Benefits of Employee Wellness Programs
No employee wants to be sick, or burned out, or disengaged—and yet we find ourselves in the midst of a burnout crisis. It’s a situation where too many people are working in ways or places that feel incompatible with work-life balance and general well-being. They’re feeling increasingly disconnected at work, and they’re unsure how to turn things around. They’re getting frustrated, exhausted, and burned out—and, making matters worse, they don’t believe their employers care (other than when they have to miss work).
This crisis is even starting to impact managers and leaders, who are also burning out. They’re seeing too many employees burning out and leaving, and the constant turnover seems like an endless cycle—a revolving door of the exhausted and frustrated.
That’s why more companies are looking to adopt a wellness platform for employees capable of powering an employee wellness program. As they discover that employees increasingly expect their employers to actively support their mental and physical wellbeing, they’re also discovering that their ability to offer competitive programs has an impact on their ability to attract and retain talent.
Offering employee wellness programs provides compelling benefits for employers as well as their employees. In this article, we’re going to focus on the benefits of these wellness programs from the employees’ perspective. We’ll discuss the importance, benefits, and impact of employee wellness programs, so you can better understand how to provide employees with the resources they need to feel healthy and supported not just at their workplace but in their daily lives.
Why Is Wellness Important in the Workplace?
It’s not hard to understand the importance of wellness programs in the workplace when you realize that the average employee who works a 40-hour work-week is spending at least a third of each weekday at their place of employment. An employer’s ability to make them feel supported and in a position to thrive often makes or breaks the entire employee experience. In a worst-case scenario, this leads to a stagnant—if not outright toxic—work environment over time.
Before we continue, it’s worth defining what wellness in the workplace entails, as it’s about considerably more than just keeping employees healthy enough to not miss their shifts.
What Is a Wellness Program for Employees?
An employee wellness program is “a program intended to improve and promote health and fitness that's usually offered through the work place,” as defined by HealthCare.gov. These programs often include discounts and incentives to encourage employees to adopt healthy habits and a proactive approach to managing their health.
What Is the Purpose of an Employee Wellness Program?
The purpose of an employee wellness program is two-fold:
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For companies, the primary purpose of a wellness program is to encourage employees to make healthy lifestyle choices. This not only creates a better work environment; it also goes a long way toward attracting and retaining high-quality employees (and minimizing absenteeism).
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For employees, wellness programs are meant to both educate and inspire employees with the resources and incentives to increase their overall wellness, make smart health-related decisions, and, ultimately, live their best lives.
As you can imagine, companies with employee wellness programs often have an advantage when it comes to recruiting great talent and keeping it around. When employees feel supported—and like their health and well-being means as much as the company’s bottom line—they tend to be much more content and productive, benefiting the entire organization and building a culture of empowerment.
According to the book Corporate Wellness Program: Linking Employee and Organizational Health, there are four main objectives an employee wellness program should strive to achieve: “defining health in a way that includes worker well-being, creating a supportive workplace environment, offering prevention-focused health education, and providing rewards for healthy employee behaviors.”
What Should Be Included in an Employee Wellness Program?
While no two employee wellness programs will be identical, there are certain components that many of the best employee wellness programs have in common. According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), these include:
Vaccination Clinics: Hosting or participating in a vaccination clinic makes it much easier and affordable for employees to protect themselves (and their families) against seasonal flu strains, COVID-19, and other conditions.
Nutrition Education: There are several ways employers can promote nutrition education and healthy decision-making. For example, making nutritious snacks and drinks available throughout the day can help with attention, energy, and overall health. After all, one of the biggest barriers to making nutritious choices is the availability and affordability of healthy options.
Exercise Programs and Activities: While no one doubts the importance of physical activity, it’s a difficult thing for many people to prioritize. Some don’t have access to facilities where they can exercise in a supportive environment, let alone classes designed to build healthy habits and to make workouts more socialized and less individualized. Offering organized fitness classes, discounted gym membership, or other fitness-promoting incentives can go a long way toward a healthier and happier workforce.
