It’s been said for generations that we need to put in a lot of effort and face complications to protect our assets. While it may be true to some extent, in some cases, it does not have to be complicated but has to be smart. For instance, employees are the key assets of any business, and protecting them only needs a clear strategy.
The best way to protect your workforce is to take care of their holistic health – physical, emotional, financial, and social health. By making employee wellness a vital part of the business growth strategy, employers can look to growing their business on all fronts.
Many studies have proven that corporate initiatives like employee wellness programs boost workforce health, reflecting better productivity and higher financial success.
The Health Enhancement Research Organisation (HERO) non-profit conducted a survey in which 90% of the employers agreed that promoting employee wellness initiatives improved their employee productivity.
A Gallup study revealed that companies with engaged employees outperformed their competitors by 202%.
Here are the five key ways by which corporate wellness can have a positive impact on employee engagement, workplace culture, and overall business growth.
1. Improves Employee Engagement
A 2015 Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) study in the US found that well-designed corporate wellness programs focus on similar employer and employee goals. According to the study, employees working in positive workplace culture are twice as engaged with their goals and responsibilities. It also emphasizes the dark impact of not building a strong workplace culture, which may impact employee mental health, stress, engagement, and productivity.
2. Impacts on Employee Mental Wellness
Plenty of articles reported the negative impact of the recent COVID-19 pandemic on employee mental health, and how it has affected their productivity, engagement, and business growth. This has pushed many employers to start offering suitable employee mental wellness programs to ensure stress management and better emotional health. Studies have also shown how fostering a healthy workplace culture, offering corporate wellness programs with mental health modules, and suitable health coaching can potentially boost employee mental wellness.
A PwC study showed a 17-point growth in the wellbeing scores and 8-point growth in engagement scores upon implementing a corporate wellness program that focused on employee mental health to reduce stress and build resilience. It was apparent – stressed employees are less engaged and perform poorly, compared to stress-free employees who are likely to be more engaged, responsible, and active at their work.
3. Reduces Absenteeism Rates
Employee absenteeism rates are key HR indicators that also reflect workplace culture, employee engagement, and workforce wellness. Absenteeism impacts productivity and costs money. An SHRM study indicated a US workplace productivity loss ranging from 22.6% – 36.6% due to planned or unplanned employee absenteeism. Supporting employee wellness with the right corporate wellness programs and other modules can boost workplace engagement, keeping them interested in their work and workplace, and reducing their planned absenteeism. It also improves employee wellness, thus reducing their sick leaves.
4. Stronger Teams and Better Teamwork
Positive and healthy workplace culture plays a major role in employee engagement, better productivity, higher employee retention, and overall business growth. Well-designed corporate wellness programs motivate employees to improve their lifestyle habits, and seeing their colleagues turning healthy can influence other co-workers too. Team wellness challenges that are fun can enhance employee engagement, communication, and boost wellness, thus building stronger and healthy teams. Also, implementing the right workplace coaching programs can help in building healthy habits and solid teams.
5. Improves Employee Retention Rates
An Oxford Economics study reported that companies lose almost £30k per employee due to lost productivity, recruiting logistics, and other replacement costs when they leave the company. Happy and engaged employees are less likely to leave their jobs. Other studies showed that employees were ready to take a pay cut if their company offered a positive workplace culture and focused on employee needs. Offering corporate wellness programs are a great way of showing employer concern towards employees, and the right wellness modules can ensure employees are happy, healthy, engaged, and stick to their jobs for a long.
A RAND Corporation study showed that almost 85% of companies in the US with more than 1,000 working employees are now implementing some kind of corporate wellness program. While they do focus on improving employee wellness, the key business goals include –
- Lower healthcare costs
- Better employee engagement
- Higher retention
- Lower absenteeism
- Higher productivity
- Better ROI