Corporate Wellness: A New Bottom Line
While corporate wellness programs unequivocally reduce healthcare costs, decrease illness, lower blood pressure and risk for heart disease in its employees, wellness means so much more than being ‘illness-free.’
The right wellness program will support its employees physical, mental, and social health as well as support them in achieving their individual health goals.
“When employees needs are met or provided for via a corporate wellness program, employers see high engagement, morale, presenteeism, retention, and in most cases, improved health outcomes,”
says wellness practitioner and Dietician Caroline Susie.
Perhaps one of the most important factors is the feeling of being valued and supported by management.
“When a team understands how much a company cares about each individual person, their people will work harder, be more dedicated and can more easily operate as one unit. If the overall wellness of an organization is evaluated and treated holistically, a company can minimize problems while maximizing culture and profitability.”
Dr. Sahoury author of Gladiator’s Guide to Corporate Health & Wealth
Wellness programs result in employees taking fewer sick days, feeling less stressed at work and being more focused on the task at hand and better able to make informed rational decisions.
In a world where studies suggest the average worker is productive for only about 3 hours a day, productivity is clearly an important factor in increasing profit with existing resources.
Wellness programs result in employees who are more actively engaged in their job, have a sense of purpose in their career as well as create community and team unity within departments and organizations which transcends to better teamwork, communication & collaboration in the office.
Employees are happy when they have a sense of control over their lives and health.
According to Dr. Jodi Ashbrook, [managing stress] amidst corporate chaos can feel impossible in an office setting. “The ‘Always On’ phenomenon, including email marathons, back-to-back meetings, and long commutes thrown into the mix creates an ongoing demand for wellness tools and best practices to help manage stress, anxiety, and frustration on a daily basis,” she says.
“And in a work environment that demands increasingly more from employees to keep pace with accelerating technology and higher expectations, stress can have a negative impact on wellbeing and on productivity.”
The right wellness program will incorporate education and offerings that practically give employees the tools to better understand their stress and effective methods to manage that stress, make rational decisions delegate, and prioritize.
“The average person spends the majority of their life at work, and about half of the population cites work as their biggest stressor,” says Dr. Ellie Cobb,
Research across numerous industries has found that increased satisfaction at work is directly linked with increased productivity,” she says, adding that workplace wellness programs have been found to effectively increase productivity due to this link between satisfaction and productivity. “Basically, workplace wellness programs engenders happier employees, and happy employees work harder and more efficiently.”