Why Corporate Wellness is important for business

Corporate wellness programs are getting popular in recent years. But recently, the emphasis moved away from physical health to include mental and financial health. It is not only crucial for the employees but also to strategically impact your company’s culture. Corporate wellness has proven to be an effective, cost-effective way of reducing health care costs and increasing worker productivity. Stress and anxiety are real occupational illnesses — and the numbers prove it. According to Statistics in the United Kingdom, over 38 million working days got wasted in 2019/2020 due to work-related ill health. Mental and physical stress is a phenomenal problem in the workplace, and it not only affects workers. Businesses also lose money because of lost productivity. In this blog post, we will explore the benefits of corporate wellness. We will also show how Giana can help you improve your employee wellbeing through our corporate wellness programs.

What are Corporate Wellness Programs?

It is a saying that “Prevention is always better than cure.” In the Corporate world marked by increased competition and extensive technological reliance, every employee experiences immense stress.

Lack of physical activity combined with unhealthy food leads to many health issues such as heart problems, diabetes, and gastrointestinal problems. The result is lost productivity and increased absenteeism. To avoid this, employers  have started developing corporate wellness programs, e.g. well-being talks, yoga classes, health at work activities covering mental, financial and physical well-being.

A corporate wellness program means any program used by an employer for improving the health of employees in an organisation.

Corporate Wellness Challenges Facing Businesses

Developing and implementing a corporate wellness program in an organisation has to face an array of challenges such as:

•  Getting the support of all the decision-makers to roll out a wellness program.
• Concern over the return on investment of the wellness program.
• Creating consensus among all employees as some may fear job loss due to their present health issues.
• Isolation due to COVID-19 has resulted in the loss of well-being.
• The financial and mental health of employees has taken a toll due to the recent pandemic.
• Retrenchment of employees in some sectors due to less production has resulted in more mental stress.
•  Employees not used to remote working.
•  Employees want a personalised fitness program that every organisation can’t afford.

These challenges do bring about employees leaving organisations and joining more employee-oriented organisations. To properly implement and deploy a corporate wellness program, employers need to craft a well-designed wellness policy and properly execute the strategy.

How companies can improve their wellness programs

Companies can improve their wellness programs by following the simple steps provided here and built their wellness culture successfully

•  First of all, do a detailed study into the current state of health of all employees present in an organisation.
• After conducting the research, analyse the health risk present in all the employees.
• Present the health scenario of employees and seek senior management support. (Cost vs. Benefit analysis)
• After obtaining management support, create an employee committee that will assess the wellness programs currently used and the wellness program that will help the organisation reap long-term benefits.
• The wellness committee will set the short-term as well as long-term objectives of the wellness program.
• The next step will be to design the elements of the wellness program.
• After knowing the components/elements of a wellness program, it becomes necessary to establish the budget and get it approved by senior management.
• The last and vital step is to communicate and roll out the wellness program to make it successful.
• As an employer, you also need to measure the effectiveness of the wellness program.

Getting 100% employee participation is usually a challenge in corporate wellness programs. To reduce this challenge, good employers create incentive programs to motivate their employees. Incentive programs help in the active participation of employees in wellness activities.

Benefits of Corporate Wellness Programs

The challenges present obstructions in creating and implementing the corporate wellness program. Cost vs. benefit analysis of corporate wellness programs will favour the benefits to outperform. The organisations will like to build a well-structured wellness program looking at the merits of the program. Let’s have a look at the benefits:

 1) Wellness Programs Improve Employee Health Behaviors.

The employee wellness program has a direct impact on the behavior of employees. Due to improved health experienced by an employee, productivity and happiness increase. Health behavior is positive due to fewer health risks after regular health activities and diet changes. Even positivity increases after using a wellness program. Greater employee efficiency occurs when employees enjoy health activities.

Thus positive health behavior is directly related to reduced health risks and greater participation in health activities.

2) Wellness Programs Reduce Elevated Health Risks

Wellness programs have a direct impact on reducing health risks. Complicated health issues like heart attacks, diabetes, neck pain, back pain, female health issues, reduced blood pressure, and osteoporosis get minimised. The positive impact of reduced health risks is improved employee productivity and reduced absenteeism.

3) Wellness Programs Reduce Health Care Costs

Organisations, especially software giants, get reduced healthcare costs. Wellness programs reduce the chances of health risks among employees, and thus it is a meagre amount spent on employee health issues. Happy employees with higher self-esteem can increase the profitability of the organisation. The cost of wellness programs nullifies the improved employee productivity.

4) Wellness Programs Improve Productivity

 Decreased productivity occurs when an employee is not well. The feeling of wellbeing has the following aspects:

• Physical health.
• Mental health.
• Financial health.
• Social health.

When an organization takes care of employees in all these aspects, then productivity increases. Wellness programs tend to take care of physical health, mental health, and social health. Financial health is also taken care of since now the employee is less worried about the health care costs or lack of income while off sick. So the stress level decreases, and the employee gets more devoted to work.

5) Wellness Programs Can Decrease Absenteeism

Employees take leave due to health issues. Wellness programs reduce leaves taken by employees as fitness level increases. Happy employees show more bound for organizational success.

6) Wellness Programs Can Help Improve Employee Recruitment and Retention

Organizations that have wellness programs in place get ranked as an ideal place to work. So whenever there is a recruitment drive, more skilled employees are inclined towards applying.

7) Wellness Programs Build and Help Sustain High Employee Morale.

Wellness programs act on enhancing the self-esteem of employees. Employees see themselves as care for by the organization. This care improves their self-esteem, and they get bound with the organization. Moreover, they feel happy and contented by comparing them with other employees working at organizations in the same industry.

When you as an employer try to weigh the costs vs. benefits, you will find that organizations that use wellness programs have improved profit margins than those that don’t have.

The future of Corporate Wellness

Corporate wellness is beneficial for both employers and employees. Employee wellness gets viewed as a necessity with changing workplace dynamics. As organizations want to retain skilled employees, they need to build a wellness program catering to the needs of employees. Now employees want personalized wellness activities like massage therapy, meditation, or yoga.

The wellness programs need to get diversified according to the changing needs of employees. A single wellness program will not fit all the employees’ needs. From time to time the employers need to know the level of involvement in wellness programs rolled out. The physical and mental health of employees should be the prime necessity of wellness programs.

With remote working, the new norm of workforce wellness programs needs to cater to mental health. Reducing the stress levels of employees with proper online programs and home services becomes a prime necessity. In-house massage therapy that reduces stress and anxiety should be a part of the wellness program. A holistic wellness program including massage therapy, gym, and yoga is best for promoting a healthy lifestyle.

Giana and Corporate Wellness:

At Giana, we like to keep your employees fit and healthy. As a wellness massage therapy provider, we try to design wellness programs that make your employees stress-free and healthy. We offer chair massage that reduces upper body pain and relieves stress. The chair massage session gets done at the workplace without disturbing the office environment.

Short corporate wellness days are also a part of our offering to cater to your wellness goals. We like to know your team working needs to design the wellness programs that make your employees healthy. Get in touch with us to know more, and we will help you create the best wellness program.

Conclusion:

With stress on the rise and work hours growing, employers are taking employee wellness seriously. Not only is it essential for the employer to maintain a workforce healthy enough to stay productive, but it’s also vital to stop the high costs of health-related issues. Corporate wellness needs commitment and a long-term vision to achieve health goals. At Giana, we design wellness programs to help your team achieve their health goals.