Contemporary workers are more concerned about their health than ever before. With increasingly sedentary lifestyles, quick and easy access to bad food, and exacerbating factors like the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s no wonder that workers are concerned. And, as we’ve seen, employers are paying attention.
Employee happiness and wellbeing are becoming key issues for companies to address throughout employee tenures. Indeed, many companies see prioritizing wellness as a perk they can offer employees to attract talent. In response, they’ve started adopting corporate wellness programs to help employees combat unhealthy habits and supply workers with access to health and nutrition plans.
The point here isn’t just to make the company look better. It’s also to encourage the overall health and wellbeing of the talent each company hopes to maintain indefinitely. So, what’s the real value add here, and what can your business do to craft a comprehensive and beneficial wellness incentive for your employees?
What is a Wellness Incentive?
Let’s start by explaining what we’re discussing here.
A wellness incentive is a company-wide program designed to promote and foster the health and wellbeing of prospective and current employees. This is done through a thoughtfully arranged system of perks, rewards, and recognition.
There are a lot of approaches here. A wellness campaign might include coupons or vouchers for gym memberships, mental health practitioners, or nutrition advisers. Wellness plans could also be a series of challenges and rewards offered to employees in recognition of their efforts toward physical and mental wellbeing.
It’s a pretty loose concept. An incentive could be any program or initiative that is designed to encourage employee health and wellness. And, as we’ll see in the next section, there are multiple approaches you may take.
Ideas for Wellness Incentives to Adopt
Wellness incentives are essentially the individual components of your wellness program. That is to say, the gym membership voucher, the on-site yoga studio, or a monthly fun-run signup.
Keep in mind, however, that the incentives you want to offer should be well within your company’s budget. They should also be useful and accessible to as many employees as possible. No one wants to waste time and money, so choose your incentives wisely.
Two types of incentives based on a budget of the wellness program include:
1. Cost Incentives
These are tangible incentives. Costs may vary depending on the quality and quantity of the material. Budgets to consider could be based on per-employee costs or only winners in a year. There are usually three cost incentive levels:
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- Lower-cost incentives: Company-branded water bottles, yoga mats, etc.
- Middle-cost incentives: Gym memberships, in-office health equipment
- Higher-cost incentives: Wearable devices for employees, in-office trainers
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2. No-Cost Incentives
These are non-tangible incentives. They can be used for free if appropriately planned. They also don’t require any additional costs. No-cost incentives could include paid office breaks for exercise, flexible work hours, and work-from-home days.
3. Participation, Progress, and Results Incentives
Employees have to participate voluntarily for progress incentives to work. Offering rewards for participation is a great way to encourage them to commit to healthier habits.
You can encourage employees to set dietary goals and eat healthier, for example, and assist with this by providing healthy snacks in the office and asking employees to track what they eat over the course of the week. Or, you may ask them to commit to spending a certain amount of time each week walking or doing some other cardio exercise, or base the rewards around most miles walked. In any of these cases, you can provide a reward for everyone who successfully completes the challenge.
Future-Proof Your Wellness Incentives
However you break your budget and goals down, the idea is to maximize employee enthusiasm and participation. But again, let’s not get crazy here.
You want to offer excellent wellness incentives to your employees. Still, you should first carefully consider the number of employees you have, what sort of talent you intend to integrate in the future, and what you’d like your wellness program to look like over a five-year period.
There’s a four-step method to follow that can help you plan the right wellness incentive program for your business:
- Learn about the type of behaviors you want to incentivize.
- Gauge employee enthusiasm for each possible incentive.
- Roll out cost-effective incentives first to glean employee interest.
- Make your employees and their needs part of the process.
All of the above can be learned and maintained by regular communication between managers and their employees. Also crucial, though, is just listening when your employees share their health concerns and desires with you. Don’t know what these could be? Maybe start a company-wide conversation on the matter. Conduct surveys and other practices to gauge employee interest.
Odds are, your employees will appreciate any effort you make for their health and wellbeing. Establishing a dialogue about health and happiness is never a wasted effort in a corporate environment.
Case in Point: How Chargebacks911 Cares About Wellness
To put these principles and ideas into perspective, my company, Chargebacks911, offers wellness incentives to our employees. We also encourage each employee to implement an effective wellness plan that works best for them.
Wellness is an important component of the company culture at Cb911. We strive to constantly innovate and improve on the employee experience at all times. Some of the things Cb911 offers as part of our employee wellness program include:
- On-Site Gym: We have an on-site gym at the office for employees. Employees can use it during their lunch, or before or after work.
- Training Classes: We have a personal trainer come in to teach after-work boot camps twice a week
- Yoga: In addition to the personal trainer, we also bring in a yoga instructor who guides participating employees in yoga practices twice per week.
- Swag: We hand out punch cards that let you earn swag for attending training and yoga sessions. Attend five times and you get a metal water bottle; ten times, and you get a gym bag.
- Flexibility: Since the pandemic, we’ve striven to be a lot more flexible with remote work. If employees need to work from home, that can be arranged.
No single wellness program or incentive structure is entirely perfect or tailored to every employee’s specific needs. That said, having one and constantly prioritizing its improvement is a major boon to companies that hope to find and retain top talent.
Aside from this, wellness incentives are a kind, thoughtful, and proactive system that can improve the entire company dynamic from top to bottom.
