Employee wellness programs might not be on par with corporate culture or compensation when it comes to retaining employees, but they can offer some distinct advantages for keeping top talent at your workplace. With competition for top talent being as stiff as it is, a well-designed wellness program can be the element that keeps employees from drifting over to the competition.
Those advantages can include:
1. Fostering a Sense of Community
Wellness programs are about more than just physical health. They’re about mental and emotional health, too. A well-designed program can bring employees together and give them a sense of family and community at work.
In its report Finding Fit: Implementing Wellness Programs Successfully, the University of California, Berkeley, says social community building can be either done by the employees of a company or by the employer via activities like participating in sports or recognizing company milestones together.
A workplace where people feel like part of a community is going to have an easier time keeping workers on board than one that just feels like a collection of individuals.
2. Helping Employees Live Healthier
As part of the University of California report, it says employers can have several different types of wellness programs that range from strictly educational to ones that help employees manage diseases they might be living with. The one thing they all have in common is their focus on helping employees live healthier lives.
It’s one thing to tell employees that you’re helping them be healthier, but it’s another to actually show them as part of the wellness program. Biometric testing can help do this by monitoring important elements in employees like blood glucose levels. You can even use it to monitor if employees are handling workplace stress well by measuring things like cortisol levels, which play an important role in stress management.
3. Being an Important Complement to Health Benefits
Along with a good health benefits package that allows employees to seek out the necessary health care they require, a comprehensive wellness program will help people to live healthy lifestyles. A wellness program is focused on prevention and when coupled with health benefits that provide a safety net for employees and their families, it can be a big incentive for employees to stay put.
4. Contributing to a Better Corporate Culture
Healthy employees happily working for a company that clearly appreciates them and has their best interests in mind is just about the perfect version of corporate culture. A wellness program can help your company take a step toward achieving that ultimate picture of corporate culture. It keeps employees healthier and that will go a long way to making them happier. And, as mentioned previously, a well-designed wellness program clearly shows a business’ appreciation for its employees.
A wellness program can be an effective tool for holding onto the talent you have, as well as recruiting new talent. It gives employees a sense of community, helps them live healthier and helps to create a positive corporate culture.