Employee wellness programs are the need of the hour. These corporate wellness solutions are trending now as most companies are implementing some kind of employee wellness programs. With so many wellbeing program options in the corporate wellness market, it may become difficult for employers to choose the right one. So, employers must consider important pointers to ask vendors before making the big decision.

One of the most important features necessary to run a comprehensive employee wellbeing program is a well-designed corporate wellness platform. The corporate wellness platform must be capable of creating, assigning, and managing almost every activity of the employee wellbeing program. And to carry out all these functions, the wellness program platform must be equipped with the latest corporate wellness technology.

There are probably more than 400 fitness trackers in the corporate wellness market, and depending on the features and brand, these devices may cost around $50-$5000. A typical fitness tracker may cost around $85.

One of the key features of the modern wellness program platform is its compatibility with the latest wearable devices and fitness apps.

Wearable Devices for Employee Wellbeing

Wearable activity trackers and employee wellbeing programs are known to go well together to meet the latest workplace wellness trends. Simply put, wearable devices are activity trackers that track and monitor physical activity parameters that must be evaluated to understand health and wellness progress. The most common wearable devices help in tracking steps, distance traveled, calories burnt, heart rate, blood oxygen levels, GPS location, body temperature, and other parameters.

Most employee wellness programs include corporate wellness challenge ideas that focus on physical health, and the key parameters that are tracked and evaluated to understand the progress include daily step count, distance travelled, calories burnt, and sleep hours. Furthermore, people with cardiovascular issues can also track their heart rate regularly with the wearable devices. With the body oxygen levels being a key indicator of the current COVID-19 infection, wearables that support the oxygen saturation readings can be very helpful in monitoring blood oxygen levels.

While many studies have shown the effect of having wearable fitness devices and tracking apps on improved employee wellbeing and success of the employee fitness programs, it did not have much impact on the workplace burnout issues, which still affected employee health and wellbeing.

Wearables and Corporate Wellness Programs

Many employers are now seeing the value of corporate wellness programs and the need to add an element of gamification to ensure adequate employee engagement. Given the advancement of corporate wellness technology, incorporating workplace wellness software that makes the wellness program platform compatible with the latest wearable devices and tracking apps can be an effective gamification element to boost employee engagement.

Along with gamification, offering incentives and benefits perks are another way by which companies can make employee wellness programs a success. The incentives can be set as reward points that can be earned upon completing or participating in specific corporate wellness challenge ideas. Educating the employees about the importance of having a fitness tracking device that can count steps or help them achieve their wellness goals can lure them into using one, especially when the goals come with incentives.

The incentives may include gym memberships, eGift cards, corporate merchandise, or even cash rewards. Depending on the company’s budget, employers can also get a corporate discount for the employees to purchase a good fitness device that is compatible with the corporate wellness platform.

Are Wearables Worth the Wellness Dollars?

To understand if any wellness module or feature is important to the employee wellness programs and if it is worth the wellness dollars, it is essential to understand the idea behind incorporating the module. By incorporating workplace wellness software that supports wearable devices, the ‘whys’ may include –

• Is it the gamification factor to boost employee engagement?
• Will it support employee health and wellbeing?
• Is it only because other companies are offering them too?

As the fun factor of the fitness devices can motivate employees to keep going with their wellbeing goals, it also becomes an effective employee engagement strategy that boosts the success chances of the employee wellness programs, along with building stronger teams and healthy workplace culture.