EMPLOYEE WELLNESS PROGRAMS

Employee wellness programs offer numerous financial benefits of better employee health, such as reduced absenteeism and lower insurance premiums. But in addition to improving the general physical health of employees, wellness programs can also help build a stronger company culture.

Here are five cultural benefits of employee wellness programs:

Build connections across silos

Participating in an employee wellness program, whether online or onsite, can help employees connect with colleagues they might otherwise never meet. Building relationships and camaraderie make collaboration across functional silos more likely. If you have a global workforce, wellness programs can help make the world seem a little smaller by building human connections.

Engages employees in healthy competition

Many employee wellness programs include an element of competition, such as step count contests or a virtual 10k race or marathon. This sort of friendly competition — among members of teams or between teams separated by function or geography — can boost morale, promote engagement and bring recognition to those employees who come out on top.

Models healthy stress management

Employee stress and anxiety have reached new highs since the pandemic, so employee wellness programs can be especially welcome in this work environment. By engaging in the wellness activities, executive leadership and managers can model healthy methods of dealing with stress. Employees can also inspire each other by choosing exercise over less healthy ways of managing stress.

Communicates a respect for work-life balance

An organization that invests in a robust employee wellness program is demonstrating to employees that they value their health and ability to live a good life outside of work. Many wellness programs now include offerings that go far beyond fitness, such as meditation and mindfulness activities, parenting resources, or support to build greater financial wellness.

Humanized executive leadership

Physical exercise can even the playing field across organizational hierarchy. When employees see the organization’s top executives posting about their workouts or find themselves working out alongside those execs in on-site fitness facilities, it humanizes the people behind those lofty titles. Seeing the CEO sweating it out on a stationary bike, makes him or her instantly more relatable.