Although corporate wellness programs have existed for quite some time, their prominence has sky-rocketed since the past decade. The rising competition and the copious amounts of work are keeping the employees on their toes, multiplying their physical and mental pressure, which could affect organizational productivity. With the employees looking out for help, the employers are under pressure to build a robust culture of health that establishes overall workplace wellness.

A 2018 SHRM report showed that almost 62% of the employers in America offered some kind of a corporate wellness program, understanding the need for healthy employees, and are encouraging their employees to stay healthy, work well, and promote workplace wellness. However, the health disorder stats indicated rising numbers of obesity and other chronic diseases in US adults, implying that the wellness benefits were either not right or were not enough. They had to create an atmosphere, and a culture of health at the workplace wherein everyone was working towards holistic wellness.

What Exactly Is A Corporate Health Culture?

Every corporate organization follows its way of workflow practices, ideas, habits, values, and has its own culture, followed by employees & employers. The health culture is also a corporate concept in which the company’s norms & practices inspire and encourage habits that boost and promote holistic living among the employees and employers. Although making norms and setting standards that are pro-employee is essential, it is more important to follow them to see the expecting results.

Many companies assume that by offering employee wellness programs, implementing employee engagement strategies, by giving perks, subsidized snacks & food, and other benefits, the employee productivity should improve drastically, escalating the organizational productivity. Alas, creating a culture of health at the workplace is more than just offering employee perks and health benefits. It is about creating an ambiance with support systems that lay the foundation for the overall wellbeing of the employees.

Why Is It Important To Create A Culture Of Health?

Building a culture of health at your corporate organization is crucial in more than one way to run the business on par with the mounting market race. With the current generation of the smart millennials looking to work for ventures that offer exceptional employee benefits, by not following the trend of corporate wellness and health culture, you could lose out on some exceptional talent and skill. For the existing workers, mundane tasks without any proper employee engagement strategies could deplete their innovation levels, impairing their performance, increased health disorders, increased absenteeism, etc., affecting organizational productivity and the company’s financial status as well, since they will have to pay for the employee health benefits & compensation for treatments, hiring substitutes, etc., despite the lack of revenue.

How To Create A Culture Of Health?

Building a culture of health aiming towards overall workplace wellness is an Omni-channel approach that needs the entire organization, including the employees, employers, and their families, to participate and follow the norms religiously.

Here are 5 simple ways to help you create a culture of health –

1. Having The Leaders Walk The Talk – Involving leaders and employers, who are the role-models, is a great way of encouraging the employees to get into the flow of the culture.
2. Customized Corporate Wellness Programs – Customizing wellness programs according to the actual needs of the employees, by considering their age-factor, gender, demographics, etc., could encourage them to participate in it.
3. Practices For Better Employee Engagement & Health – Everyday practices at work, like no-overtime, remote working facilities, free healthy snacks, stretch & move breaks, etc., play a major role in building a healthy culture.
4. Collaborate And Communicate To Boost Morale – A healthy company culture that seeks employee involvement & ideas, hearty communication, crediting their efforts, etc., boosts their spirit and their productivity.
5. Emphasizing The Real Purpose – Communicating and emphasizing the vision and goal statements of the company and the wellness programs, along with their welfare & gains, will inspire employees to focus, participate, and work well.

An organization with strong core beliefs and mighty corporate culture is undoubtedly more successful than the others. Having a positive and pro-employee culture is heavily correlated with organizational productivity, and so, it is essential for companies to start building a culture of health to improve overall workplace wellness.