“Good health is good business”, says Paul Dreschler, Chairman, Bibby Line Group
Employment is the backbone of any company. Considering the impact of the health condition of an employee, various corporate companies are offering innovative wellness programs which can motivate or boost their employees to work with more efficiency. These corporate wellness programs impact positively on employees’ health, and help them to avoid various health issues such as sleep deprivation, obesity, stress, etc. and improve work quality and productivity.
The article focuses on current and future trends in corporate wellness programs conducted by various companies which encourage their employees’ live healthy life.
Involvement of Technology in Employee Engagement
Involvement of new technologies in corporate wellness program helps to motivate company employees to achieve and maintain a healthy life. As a part of corporate wellness program, companies are offering use of various wearable devices like smartwatches and fitness bands which assist in monitoring step count, distance, heart rate, and sleep patterns.
Mobile wellness application is a great gimmick which assists in tracking daily calorie intake and helps in creating personalized exercise plans. Some companies have created mobile wellness applications exclusively to cater health needs of their staffs. These specially designed mobile applications offer health assessments, coaching, biometric management, self-help programs, challenges, and incentives, etc.
Promotion of corporate wellness programs on the company website is a very impactful technique which is used to host health-related activities by companies and engage their employees in health activities.
Personalizing Wellness Programs
The concept of personalization is not just limited to customer strategy. Employers in the health and wellness space are increasingly tailoring their health and wellness initiatives to increase employee engagement, and have a greater impact on overall employee population health. Many employers appreciate the benefits of personalized wellness programs and are integrating different strategizes to familiarize the initiatives to their employees. These initiatives include a wide range of programs targeting the specific health needs of the population, offering wellness coaching, involving families and building reward programs.
Introducing Sleep Pods and Sleep Awareness Programs
A person can work with full productivity if they have a complete sleep of 8 to 9 hours. Lack of sufficient sleep can lead to health issues of an employee, which outcomes in lower productivity levels. Taking this point under consideration, various corporate wellness programs are introducing sleep awareness and education to company staffs. In future, one can expect companies offering incentive programs that will track an employee’s health and reward them with points of achieving their sleep goals. Do not get surprised to see a company creating nap rooms and sleep pods allowing their staff members to take a break and sleep for some time at the workplace.
Proposing Health Risk Assessment
A study conducted by World Health Organization has proved that there is a link between mental illness and obesity. Focusing on the mental aspect of health, corporate wellness program offers on-site resources to company staffs for stress management and promotes healthy living. Corporate wellness program encourages the company staff for social interaction, gives them education about stress and to know how to recognize stress, and the signs of mental stress or illness affecting on person’s body and mind.
Corporate wellness programs provide health benefits to company staff members including various assistance programs which can provide them referrals to mental health professionals and other services maintaining strict confidentiality standards. Company employees are offered health risk assessment consisting questions related to mental health. Peer-to-peer support groups are the best option given by corporate wellness programs to handle mental health conditions of the company staffs.
Appealing and Productive Future
Though corporate wellness programs are on rising today, many staff members of various companies avoid active participation in these programs because of the complexity of tasks. Addressing this issue, corporate wellness programs may focus to introduce simple wellness activities which will attract and motivate employees towards corporate wellness programs resulting in an increase in their attendance.
Besides all these activities, many corporate wellness programs include office-friendly fitness classes such as yoga and pilates, tai chi, kickboxing, zumba, barre etc. This will help prevent serious illness, decrease the risk of diseases, help in stress management, and improve physical strength, stamina, contributing to the total health of an employee.
On the other hand, companies will also get aided by corporate wellness programs due to the reduction in staff absenteeism and increase the productivity of an employee. The corporate wellness program will help companies to attract and retain their staff. To sum up, the future of corporate wellness programs appeals for a win-win situation for both, the companies and their staff members, leading to a successful business.
Redefining Corporate Wellness Trends for a Lively Future
