers go hybrid or add to their remote workforces, employee wellness programs adapt to include them. In-person fitness classes and social events may no longer be appropriate or conducive. Virtual employee wellness programs are on the rise, providing access to everyone regardless of their proximity to headquarters.

Where previous employee wellness programs included memberships to gyms down the street from the office, new virtual options offer employees access to “work out anywhere” services such as Peloton or Apple Fitness+ .?

For those businesses whose workplace initiatives are tied to health insurance programs, the additional access to telehealth providers and remote mental health services can be game-changing. This is especially true for team members whose remote status might make them feel disconnected from their teammates and company culture at large.

Examples of Employee Wellness Programs

Workplace wellness ideas do not have to be comprehensive to be successful. Businesses that implement smaller programs and then iterate on them later create lasting organizational change and improve morale. Self-improvement, after all, involves several changes that cumulatively add up to big results. Consider implementing the following types of plans:

• Healthy lunches and snacks: Employers love to tout snack options for their employees, but healthy snack delivery services increase productivity and offer tangible benefits. Catering in lunches helps your employees engage with one another outside of the course of work meetings.
• Assistance programs: Wellness programs that assist with guided support programs help employees achieve peace of mind and deal with stress.
• Fitness programs: In addition to gym memberships, consider company-wide competitions with prizes. Step count competitions may build team morale and offer tangible benefits for getting outside the office. It may also foster relationships as employees group up to tackle their team goals.?

Incorporating Wellness in the Workplace

Organizations that want to incorporate wellness in the workplace need to carefully plan and budget for their program. Increased employee buy-in is key to success, so any wellness initiatives need to have contributions from team members across the company, not just executive leadership, human resources, or accounting.

Companies that successfully implement workplace wellness reap huge benefits, but only after thoughtful execution. They are not, however, a replacement for good company culture. If employee wellness is a concern in your workplace because of turnover, low engagement, and noticeable stress, consider addressing systemic issues and concerns such as compensation and management practices first.?

Top Takeaways

What Is an Employee Wellness Program

• Employee wellness programs help reduce stress among employees and promote better health.
• Employee wellness programs include fitness programs, weight loss initiatives, assistance programs, and chronic disease management tips.
• Employee wellness programs are not just for in-office employees. Virtual wellness programs are growing in popularity among remote teams.?

(Reporting by NPD and Helen Harris )