A company-wide wellness strategy helps businesses put a focus on alleviating the stress of their workforce. A wellness strategy that is effective helps create an environment of healthier and happier employees.
According to Mental Health America’s Mind the Workplace report, 9 in 10 employees report that workplace stress affects their mental health. For many of us, a quarter to a third of our lives is spent in the workplace, and is often behind the majority of the stress we experience. This stress from work can then extend into our daily lives.
A company-wide wellness strategy helps businesses put a focus on alleviating the stress of their workforce. A wellness strategy that is effective helps create an environment of healthier and happier employees.
COMPANIES THAT PRIORITIZE WELLNESS CAN EXPECT HIGHER RETENTION RATES, BETTER EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCES, AND AN EASIER TIME RECRUITING.
A wellness strategy can not only improve the overall health of your employees, but can also improve the cost of health care, reduce absenteeism, reduce workers’ compensation and improve employee morale and loyalty. So, in addition to making your office a better place to work, you can also help improve your business’ bottom line.
DETERMINE WHAT WELLNESS PROGRAMS TO OFFER
The first step in determining the best wellness strategy to implement for your company is to ask your employees what they need.
Start by creating a survey to send out to employees to evaluate their wellness interests. In addition to having employees respond to surveys, ask questions that focus on wellness during one-on-one meetings.
The current health status and behaviors of your employees could point to the need for particular health education programs.
THE TERM “WELLNESS” CAN BE BROAD.
Many times when someone refers to wellness, they might only focus on the physical aspect of wellness. But the definition of wellness can be broad, and your wellness strategy should be made intentionally broad to include an employee’s mind, body and spirit.
Here are some things we’ve seen work well for businesses creating a wellness strategy:
- Offer employees incentives like paying for monthly gym memberships or different workout classes.
- Create Wellness Points Programs that reward employees with things like gift cards or additional PTO.
- Reward employees who read a book about self-improvement.
- Encourage employees to participate in volunteer activities, either as a group or on their own.
Wellness can also include a company-wide focus to help employees take care of personal priorities. For example:
- Scheduling shorter meetings.
- Have “meeting-free” days to give employees time to prioritize personal tasks in addition to work.
- Designate mental health days and encourage employees to take breaks from work throughout the day.
A wellness strategy is a great way for your business to make an extra effort to take care of its employees. Whatever you decide to do as a leader of your company, make sure you open up a line of communication with your employees that creates trust with your team.
If you have any questions or need more ideas when creating a wellness strategy for your business, we would be happy to partner with you to help.
