Millennials, the generation of people born between 1980 – 2000, constitute the largest working group that ever existed in the US. With their own ideas to living their lives, spending their money, and shaping the economy, millennials are defining their experiences and demands that impact their lives.
Coming to health and wellness, their definition of being healthy is not being sick, and an extension of their lifestyle, including work and personal lives.
Health and wellness is an important factor for the millennials, and they are willing to be committed to a certain lifestyle for holistic health.
No wonder, offering robust corporate wellness programs has become a key component of employee benefits and perks at most organizations.
As the millennials are so synonymous with a healthy lifestyle and holistic wellness habits, they are ready to invest in their wellbeing, and also expect their employers to do the same for them. Also with the ability to adapt to the advancing technology, the millennials are more likely to encourage digital health solutions and follow health tech trends.
For millennials, health is a broad term that defines different parameters, including – physical, mental, social, and financial wellbeing. A WellTok millennial wellbeing survey report conducted with market research firm Ipsos talked about the millennial’s expectations from employers and listed their top health and wellbeing priorities.
Here are some take-away from the survey report.
Health and Wellbeing Resources
Although 84% of the millennial respondents felt that their immediate reporting managers were more considerate towards their health and wellness, the overall company efforts were lacking. Also, 78% felt that their organization should be doing more to support employee health and wellness.
Only 23% were completely aware of all the available resources to improve their wellbeing. Also, 84% of the millennials said they have increased their use of technology to support the advancing digital health solutions.
Another key need was a robust digital wellness platform – a one-stop, ready-to-use easy platform that can help them manage their corporate wellness programs, and their wellbeing activities in one place.
Wellness Programs Personalization
Many studies have proven that the one-size-fits-all theory does not stand well with wellness programs, and personalization can help with better employee engagement.
While 66% of the respondents felt that everyone was being offered the same wellbeing resources, 62% felt that they were offered resources that are relevant to their health and wellness needs. 85% of them were willing to participate in a personalized corporate wellbeing program.
Workplace Stress as a Major Risk Factor
The report revealed that the more than 50% of the millennials are at risk of acquiring stress due to work pressure. Almost 44% said that workplace stress and burnout issues were affecting their work-life balance and overall wellbeing. This was too high compared to 32% of Gen X employees. While more than half of the millennials said they had considered changing their company owing to the workplace stress, a huge 73% felt their employers should start feeling responsible and take measures to reduce employee stress, and improve health and wellness.
Rewards and Incentives to Motivate
Employee engagement is the key to a successful employee wellness program. However, getting the employees to participate and keep going with their wellness journey could be daunting. Many studies have proven that offering the right employee benefits, rewards, and incentives are strong employee engagement strategies.
The expectations of the millennials regarding incentives and employee benefits were different from those of the traditional rewards. While 64% preferred extra vacation time, 56% expected wellness benefits like gym memberships, and 53% wanted flexible working hours. Other less preferred incentives included volunteering opportunities, office lunches with management, commuting charges, and charity donations.
How Employers Can Meet Millennial Employee Expectations?
The millennials constitute a majority of the working group in the US, and so, the employers need to meet their expected employee benefits and services for effective workplace wellness and growing organizational productivity. Also, studies show that most of the employee benefits and perks put across by the millennials are similar to the expectations of the Baby Boomers and Gen X workforce.
Employers can take pulse surveys to know the interested employee benefits and perks, and other demands to work on strategies that support them through it. Also, offering employee wellness programs from Wellness360 could be one of your successful employee engagement strategies that improve the health and wellness of your workforce and grow your business.