Introduction
A business wellness program is an offering that businesses provide for their employees to improve their physical and mental wellness.
History
It is an accepted fact that healthy and happy employees are more productive. Wellness is defined by the DePaul University as an “interactive way of becoming aware and practicing healthy choices to create a balanced lifestyle”
Business wellness programs are now widely offered by many companies. These are offered in form of health club memberships, onsite check-ups, free screenings and vaccinations and many more.
The importance of business wellness programs are very varied and impact all areas from employee satisfaction to organizational revenue.
An “Ipsos-Reid Study” released in 2004, Depression or mental health disorders contribute to 66% of the employee absenteeism.
A business wellness program that is well designed and includes participation of employees directly results in a large group of healthy, motivated and highly productive staff. In many organizations, a long term business wellness program has shown that employees get physically to an optimum weight, improve their self –image, this reduces stress and increases confidence. Employees feel cared for by the organization and this helps in retention.
Features
Wellness, in itself is a long-term goal, and hence a business wellness program helps the employees of the business manage their health goals like manage cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes etc.One of the biggest hurdles in making a business wellness program successful is to get employees to participate. Normally they are already pretty occupied in their work that they do not see any value add initially. Some even may consider it as taking time away from their “revenue” making time which contributes to their targets and bonuses. In such cases, awareness programs, road shows where “the program goes to them rather than them going to the program” kind of approach can help overcome initial hesitation. It is also helps to affirm confidence in the program by the senior management signing up first. Also incentives for the employees for signing up will also improve participation. Creating ambassadors within the employee brethren to endorse the benefits achieved from the program is also another way to create more participation. As this requires people to disclose their medical history, it is important that these programs are designed to protect privacy.
Many large companies like Coco-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, and DuPontetc have accepted to have achieved a large amount of savings by reduction of absenteeism within the first year of starting a business wellness program and recurring savings in the second and third years of the program. It is no rocket science then to understand that a business wellness program can arrest this issue and reduce counter-productivity. Business wellness programs are not perks anymore, they are designed as the company’s health care policy and carefully planned to help the bottom line. A good program can also help in reducing group insurance premiums of the company.
Tips and comments
However once set in motion, a well-designed business wellness program acts as a good will asset to the company and also serves as differentiators for potential employees to choose from.