Health Screenings: Knowledge is power, especially when it comes to personal health management. When it’s difficult for employees to schedule healthcare provider visits, they’re less likely to make regular appointments and get timely health screenings. By providing on-site screenings, it becomes easier for employees to take control over their health. Most screenings don’t take long, so bringing a provider on-site for even a half-day can accommodate plenty of appointments.
Weight Management Programs: By sponsoring weight loss or weight management programs, employers can address one of the biggest epidemics in the country: obesity. There are several ways employers can support their employees as they work to achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle, including on-site classes or workshops with nutritionists and weight specialists, providing discounts to workout classes and facilities, incentivizing weight loss programs, and even connecting employees with health coaches and advocates.
Health Risk Assessments: Many people only see their healthcare provider when something’s wrong, which prevents them from taking a more proactive approach to managing their health. By making health risk assessments available, employers can help employees to better understand various aspects of their health, including understanding what types of conditions they might have certain risk factors for.
Smoking Cessation: Over 1 in 10 American adults smoke cigarettes, despite the fact that it’s the number one cause of preventable disease/death in the United States. There are several ways a workplace can support the journey of those looking to quit—including making the workplace smoke-free, encouraging participation in smoking cessation programs, and creating a supportive culture around kicking the habit for good.
Stress Reduction: Due to the fact that prolonged, unchecked stress levels can lead to significant mental and physical problems potentially affecting the whole body, stress is often known as a “silent killer.” Employers can help employees reduce stress by providing programs that help them understand their causes of stress and find ways to actively reduce their stress levels. Employers can offer employee assistance programs (EAPs) to address workplace stress, as well as offering more flexible work schedules, on-site stress management resources, or even yoga or meditation sessions.
While each of the items listed above can be effective in supporting employee wellness, one of the most important components of any employee wellness program should be flexibility. In other words, these programs should not be one-size-fits-all—and they should offer services that employees actually want to use. This means offering a wide range of initiatives and encouraging—but not forcing—employees to participate at will.
Caring about employee wellness doesn’t mean forcing them to live their lives in a certain way, after all. Instead, truly caring means acknowledging that everyone has their own priorities, challenges, and preferences, and offering both encouragement and support as they navigate their journey toward better wellbeing.
How Important Is a Wellness Program to Employees?
Employees are increasingly interested in working for employers that offer meaningful health benefits, including wellness programs. Consider the following employee wellness statistics from Forbes:
A majority (nearly 90%) of employees “consider health and wellness packages when choosing an employer.”
Two-thirds (67%) of employees whose employers offer wellness programs “like their jobs more” and are “extremely or very likely to recommend their employer to others.”
Over half of both Gen Zers (54%) and Millennials (58%) consider a company’s wellness program to be “important or extremely important when making a job decision.”
These statistics certainly make a case for employee wellness programs, but are employers taking note and offering wellness programs for their workers? Some, but not all…
What Percentage of Companies Have Wellness Programs?
The short answer is not enough. Despite the fact that 83% of large companies offer some type of health-related programs, as of early 2023, data indicates that only a quarter (25%) of employees feel like the company they work for truly cares about their wellbeing. While this is a few percentage points higher than the numbers for a recent low of 21% in mid-2022, it’s significantly lower than the recent high it reached in mid-2019 (48%).
Perhaps unaware of the positive impact of employee wellness programs (covered above), not enough employers are offering wellness programs for employees. As Forbes found, less than half (40%) of employers “prioritize their wellness initiatives within their overall benefits strategy,” and only a quarter (25%) “leverage their benefits programs to recruit employees.”
This presents a great opportunity for companies that want to attract and retain top-tier talent: developing and promoting meaningful wellness programs and initiatives.
What Percentage of Employees Participate in Wellness Programs?
It really depends on the quality of the program. According to RAND, without meaningful program incentives, employee participation is only around 20%—but that figure doubles when incentives are offered. The key to increased participation is creating an accessible and comprehensive program—not just a handful of (limited) benefits. Research shows that “employers with comprehensive programs reported the highest participation rate” (59%).
These figures underscore the importance of not just creating a wellness program, but creating one that aligns with the needs of your employees—a program that enables them to choose which elements to participate in, with something for everybody.
