Given the rising costs of hiring, increased competition for talent and rising employee benefits costs – alongside recent data that shows that most of today’s workforce is disengaged at work – the outlook doesn’t look encouraging for employers.
What can be done about it?
One relatively low-cost and an effective strategy that you can use to boost employee morale, improve engagement and to recruit top talent is to implement an employee wellness program.
In this article, we will look at what an employee wellness program is, why it’s important for employers to pay attention to, few examples of companies having had success with it, and finally actionable tips to launch a program at your company.
In simple terms, they are programs or policies aimed at improving the physical, emotional, and financial health of your employees.
The primary purpose of these programs is to improve employee morale and engagement.
The more engaged your workforce, the more productive they will be – which definitely has a direct impact on your company’s success.
We will cover more about the benefits and the impact to your organization in one of the sections below.
One key thing to keep in mind is that employee wellness programs should not be confused with employee health benefits or insurance.
Health insurance typically cost an annual premium for both the employer and the employee. On the other hand, employee wellness programs could be a one-time program, or a seasonal or many times a perpetual program; and the costs are relatively low.
Thought most employee wellness programs are focused on health aspects, many companies offer different programs that focus on other areas.
We can group the programs into a few different areas:
- Health-focused programs → weight loss coaching, providing healthy snacks, disease prevention, etc.
- Social/Community-focused programs → group volunteering, paid time off for volunteering, etc.
- Education-focused programs → providing individual/ group training programs, courses, seminars, etc.
- Personal finance-focused programs → educating employees on personal finance through seminars, or providing financial incentives, perks, etc.
There is no one method or a cookie-cutter approach to having an employee wellness initiative at your company. Every company does it differently based on their location, culture, budget, number of employees, etc.
Why should your company implement a wellness program?
Now that you know what an employee wellness program looks like, let’s look at some reasons why your team should consider investing in one for your company:
There are numerous benefits, but we wanted to simplify them into 3 key business reasons why companies typically invest in these programs:
- Improving employee engagement
- Attracting new talent
- Reducing costs (and improving your bottom line)
Improving Employee Engagement
This is the most obvious and immediate benefit of implementing an employee wellness program.
The more engaged your employees are at work – the more likely they would want to come back to work each and every day.
They are more happy as they see more intrinsic value from working for your company. They see more reasons than just their salaries to be part of your organization.
This in turn, improves workplace performance.
There is enough evidence to prove that companies that have higher employee engagement tend to experience higher business productivity.
The direct benefit to your team could be one of many things.
- Reduced absenteeism
- Improved productivity levels
- A more happy and collaborative workplace
- Reduced employee turnover
Or you could benefit from all of the above.
Attracting new (and the right) talent
With unemployment at historic lows the balance has shifted. It is a candidate’s market and they have more options to choose from.
It has become increasingly difficult for employers to attract and retain the right talent.
A more likely scenario – most of the qualified candidates are in a position where they will be entertaining multiple job offers.
With all things being equal – salary, benefits, commute time – candidates will most likely choose a company with a solid company culture.
Having an attractive employee wellness program helps boost your employer brand which then has a direct bearing on your talent acquisition. (Zappos is an example of a company that does this very well – more details about Zappos below).
You can make it easier and more compelling for candidates to choose your company over others in your area or industry.
Reducing healthcare costs (and improving ROI)
According to an extensive study conducted by the RAND Corporation, employers who have implemented an employee wellness program have seen an ROI Benefit of $1.50, i.e a return of $1.50 for every $1.00 they have invested in a program.
The study also reports that ROI could be higher in certain cases.
For instance,ROI for certain programs (disease prevention programs) provided an ROI Benefit of $3.80.
Here’s a story that really stood out for us.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, which employees more than 10,000 employees, has saved $21 million in the 3 years since implementing a company-wide wellness program.
Los Alamos estimated a $100,000 per year employee health-care cost avoidance.
After starting a corporate wellness program, one major hospital benefited from 80% reduction of days lost to illness and injury, and a 64% decline in modified duty days.
As a result they have saved $1.5 Million.
Employee wellness programs in action
By now you have an understanding of what a wellness program looks like and why your company needs to adopt one.
To inspire and to help you draw some inspiration, we wanted to share a few examples.
We wanted to make sure that examples were from different industries to prove that wellness programs could be effective in any market.
Zappos.com (Online Retailer)
One of the largest online shoe retailers and a subsidiary of Amazon – Zappos does not need an introduction.
With more than 1500 employees, they have also established themselves as a highly sought out company to work for.
Zappos provides it employees an on-campus fitness center, offers its employees a weight management program, free food (breakfast, lunch, snacks), monthly outings, and so on.
To top all of that – they now have a nap room, and you will agree with us that it probably one of the coolest nap rooms in Corporate America.
