What Makes Wellness at the Workplace Work!

Is the increase in wellness spends by large companies, really a good investment option towards employee wellness or are we only just fooling ourselves?

A whopping $4 trillion industry, wellness has been growing at a more than healthy rate of 13% every year. Beauty, personal care, nutrition, and fitness form the bulk of the market, with wellness tourism, wellness real-estate and personalized medicine tagging along.

Why Wellness Works!

It is believed that ‘millennials’ are far more likely to spend on experiences as compared to the older generations. These young ones do not concern themselves over ‘surviving’ like the older generation did. Additionally, they do have a higher need for the ever-changing gadgets that lure us. Work-hard and play-hard have become the mantra of this generation that is also leading to a higher level of stress and anxiety. It is for these reasons that the wellness has taken off as an industry, be it to obtain pleasurable experiences (spa, wellness tourism, coaching) or to reduce the negative experiences (personalized health, wellness real-estate, counseling).

Why do Corporates Care About Wellness?

It is no secret that a happy employee is a great asset to the organization from a productivity, creativity and word-of-mouth perspective. Large and small companies have always wanted to ensure that their employees are happy and contributing to the growth of the company.

It is just that at each stage, companies have also weighed the cost of providing that wellness and the returns that it gets from the effort. While employees were happy and satisfied with medical insurance coverage, paid leave for a couple of weeks along with sick leave and a bonus every year, that is no longer the case and corporates need so much more to retain their employees and have them contribute effectively.

Companies like Google and Facebook have definitely upped the ante by providing colorful jazzy environments, cafeteria’s filled gourmet food, inhouse gyms and spas and much more.

Corporate Wellness Workbook

Corporate wellness follows the same trend as the overall wellness market. Most corporates that have budgets for wellness invest in physical wellness programs that include marathons, healthy snack options, nutrition-based food options, discounted or free access to gyms and spas. Spends in the area of mental wellness are limited.

A study conducted in the U.S. showed there was no significant difference in aspects like absenteeism, money spent on healthcare, and performance on the job between those exposed to a wellness program or not. There is another research that proves that the wellness offerings made by a company may work for employees who are already healthy and have that mindset anyway. It can be argued that these specific wellness programs that were being tested may not have been effective enough or may not have designed properly.

The argument is that merely having a wellness program is not enough if you are genuinely interested in increasing the wellbeing of your employees. What is required is a wellness program that suits their needs, one that does not alienate them and is genuinely directed towards their overall wellness. A metric system that helps in measuring the proportion of people who use the benefits provided and the effect that these programs are having on the desired outcomes should be created.

Have the organizations even conducted an understanding of what their employees want. Is it something as simple as a remote working day a week, flexible working hours or is it something that requires higher levels of investment like a nutrition-packed lunch every day and an all-paid-for gym & spa membership?

Workplace Wellness Viewpoint

Workplace wellness is not likely to work unless it is customized. Take a leaf from what the Singapore government has done for all its citizens. All Singaporeans have been provided with a digital tracking fitness device for free. The citizens log into the device for every positive wellness activity that they do, be it running a marathon, trekking, simply finishing their 10K steps a day, going to the gym – the possibilities are endless. The citizens earn points that can then be redeemed in different ways! Such a simple program that allows for customization at the individual level.

Only a few companies that have larger budgets also offer a mental health hotline and coaching talks and sessions for their employees. This is despite the fact that mental health issues are rampant these days, a large proportion of these emanating due to excessive stress from the workplace.

Corporates are doing a good job of employee wellbeing when it comes to physical wellness. There is, however, some effort that is required in the area of mental wellness, an area that is causing low productivity and absenteeism to a larger degree. One of the biggest hurdles towards this is the lack of a compassionate environment and fear of being judged if they do seek out help in this area.

What’s Needed for Workable Workplace Wellness

The need of the day in workplace wellness is a complete change in mindset. Some of the areas that need to be worked upon include:

• A shift in focus from the number of hours spent working to actual target achievement
• A mindset change where people are not evaluated based on who works long hours
• A compassionate culture where those who reach out for mental wellness are not judged as weak and needy
• An environment of trust where the employees can hope to be rewarded for their work and not for appearing to work
• And most of all, a realization that wellness needs are unique and therefore the solutions that the company offers also needs to be flexible

Such a change is likely to require a concerted effort from the change agents who believe this is a necessary move to ensure general employee wellbeing. It may mean starting slow and proving to the more skeptic people of the lot that the company is here to ensure their wellness without judgment!