Fitness For Corporates: Corporate Wellness Programs To Lead Healthy Lifestyle

Do you know that in 2018, poor employee healthcare costs have added to about $530 billion in losses to employers? 

No matter how daunting it seems, you as an employer should never ignore your employees’ health. Once you make it a habit of not caring about their health, you may have to face worse consequences and pay a lot of money. Even doctors recommend 10,000 steps every day for good health, but an average employee barely walks about 2000 steps. The perfect solution to all of this is establishing corporate wellness programs. 

Corporate Wellness Programs also called employee wellness programs and fitness wellness programs, are like a collection of people within a company or organization to promote healthy lifestyles and habits among employees and their family members in some cases. These programs are aimed to keep the employees physically and mentally fit as they are invaluable assets of any company. 

History of Corporate Wellness Programs

The history of corporate wellness programs started in the 1700s by Bernardino Ramazzini, who was the first to write about the possibilities of taking preventive measures to improve employee well-being and the effects of work exposure. Between the 1760s – 1800s, the industrial revolution brought changes in the working class. It brought many new health problems and injuries due to the way the employees had to work. 

Robert Owen proposed a 10-hour workday in 1810, he further proposed a more aggressive measure- the 8-hour workday, in 1817. After that, over the years people worked together to find the health problems of industrial workers and tried to find ways to eliminate them.

In 1979, Johnson and Johnson’s Live for life program became a way to start employee wellness programs. Currently, wellness programs have been developed and it has become one of the signs of a top-notch employer. No matter if your business is small or big, a corporate wellness program will benefit your employees and your business. 

How To Establish A Corporate Wellness Program?

Designing and establishing a corporate wellness program is a necessary step in improving the productivity, health and potential of employees. Employee wellness programs can be found in many ways such as the company may provide insurance covers to the employees, the company may install workplace gyms, the company may pay for their health issues, etc. You need to design your corporate wellness program in such a way that it covers your company’s needs, size and budget. 

Benefits Of Corporate Wellness Programs

• The employees’ are less stressed.
• Absenteeism is reduced.
• The focus and productivity of the employees increases.
• The employees tend to be more enthusiastic, positive and outgoing.
• The employees start to adopt healthy lifestyles which reduces health risks.
• Reduced workers’ compensation and disability-related costs.
• Improves employment retention and engagement.
• It breaks the monotony and every day is a new day.
• Lowering healthcare costs.
• Reduces work-related illnesses.

Step 1: Conduct Evaluation 

Note down a set of health-related questions and rotate those sets of questions as if you are conducting a survey. Ask for the needs and wellness interests of your employees and conduct a health risk assessment. Share your thoughts and sample assessments for each type of program with your employees. Review group health plan utilisation rates, both medical and pharmaceutical. 

Step 2: Gain Management Support

Try to gain support from your management as much as you can. It is necessary to build a successful corporate wellness program. Address these questions to obtain support:

• What are your company’s long and short term strategies?
• What are the benefits of a wellness program?
• identify strengths and weaknesses of your company?

Step 3: Hire A Wellness Committee 

Hire some employees which will build organizational support and maintain the corporate wellness program. 

Step 4: Wellness Objectives

Paste a wellness note on the notice board enlisting what type of good habits all the employees should follow. Try to reduce the number of employees who smoke and are obese by 5 per cent. Ask your employees to start developing healthy eating habits and carry out fun fitness activities. 

Step 5: Estimate A Budget 

This is the most critical step while designing a corporate wellness program. You need to buy additional items for your employee wellness program, such as incentives for participation, meeting provisions, fitness trackers, promotional materials and healthy snacks.

Ways to decrease your budget:

• Ask your employees if they can contribute or pay a sum.
• Partner with a health insurance carrier to determine and continue your wellness program.
• Switch to low or no cost fun fitness activities.
• Eliminate unnecessary bills.

Step 6: Other Components 

Wellness programs may range from simple to multi-prong programs but you can include additional programs into your wellness program. You can even conduct laughing sessions where you and your employees review the funniest memes. You can even follow wellness programs delta dental or other work wellness programs epidemiology. 

The examples of some wellness programs are: 

• Yoga programs
• Mindfulness Meditation programs
• Health screenings
• Vaccination clinics
• Smoking cessation programs
• Nutrition education
• Weight loss programs
• No stress programs

Step 7:  Wellness Rewards 

This is an effective tool to change unhealthy habits. Reward fitness points to the employees who follow healthy habits and eat healthy snacks. At the end of the week, reward the employee with the most points. You can give them hampers or an off day. 

Step 8: Celebrate

Once you start seeing the effectiveness of your employee wellness program, you will start to feel good about yourself and your business will grow faster. Do not let this opportunity go, make sure to celebrate and make it a memory. 

Seven ways to wellness 

Drinking + Running + Healthy eating + Yoga + Workouts + Meditation + Strength + Sleep = Overall wellbeing 

You can even follow the above 7 rules to achieve overall fitness or include that in your corporate wellness programs. 

Bottom Line 

A Corporate Wellness Program helps the employees to reach their goals and aspirations. The employees feel valued and cared for, which enables them to achieve milestones. 

How about you also start establishing a corporate wellness program for your company also? Sounds great, isn’t it!