Wellness programs -
Reprint: RJ Employee wellness programs have often been viewed as a nice extra, not a strategic imperative. A version of this article appeared in the December issue of Harvard Business Review. HBR Learning.
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Leonard L. Berry is University Distinguished Professor of Marketing, Regents Professor, and the M. He is also a senior fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. In some cases, additional testing from false positives can even put employees at risk and waste money.
Disease management programs are structured treatment plans that aim to help people better manage chronic disease s and maintain and improve quality of life. A team of health professionals, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dietitians, etc. Some programs might be more patient-directed and include counseling, home visits, hour call centers, and appointment reminder systems to support individuals who are managing their chronic condition s.
Increasingly, these programs are becoming digitized and more affordable, as less human intervention is required. Mostly medium to large organizations. Disease management programs are targeted, often focusing on a specific chronic condition that may be particularly prevalent with an employee population.
Because these programs tend to be costly, companies should only invest in these programs if they identify enough employees suffering from a specific condition to justify the resources. Small employers tend not to have enough individuals with the same chronic condition to justify the expense.
As one of the "hottest" areas in many health and wellness programs, financial wellness offerings are rapidly rising in popularity. To provide employees with personalized help, many organizations enroll the assistance of financial professionals to provide them with counseling or financial planning.
These sessions may be one-on-one more expensive or in a group format more affordable. Many surveys have shown that employees are universally struggling to achieve financial well-being on their own and are stressed out about money, leading to lowered productivity at work. All employers would be wise to help them combat this problem.
However, hiring financial professionals can come at a steep price tag, making this type of program more suitable for companies with larger wellness budgets.
For an affordable likely free option, employers should contact their k plan administrator. These organizations often offer free financial wellness seminars. For many companies looking to encourage fitness during the workday, on-site fitness classes are a great solution. These classes are often held in conference rooms or other open spaces.
In addition to a great work out, group fitness classes provide employees with opportunities to get together, build camaraderie, and have fun. Research also suggests that group exercise is the most impactful exercise for improving mental health.
As such, fitness classes are a versatile tool that can address physical, mental, and social well-being. Fitness classes do not necessarily need to be limited to physical fitness. Guided meditation sessions are great ways to improve well-being and manage stress without needing to provide shower facilities.
Organizations with appropriate open spaces to hold classes. Weather permitting, companies can opt to hold these classes in the parking lot or a nearby park.
Additionally, there should be a showering facility on-site if the classes will be held prior to the end of a workday. Companies with a significant remote population should consider carefully before offering this perk as their remote employees will not have access to classes.
In this case, it might be wiser to provide all employees with fitness reimbursements to exercise on their own time. Flexible work schedules allow employees to alter their workday start and finish times to better accommodate their needs outside of the office.
It might also include remote work options where employees can complete their work-related tasks away from the office. Employees have personal priorities and responsibilities, from spending time with loved ones to caring for themselves, that often need to be addressed at different times of the day.
Flexible work arrangements put employees in the driver seat and allow them to design a work schedule for their personal situation. As such, flexible work has the potential to improve multiple dimensions of wellness, from emotional to physical to occupational well-being.
Most organizations. Flexible work schedules are also a cost-effective solution. While some organizations rely heavily on shift work e. Remote work may also help employers save on office expenses, from rental payments and furniture to healthy snacks in the kitchen.
However, it is important that organizations implementing these arrangements actively work to combat employee loneliness, as studies are exploring the link between flexible and remote work and the adverse impact it may have on social well-being. Flu shot clinics mainly address employees' physical wellness.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC , the flu costs the U. The indirect costs of lost productivity and sick leave for employers are also quite significant. Likely driven by recent flu seasons being some of the worse in decades, more companies are looking to launch flu shot clinics as part of their employee benefits.
Every group that can meet the minimum size requirements to have a clinic should consider doing so. However, similar to other on-site offerings, companies with a significant remote population should consider having equivalent benefits for off-site employees.
