Tips for Establishing a Successful Wellness Program for Your Employees

Every now and again, you'll find employees who put their work over their wellness. This can lead to absenteeism, poor health outcomes, and even job cessation if there's a high risk factor for burnout. This is why many companies in the United States have started to develop wellness programs to improve employee health.

Whether it's a workplace wellness program with incentives for physical activity or an employee wellness program that focuses on mental health, such programs are making waves across the nation. Here's how to start one of your own.

Decide what to include

Employee wellness can take on many different forms. It can include financial incentives. It can focus on stress management and mental health for behavior improvements. It can specialize in physical health, weight loss to combat obesity, and cholesterol and blood pressure management. Deciding what to include will likely depend on your budget but it's often a good idea to include multiple services in your workplace wellness program. Some wellness programs even include biometric screenings, health risk assessments for health conditions, and health insurer-sponsored medical examinations. While your employee wellness program doesn't have to go as far as to incorporate a biometric screening, promoting a healthy lifestyle is important for program participants.

Commonly, health education is popular. It also leads to a healthier lifestyle and can boost worker productivity. Depending on the types of wellness programs you invest in, you'll need to look into medical expenditures for overall wellness costs. However, if the budget allows, these services can easily lead to a more positive work environment.

Incentive employee participation

A great way to get more employees on board is through smart incentives. Whether these incentives are gift cards for winning a fitness challenge or extra PTO for crafting a person's health plan, there are plenty of steps you can take to boost worksite involvement. It's a good idea to discuss this with your human services department. Incentives can also increase employee productivity. And while seminars are great for health promotion and education, a more interactive type of program is likely to see a stronger response.

Some wellness initiatives can even include services like in-office massages or spa days. If you don't have the space for a massage station, you could consider investing some of your medical costs for your corporate wellness program into spa treatments. Overall, wellness program incentives can lead to better health outcomes and are an easy way to increase participation.

Make it accessible

A corporate wellness program won't succeed if there's a barrier to entry - even if there are wellness program incentives. As such, it may make sense for medical costs to go toward stronger accessibility. Small things like providing healthy snacks, access to a dietitian, and discounted gym memberships can go a long way toward encouraging healthy behavior. This may be hard for small employers since large employers have more financial wellness for medical spending, but even simply providing snacks can build goodwill.

Maintain accountability

There are worksite risk factors when you set up wellness programs and other such programs. As such, you need to verify employee medical information, request a health assessment prior to participation, and ensure that employees have proper health insurance. This mitigates the liability of your employer wellness programs in the event that someone is injured or harmed while participating. Your wellness initiatives need to focus on the employees' health status but you also need to protect your business.

With obesity at high levels in the U.S. and employee absenteeism remaining a common problem, you need to invest back into employer wellness programs. They benefit your company as well as your worksite morale. It's a great way to boost physical and mental health and can turn your office into a much more positive space.