Employee Wellness: How to Create a Wellness Program

Employee wellness refers to a program designed to improve the physical and mental health of workers. Employee wellness programs promote a healthy lifestyle and address workplace issues, such as stress, burnout, and high blood pressure.

These corporate employee wellness programs may include weight loss management programs, workout rooms, smoking cessation programs, therapy sessions, or preventative health screenings. Some workplaces even have educational programs, unlimited paid time off, nap rooms, or company-sponsored sports teams. The worksite wellness program—often offered as part of employee benefits—depends on the needs of the company.

Wellness programs can make a difference in employee health and make for a more positive company culture. A few benefits of corporate wellness programs include:

1. 1. Improved customer experience: An employee wellness program can make workers feel more engaged and enthusiastic, which can result in more positive interactions with customers.
2. 2. Increased employee retention: Employees will more likely stay with a company that makes them feel valued, and a wellness program can show that a business prioritizes their mental and physical health. Low rates of employee wellness lead to employee burnout, absenteeism, higher stress levels, and lots of turnover. However, if companies can increase employee retention through wellness programs, they can save time and effort on recruiting, interviewing, and training.
3. 3. More productivity: Employee engagement can lead to more productivity. And highly productive teams improve a business’ bottom line.

The type of wellness activities you choose depends on your workplace. Start with a few health programs and add more workplace wellness programs over time. Here are a few tips to consider:

1. 1. Align your perks and benefits with employee needs. Perks and benefits are a key part of employee satisfaction; ensure that your offerings matter to your employees. You can start with categories like personal and professional development, health and wellness, and flexible paid time off, but you can poll your employees to learn what perks and benefits they would like to see.
2. 2. Ask managers to lead the way. To ensure employees understand they should take time off or use their benefits, have managers lead the way. Employees will more likely participate if they see leaders joining.
3. 3. Consider remote work wellness initiatives. Not everyone thrives in the same work environment, so consider allowing team members to work from home. Giving employees more flexibility, such as letting each individual set their own work hours, can help them maintain a better work-life balance.
4. 4. Define your goals. Having goals can help you grow and improve your wellness program. For example, if you aim to have seven employees participate in yoga each month, you will continue to find ways—whether by asking for feedback or reimagining how to make it more appealing to workers—to improve this offering until you have succeeded.
5. 5. Develop a participation challenge. To encourage employees to take full advantage of these programs, create wellness challenges that incentivize people to join. For example, you could do a monthly challenge where employees track their physical activity over a month, or they attend a certain number of meditation sessions or yoga and fitness classes. Give away gifts or grand prizes for participation. You could even give employees a financial bonus or paid time off to complete a challenge or kick-start a financial wellness program.
6. 6. Establish a line of communication. Employees want to feel heard. Establish a culture of open communication in your organization by encouraging employees to ask questions and give feedback. Meetings are a great way to establish a line of communication. Managers can schedule regular check-ins, one-on-one meetings, and all-hands meetings to give employees the room to share their opinions.

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