El Mejor Trato
A loan and insurance broker based in Argentina – El Mejor Trato launched a financial wellness program (and this is very fitting as they are in the FinServ industry themselves).
Their CEO noticed that their employees were struggling with financial challenges (debt) like most people. This financial burden was affecting their personal lives and also their work performance.
So, they did something unique.
The company decided to introduce a debt repayment/elimination program for its employees. They decided to help employees who have been there for more than a year to pay down their debt load.
This program not only helped improve employee morale and overall productivity – but their employee retention rate has gone from 61% to 88%.
General Mills
A 150+year old company with more than 40000+ employees – General Mills is one of the most successful and long-standing consumer goods manufacturers in the world.
Having had a wellness program for more than 25 years, General Mills has established itself as a leader and champion of employee wellness.
Their program promotes healthy habits and also enriches their employees’ lives by empowering them to make decisions and providing a support system.
Using the program employees have successfully stopped smoking, changed their diets, etc.
How can you implement an employee wellness program at your company?
We hope by now the examples and the supporting data that we have shared has convinced that your team or company needs to have an employee wellness program.
Regardless of the type of program you choose to implement – here are some tips to implement a wellness program at your company this very summer.
Get Management buy-in
It is important that your entire leadership team is totally bought into this before you launch or involve the rest of your employees.
Most corporate wellness programs fail because it is not often viewed as a priority from the C-Suite.
Help your leadership team understand all the benefits (covered above) that your company will experience in terms of morale, productivity, reduced turnover, talent attraction, proven ROI increase, etc.
This has to be a top-down approach.
Once your staff sees that this is not just an HR or an individual initiative but a company-wide initiative, they will be more likely to participate to make this program a success.
Set Goals for the Company and the Team
Gain clarity on why you are doing this.
- Is it to boost morale?
- Is it to reduce absenteeism?
- Is it to make your company an attractive talent magnet?
- Is it to help your employees lead a better life?
Or it could be all of the above.
Studies have proven over and over again that any new initiative with clear objectives and KPIs tend to be more successful. But this does not have to be complicated.
It could be something as simple as:
- Get X employees to sign up for the weight loss challenge, OR
- Find 2 vendors for the healthy snack program by July 31st.
Create a Team to Implement the Program
This does not have to be a single person or solely a HR team initiative.
You will need a team from various departments who can participate to help get this program off the ground.
Create a committee and help them implement the processes. Get participants or advocates from each department if possible.
Get their input on roll out, strategy, etc, and assign tasks and projects for them to help you with.
Get Employee Input
Before you spend all your effort, resources and time launching a few initiatives – hear your employees and get their feedback.
Your employees are your customers for this program.
Check with them if your assumptions are correct. Please don’t skip this step. You will be surprised to learn new things.
Perhaps, some of the initiatives that you hoped to launch are not even of interest and would receive minimal participation. Or maybe some ideas are more appealing to the majority.
Many employee wellness programs struggle to gain traction with getting their employees to participate, and that’s normal. Ensuring that you complete this step will increase that odds.
Put an incentive plan in place
You are aware of the benefits that a program will provide your company. But all your employees may not be completely aware of the benefits for them.
Educate and motivate them to participate. Studies have shown that companies that offer incentives to employees see a higher adoption and success rate.
The more people who participate in this new program – the more benefits you will see as an organization, and this also helps your case when you back to report to your C-suite about the success of the program.
The Rollout
Now comes the fun part – getting your program off the ground.
Here are a few things you can do to ensure that it goes smoothly:
Setup Launch meetings.
Have multiple meetings over the course of the launch with different groups. Ideally small size meetings with 10-15 attendees.
Avoid rolling this out your company-wide town hall; you can use the town hall to make an announcement but its effectiveness will be lost amongst other discussion points.
Internal website/intranet.
If you have a knowledge base, electronic bulletin board or a company intranet – make sure to share detailed information here.
Give them details on who can participate, benefits, etc. Keep promoting the program all the time. This could also be a place to share success stories from advocates of the program.
Email newsletter or email blast
Send out a company-wide email blast announcing the launch of this program. Some people prefer electronic communication as opposed to face-to-face meetings. This will ensure that you have all your bases covered.
Marketing materials
Create brochures, flyers and distribute them to your employees. Put them on display in the common areas such as kitchen, rec rooms, meeting rooms, etc.
Also include these in your new employee onboarding program so they can get started right away. Make sure to also add this information to your website’s career section.
Your employees are your No. 1 asset
According to recent study some 71% of global employers have some type of wellness programs. This number is relatively lower with small and medium-sized companies..
Invest in them and see the results of your investment return to you many folds.
A happy and engaged workforce will ensure better customer satisfaction, improved productivity and an increase to your bottom line.