By
Jyoti Tejpal
Health plans for next-generation challenges & health content technology platform, on-site services, fitness classes, seminars, health coaching with flexibility
Highly innovative corporate wellness platform improving physical & mental health, wellbeing of workforce, delivering high/measurable improvement in productivity
all-in-one corporate health wellness solution enabling employers to create simple & engaging wellness programs, challenges helping employees stay fit & healthy
The benefits of a wellness program increase employee happiness and loyalty. And has practical goals reaching capacity when done correctly.
It is crystal clear that a wellness program has a significant positive effect on company employees. But to get the desired results, you are required to select a program that employees will utilize, on top of it, it must be more comfortable too.
This addresses not only physical health, but also mental health with challenges like stress, sleep, and even parenting.
Mental health aspects affect employee happiness and productivity, similar to physical ailments. Therefore, it is necessary to help and fit it into the plan.
The solution opted should be easily accessible for employees who work different shifts, travel, have families, or at times it is not comfortable to exercise in groups with their coworkers.
Last but not least, it is crucial to set the goal for a sustainable, long-term solution. The best way to do this is to add a social aspect to the program.
The employees need a wellness plan, and they expect that plan to meet their specific requirements and goals.
The initial step in choosing a wellness program is determining what you should be looking for precisely through the program. The ultimate goal to be achieved is to have a positive impact on the employees’ health and well-being. But this can be done in several ways by working towards the goal.
Educational programs are designed in a manner to give employees information about how to improve health. The data would be collected in the form of online classes, programs, and resources, in-person classes, or a series of in-office seminars or webinars.
Community-building programs is made to build secure social connections between employees and support for health-related goals and initiatives. the task can be achieved with group fitness classes, employee sports matches, and friendly tests and challenges
Habit-building programs ensure employees developing and maintaining healthy habits like regular exercise, corrected nutrition, and a lot of stress management. These types of programs are assigned to change employee behaviour, in and out of work.
Education, community, and habit building are all critical goals for the organization, and very much possible to achieve them all — employee just required to keep each thing in mind to evaluate various programs.
All employees are unique. They are from different age groups, different fitness levels, different tastes/interests, and different level of comfort zones. So a one-size-fits-all setting to classes and programming is setting yourself up for failure.
Before adopting a program, it’s crucial to know what is the purpose, and the employee is trying to accomplish. And the best way to do this is to spend some time setting clear and marked goals.
These goals must be divided into short-term and long-term. First, decide to launch the desired program with a one-month fitness challenge. The target can be just 70% of the employees participate in the trial.
That’s a great start! But considering that maintaining and improving health requires ongoing commitment, you’ll want to set clear long-term goals for your program as well.
If your program is designed to improve employee satisfaction, you might measure your success by monitoring employee retention rates and absenteeism over time.
If you decide on a fitness-related plan, you can choose to measure the success by how many employees take part in the activities provided to them, each month or quarter.
The clearer the goals, the easier it will be to determine what kind of program will help you reach them — and the more confidence will follow to measure the success over time.
Employees’ health is worth investing in. When employees use wellness programs to make lifestyle changes, they can save companies many hundreds of rupees each through increased productivity.
So even from a financial point of view, wellness programs are worth it. Still, there are likely limitations on just how much you can spend on a wellness program.
As you determine your budget, you’ll also want to see whether your company is eligible for wellness dollars. Extra funding for the workshops and wellness seminars can make all the difference in the quality of the program.
Employee interest is the basis of a program’s success. Participation isn’t always a given equal chance.
The employees do care about health and wellness. They might require a little breakthrough or inspiration to start the task— and you may request to put in the work it takes to find a solution that will help get that.
It would be best if you started by collecting feedback before launching to ensure that the company is not wasting money on programs the employees don’t want. The company can also help employees achieve high participation rates right from the start by motivating them for the program.
Prioritizing means the company will be able to narrow the list of potential programs down significantly. Then, the employee can evaluate the remaining options based on a few key factors:
Accessibility
If the program encourages healthy behaviour outside the office, the company will need to make sure that any resources or materials employees require are easily accessible and convenient to use whenever employees want, wherever they are.
Sustainability
The wellness program shouldn’t be a one-off challenge or initiative. To evaluate the options, make sure the one employee chooses has the potential to be a long-term solution.
Community
All the factors play a role in developing new habits. Still, best motivators are in-person and virtual support that the ideal plan should always include steps for establishing secure connections between employees.
Employers have more options than ever when it comes to corporate wellness programs. And it means there’s no shortage of choice, and it can also make it challenging to select. The programs that generally work for the culture and workforce.
But after going through the guide, the aim is to have a clearer idea of what to look for when evaluating the options, and how to find a program which is right for the employees’ requires and interests.