Next, let’s explore the specific benefits of wellness programs for employees, so you can better understand how to implement a program that will make a real difference for your employees and organization.
How Do Employee Wellness Programs Benefit Employees?
More Accessible Services and Care: From both a logistical and financial perspective, employee wellness programs make key services and care much more accessible and affordable. From general health education and mental health support to smoking cessation and weight management programs, employers who offer wellness programs make it much easier for their employees to receive the services and support they need to thrive.
A More-Engaged Workplace: When people can work in an environment where they feel truly supported—not just as employees, but as well-rounded human beings—they get more done and feel better doing it. Employee wellness programs that offer something for everyone—and allow employees to participate in as many aspects of the program as they like—ensure that all employees feel supported. Taken together, the employee benefits covered above all contribute to something increasingly-important to modern employees from across virtually all walks of life and industries: work-life balance.
Taken together, the employee benefits covered above all contribute to something increasingly-important to modern employees from across virtually all walks of life and industries: work-life balance.
There are several key benefits of employee wellness programs in the workplace, including:
Better Health: While wellness programs often provide a tangible ROI for companies, improving employees’ health should be the main objective of any program. Through the resources and incentives it provides, a well-designed wellness program should make it easy for employees to understand their own health, establish healthy behaviors, and take a proactive approach to wellness. This way, employees not only feel better (as well as more engaged and productive) at work but also in their daily lives.
The Importance of Work-Life Balance
Nobody ever sets out to become a workaholic, just like no one aspires to become disengaged or burned-out by their work. A recent study cited by The Happiness Index found that more workers “were attracted to their current role for the work-life balance (41%) than the salary (36%),” representing a “switch in rankings compared to 2019, before the pandemic.”
For further evidence, consider the top reasons people left employers in 2021. According to Pew Research, outside of low pay, no opportunities for advancement, or simply feeling disrespected, the top reasons workers quit their jobs were related to child care issues (48%), lack of flexibility in working hours (45%), or insufficient health benefits (43%).
When employers understand what’s most important to their employees, they can design and implement wellness programs tailored to their needs. In doing so, “work” no longer becomes a place that’s at odds with a healthy work-life balance—instead, it promotes it and makes a true balance possible. And when employees can get the inspiration, resources, and support they need to live healthier lives, the benefits extend beyond the workplace and tend to last longer than their tenure with the company.
What Are 2 Examples of Wellness Programs Done Well?
A recent SHRM article profiles two great examples of programs that were effective in promoting employee wellness and contributing to a workplace culture that prioritizes overall wellness and work-life balance:
Chevron implemented a program centered around a mental health initiative they called “Let’s Talk” that “emphasizes the importance of establishing a strong, sustained community of support for employees” by encouraging managers to “share personal stories with their teams, promote utilization of well-being tools, and participate in mental health events and programming.”
Recognizing that employee wellness is a complex and multidimensional topic, Gallup developed their wellness program with the intention to unite and promote the five distinct aspects of wellbeing that quality worksite wellness programs contribute to: career, social, financial, physical, and community-oriented wellbeing. Their program leverages the Clifton Strengths framework to assess various facets of employees’ wellbeing, which not only helps people to understand their own health better but also motivates them to replace unhealthy habits with healthy ones. They even provided an intuitive resource, Wellbeing at Work, that enables employees to self-assess their wellbeing and discover personalized pathways toward healthier lifestyles.
Discover Wellness by Moser Labs
At Moser Labs, we’ve created a revolutionary employee app for wellbeing. Wellness by Moser Labs makes it easier for employers to attract top talent, empower employees, and boost productivity. But it’s also so much more: it’s an easy and efficient way to track and incentivize various aspects of your wellness program.
With Wellness by Moser Labs, you can provide employees with a way to be reimbursed for certain expenses related to their health. You can set the parameters and eligibility criteria, and employees can submit expenses through an app. As the employer, you only pay for what employees submit for reimbursement, with no minimum spend or minimum users. It allows you to provide a wide range of benefits while keeping costs down—you only pay for what employees actually use.
Learn more about our platform here, or contact us to schedule a demo.
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