If budget considerations prevent offering this wellness benefit, employers should consider educational campaigns to encourage employees to get a flu shot at their local pharmacy or physician's office. Free food has always been an employee-favorite perk. However, salty chips and candies, while appealing, might not be the best option for a mid-afternoon snack.
To promote healthy eating, organizations are opting to stock their kitchen with more nutritious options, such as snacks with whole grains, healthy fats, and protein. This perk falls under the umbrella of physical wellness, as it impacts nutrition. Healthy snacks can be purchased in bulk and do not have to be expensive.
For organizations looking to double down on physical well-being, providing standing desks might not be enough. Reimbursing employees for the membership cost of exercise facilities can encourage them to work out without eating into normal work hours as on-site fitness classes may.
This is an attractive benefit, especially for millennials, who place high consideration on total rewards programs and benefits. However, this can be a significant investment and therefore might be more suitable for medium and large employers.
Some health plans might have gym or fitness reimbursement built-in to their policies, which can help subsidize the cost. Gym reimbursement works especially well for organizations with remote employees as it does not limit access.
Employee health coaching refers to personalized educational sessions with a certified health expert that can be conducted in either one-on-one or group formats. Some companies offer health coaching as a next step for employees identified as high-risk through a biometric screening or health risk assessment, while others extend the benefit to anybody in the organization who is looking for guidance and support to improve their health.
Because health coaching sessions are personalized, they can address any dimension of well-being in which employees request assistance. Personalized programs with human interventions can be costly and less scalable, and health coaching is no different.
If an organization has a limited wellness budget, offering health coaching sessions might not be the best use of these dollars. However, for organizations with mature wellness programs, getting personalized guidance from health coaches is the excellent next step employees can take to improve their well-being.
FREE EBOOK: EMPLOYEE HEALTH COACHING These programs provide employees with access to relevant, quality, and timely health content either through on-site seminars or online webinars as well as through other media such as newsletters or wellness brochures. With the growing amount of misinformation available to consumers via the internet, employer-facilitated health literacy is becoming increasingly important.
These educational sessions can be tailored to address any dimension of wellness as the employer sees fit for their population. These programs can be low-cost newsletters, etc. Massage at Work is a unique kind of well-being company that emphasizes the use of massage chairs into their health and wellness programs.
Companies hire Massage at Work to install their chairs into the work environment so that employees can use them. Massage chairs have been found to reduce stress, increase blood circulation, and reduce back and neck pain.
With the massage chairs by Massage at Work, companies will save even more money with their investment because these chairs just keep satisfying employees over and over again.
HealthForce provides a comprehensive wellness program to build and maintain a healthy workforce. They deliver health information, expert advice and professional services where and when needed. They provide online management of job-based health questionnaires, physical exams and medical clearances for onboarding, regulatory compliance and return-to-work.
Orchestrate from your desktop. Employers can also get staffing and management of worksite health clinics and on-demand delivery of health testing, screening and examination services at the worksite. Founded in , MindBody is a software company that creates business management software which caters specifically to clients of the wellness services industry.
MindBody does not create health and wellness programs or wellness programs in the workplace. Instead, they will provide online business management software to a well-being company that offers wellness services.
The software is cloud-based, which means the software data is easily accessible to anyone given privileged access to the account. MindBody currently has roughly 35 million people using their cloud-based software in over countries throughout the world.
Employee health and wellness programs can only be effective if they are managed properly. Based in Allouez, Wisconsin, myinertia is a health consultant company which creates wellness management software that can track all the health and wellness programs of a company.
Employers will receive a customizable template for the online system which they can structure in a way that is suitable for the wellness programs in the workplace they are using. Spire introduces health wellness programs in the workplace in order to help employees become physically healthier.
Spire will help your employees become more engaged in their lifestyle wellness program while reducing the healthcare costs you have to pay for them. Ultimately, Spire will transform your workforce into one that is happier, healthier, and more productive.
