The COVID-19 pandemic has fortified the concept of employee health and wellness, and companies are now taking this aspect more seriously. Many studies have emphasized that employee wellness programs are a top priority in 2021 for workplace productivity.
Along with the higher employee engagement and workplace productivity, employee wellness programs also offer many other benefits, leading to the shift in many workplace policies. A few of the common benefits include –
- Healthier and happier employees
- Stronger teams and teamwork
- Positive workplace culture
- Lower healthcare costs
- Better business ROI
A well-designed corporate wellness program can help businesses in achieving it all, and a good corporate wellness platform can help in managing the program in an easier way.
Wellness Program Platforms
An employee wellness platform is the podium that helps program administrators and employees to manage their workplace wellbeing program. So, it is imperative that the corporate wellness platform be built with the latest wellness technology and also have features that help in the long run.
Before finalizing an employee wellness platform, employers must ask the wellness vendors a few important questions –
- Is the wellness platform scalable?
- Do you offer customization options?
- Is there a worksite wellness mobile app support?
- Does the digital wellness platform support rewards and incentives?
- Is the wellness challenge platform compatible with popular fitness devices and apps?
Here are the key aspects that make an employee wellness platform a successful solution to your corporate wellness program.
Benefits of Employee Wellness Platforms
1. All-inclusive Health Assessment
Almost every well-designed corporate wellness program includes comprehensive health risk assessments and biometric screenings as a part of their onboarding wellness activities. While the assessments can be simple online questionnaires or surveys, the biometric screenings are usually clinical tests. The reports and outcomes of both these assessments give an overall insight into the health status and potential risk factors of the employees.
An employee wellness platform can help the program administrators and employees gather and analyze all the needed assessment data efficiently. Based on these outcomes, they can strategize a suitable wellness program plan that can address important health issues and wellness requirements of the employees.
2. Customizing the Workplace Wellness Program
Each company has different business goals and workforce wellness requirements, and so, the program must be crafted to meet the specific wellness demands. One of the key USPs of a successful corporate wellness platform is its ability to customize employee wellbeing programs. Customization may apply to health journeys, wellness challenges, rewards and incentives, and company branding. Customizing the wellbeing program helps in meeting target-based health and wellness needs, and gives a personalized touch to the employees, boosting their morale and employee engagement.
3. Personalized Workplace Coaching Programs
Workplace coaching programs have become a priority in 2021. Health coaches can access employee wellness data, based on which they can draft a well-suited wellness program plan through the corporate wellness platform. Employees can seek guidance, discuss, and submit reports to the health coaches through the wellness program platforms too.
4. Supporting Employee Wellness Activities
Employee wellness programs are all about holistic wellness, and top wellness platforms support all the required modules. Most wellness platforms, like that from Wellness360, can also be accessed from corporate wellness apps. Such platforms and apps allow employees to log and track their food data, physical activities, step count, sleep hours, calories burnt, hydration levels, and so much more, all contributing to holistic wellness.
5. Gamification to Encourage Healthy Wellness Competitions
Employee wellness programs also focus on improving workplace culture by bringing a change in the way employees engage and interact with each other. Corporate wellness challenges ideas are great employee engagement strategies that not only improve the wellness quotient, but also encourage communication while competing healthily. Wellness challenge platforms allow gamification of the program challenges by associating it with a leaderboard, rewards, visual graphics, and more. Gamifying the wellness challenges ideas can impact the workforce interests in keeping up with the wellness activities, thus improving employee engagement, workplace culture, and holistic health.
6. Third-Party Integration
Good health and wellness platforms allow the integration of various wellness program modules and schemes, allowing them to be managed from a single podium. Fitness devices and apps are key elements of corporate wellness programs as they assist employees with their fitness regimes. Top wellness platforms, like that from Wellness360, are compatible with the most popular fitness devices and apps that help employees log and track their exercise and physical activities. Also, good wellness platforms are usually cloud-based systems that can be delivered through mobile apps too. Such aspects make it convenient for the employees and employers in most perspectives, making the corporate wellbeing program a success.
7. Outlaying Employee Rewards and Incentives
Rewards and incentives are undoubtedly one of the best employee engagement strategies. They encourage employees to keep up with the wellness program activities to reach their wellness goals. Well-designed health and wellness platforms are capable of integrating the employee rewards systems with the corporate wellness program initiatives. When a good wellness platform, along with a strong rewards program strategy is incorporated for the wellness challenges, it screams success in almost all aspects. While rewarding employees for their achievements in the workplace wellness program is a great way of motivating them, a good wellness platform just makes it easy to disburse it.
8. Measuring Employee Wellness Program Effectiveness
Investing in a well-planned corporate wellness program is important for all-around business growth. However, you must also be able to measure its effectiveness with the right evaluation metrics. Most of the well-designed corporate wellness platforms come with a comprehensive dashboard that displays all the required employee wellness data – to increase engagement, user experience, and more. The platform modules make it easy to measure the effectiveness and impact of the corporate wellness program on employee health and wellness.
Employee wellness programs have now become a necessity in the corporate world, and they are one of the best ways to keep a check on workplace burnout issues too. While the wellness programs encourage healthy behaviors, a good corporate wellness platform maximizes their efficiency.