Wellness Programs Boost Employee Health and Happiness—and Your Bottom Line

Business owners who launch workplace health and wellness programs can enjoy a wide-range of valuable benefits, not just for their employees, but for the entire company.

Outside of a healthier and happier team, such programs can also increase productivity, save money, and even enhance your brand’s image among current and prospective employees.

If you’re looking for a relatively simple way to motivate your staff and increase loyalty, workplace wellness programs should be at the top of your list. The following are just a few of most powerful benefits participating companies can experience.

The most valuable benefit of employee health and wellness programs for business owners is improved productivity. The healthier your employees are, the better they’ll be at their jobs.

In fact, one study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that employees who participated in health and wellness programs each gained an average of 10 hours in additional productivity annually. This boost saved their companies $335 in productivity costs per person per year compared to non-participants.

Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that productivity losses related to personal and family health problems cost U.S. employers $1,685 per employee per year, or $225.8 billion annually.

Wellness programs that help employees develop healthier lifestyles will ultimately improve their productivity—and your bottom line.

Health and wellness programs not only improve employees’ physical health, but they also improve their mental health. This can be incredibly valuable for small business owners, as employees at small- to medium-sized companies often feel the most stressed out, as they’re typically shouldering more responsibilities than those at bigger firms.

You don’t need any studies to prove that less stressed-out employees are going to be happier and more productive. Happier and healthier employees are naturally going to have improved work performance, and that’s all the more reason to institute simple things to improve their health outcomes.

Simply providing access to healthy snacks and drinks in the workplace can encourage your team to take short breaks and eat food that will boost their energy levels. Or you might offer flexible work schedules and/or work-from-home opportunities—anything to make employees feel more content.

Again, it’s a no-brainer that healthier employees are going to take fewer sick days. To achieve this, you should provide resources to help improve employee health behaviors.

The easiest way to get employees to adopt a healthier lifestyle is no big secret—simply give them increased opportunities to eat better and exercise more frequently. Most people want to eat healthier and exercise, but many feel like they just don’t have the time.

Stocking the workplace with healthy snacks is one easy option. But you can also give employees more time for lunch, so they don’t have to rely on fast food, or offer to cater lunch for them, and order the food from a nutritious eatery.

It terms of exercise, you can start weekly workplace-sponsored yoga, aerobic, and/or dance classes. Or offer those who use the gym at lunch or right after work an extended break/ earlier time off, so they can more conveniently fit exercise into their daily routine. This might even cause your more sedentary employees to start a fitness regimen out of jealousy.