Spire was founded in Chattanooga, Tennessee by a group of former soccer players. Their idea was to figure out a way to not only bring rewards, motivation, and support to those participating on sports teams, but to also bring these concepts to employees in the workplace as well.
Christina Ford and Martha Switzer created Sprout after working for big multinational corporations for years and seeing their lack of wellness programs in the workplace. Now more employees have the knowledge and resources necessary to live healthy and productive lifestyles.
In addition, Sprout gives employers the tools to measure the impact that these health and wellness programs are having on their employees. WellNow helps employers implement programs in the workplace that are based on data-driven insight and strategies towards employee health and wellness.
WellNow will first offer a health assessment on the employees and then create custom health and wellness programs that are suitable for their particular health issues. WellNow can also provide disease management services in case the organization in question has a disease problem. Stress management is becoming a more crucial aspect in employee health and wellness.
If employees are too stressed, it can be detrimental to the productivity of a company. StressStop was created to deliver an array of wellness services to companies that are currently having this problem with their employees. Furthermore, StressStop will ensure these stress management resources pertain to the culture and atmosphere of the company that needs them.
Livongo transforms lives, workplaces and communities by offering a lifestyle wellness program with weight-management and disease-prevention solutions that help all populations live a happier, healthier life.
What sets Retrofit apart from others is the level of personalization they bring to their suite of solutions that tackle obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome. These personal wellness plans deliver real-time interventions that evolve as individual needs change, producing proven outcomes and lasting results.
In fact, 88 percent of Livongo clients lose weight and 78 percent keep it off 12 months later. Some of these personal wellness plans include:. Fitness challenges and incentives are not new to WellSteps employee health and wellness programs — visit our challenges page to view those centered around physical activity, healthy eating, emotional health, and more.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic which has prompted many wellness services to offer incentives for those who receive their vaccination and flu shots.
A comprehensive wellness program will include nutrition and weight management. Check out the study here. Learning resilience and stress management skills is a great way to stave off future ailments. A lot of our physical pains are stress induced, or at the very least, they are exacerbated by stress — hence the reason why wellness programs tackle this issue.
Online health and wellness programs have become more popular than ever since the pandemic started. Wellness programs have taken notice and many have just recently added this service to their program.
The five types of health that relate to wellness include physical, spiritual, social, emotional, and intellectual. Ideally, health wellness programs take all five types as a point of focus in order to achieve holistic wellbeing.
Available for Wellness programs pdf icon [PDF — KB]. Wellnesx helping workers uphold work-life balance and improve overall health, organizations are Wellnezs Wellness programs wellness benefits such Wellnwss recognition, paid Wellness programs off, leadership Wfllness, and pprograms volunteer Electrolytes and hydration that improve both well-being and overall engagement in the workplace. Wellness program engagement is about more than just showing up at a health screening or other activity to receive an incentive or avoid a financial penalty. Although participation is necessary to be engaged, employees do have to be engaged to participate. Engagement involves creating and maintaining a sincere interest and involvement in living a healthy life—at home and at work. Considering the improvements made Welljess the health and well-being of a workplace, Wellness programs Wellnes amount of Wellness programs we spend at our workplaces, it makes sense programss Wellness programs workplace Wellness programs programs. Wellnness only does it prorgams the Wellness programs WWellness of team Wellnfss, but it Cranberry cheese ball recipes them feel Wellness programs in all areas of life—including work. As the world of work progresses, one of the signs of a top-notch employer will be the quality of their workplace wellness program in recruiting and retaining talent. Big or small, all businesses can benefit from some form of a wellness initiative at work. This might be considered the granddaddy of all corporate wellness program examples. Not everyone can provide their team members with a 72, square foot fitness centre, but Chesapeake Energy considers it a completely justified expense for recruiting and retaining healthy team members.
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