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Why your office needs a wellness program in 2020

While the tides of society shift to focus more on personal development and mental health, long gone are the days of employees prioritizing job over health. In the past, employees who were expected to come to work to do their job, skip lunch, stay late, never take a sick or personal day, are no longer motivated to work under the same mental and physical constraints. These once common workplace conditions are now a sign of an unhappy work environment and out of touch leadership.

Healthy employees mean a healthy business. People are the priority and the driving force behind the growth and success of a company, so naturally, unmotivated workers hurt your bottom line. Fortunately, many business leaders are beginning to understand this and the importance of promoting physical and mental health and well-being in the workplace.

Although they may vary in service and activity, by incorporating a workplace wellness program at your office, you are promoting employee health and wellbeing, and encouraging productivity. In order for your employees to perform their best, you need to put their basic needs, which include interaction, self-care, regular movement, and proper nutrition, first. A wellness program supports those goals.

Why offer a wellness program

Corporate wellness programs focus on the whole picture of employees' well-being. These programs encourage mental health, fitness, and overall healthy workplace habits. Because of this, studies show that companies implementing and encouraging employees to participate in corporate wellness programs, increase employee effectiveness, increases mental stimulation, decrease performance anxiety, and positively improve team dynamics and office culture.

By investing in your employees with a wellness program, you can expect a high return. Corporate wellness programs often include less sick time amongst employees, higher engagement, and an increase in employee happiness. By reducing the money spent on health-related costs in the office, you can increase the budgets in growing your business in other areas.

How prioritizing wellness benefits office culture

If your work environment is conducive to positive conditions, you'll experience a positive holistic office culture. These programs can help you improve your company culture, reduce absenteeism, and attract talent. In fact, 87% of potential employees consider the company's health and wellness offerings when choosing an employer. Employees want to work for companies that are invested in them, and part of this investment is developing an environment that focuses on an employee’s physical, mental, financial and social well-being.

When people feel they are appreciated and that they are working in a happy, healthy, peaceful environment, it motivates them to be and do their very best to keep the momentum. Research also shows over 85% of companies with a wellness program reported that it had a high impact on their employee engagement and retention.

Additionally, companies also experience:

• Stronger team dynamics
• Less office stress
• Fewer colds, flu and other illnesses
• Fewer office-related injuries
• Increased creativity and focus
• Happier employees
• Improved mental health
• Improved customer service

How to choose the right wellness program for your office size

Every aspect of your business should promote the development and reinforcement of an engaged and healthy workforce. However, creating a comprehensive wellness program can take a lot of work and time, as it is a continuous and scalable initiative for your business. Because of this, it is a good idea to appoint a leader, department or team to spearhead the program. It’s a good idea to put a team on the project who has a genuine interest in promoting a healthy workplace.

With your team in place, start planning what your program should look like. Not every wellness program is designed exactly the same. What works for one company won’t necessarily work for another. In order for your program to be effective, you need buy-in from both leadership and employees. Survey everyone for ideas and interests in the types of services and activities you plan to provide. Here you can discover the areas of need your employees have, as there are several types of wellness programs you can offer.

It is important to build a program around the health and wellness needs important to your workplace.

Health promotion and disease prevention programs focus on engaging and empowering people to choose healthy behaviors that reduce the risk of developing chronic diseases and other illnesses.

Lifestyle management programs focus on employee health risks, like smoking and obesity, and strives to reduce these risks through activities aimed at fitness, nutrition, not smoking, and more.

Incentive programs give people tangible reasons to lose weight, stop smoking, or accomplish some other health-related tasks.

Disease management programs help people deal with existing health issues. Those issues include diabetes most often, along with asthma, coronary artery disease, depression, cancer, and other ailments.

Once you've determined which type of program to offer. Form a budget, outline an activity schedule that matches your program's needs, and announce the new wellness program details to your employees. It is a good idea to also create literature around the program so that you are sure your employees know everything it includes so they can get the most out of it.

Life can be stressful, even more so when trying to balance work and life. Having a corporate environment that supports holistic health and lists well-being as a priority, makes it a lot easier for employees to incorporate simple life changes that have a lifetime of benefits both in and out of the office. Get started with your companies wellness plan with help from Tenant Wellness. Give us a call to discuss how your business can benefit from wellness that works!