Getting a wellness program going at your workplace can seem like an exciting and worthwhile task. All employees, especially those in the industrial industry, need to feel like their hard work is paying off and they feel seen for their efforts. Carving out activities and promoting a healthy workspace can pay off in the long run.
Wellness helps promote positive mental health and helps prevent illness and burnout. This article will explore why you need a wellness program and how to get a program started.
Is a wellness program necessary?
Gettysburg University found that the average worker will spend about 90,000 hours and one-third of their life at work. With so many hours spent pouring into a career, it can wear on someone after a while of working hard. To help prevent employees from burning out of their job or feeling underappreciated, businesses will implement wellness programs.
These programs can look however the business wants them to, such as offering gym membership discounts, creating sports teams or even napping pods like Google is famous for starting. The break room has evolved to offer more holistic solutions.
WebMD offers some reasons why you should include a wellness program at your workplace:
- Improves employee morale.
- Prevents injury or illness.
- Increases productivity.
- Decreases missed workdays.
- Enhances retention rates.
To reap these benefits, here are some ideas on how to get a program started.
3 steps to starting a wellness program
Getting started is half the battle when considering a wellness program. After you get the budget together and the go-ahead from leadership, you need to understand what your employees would want to participate in.
Step 1: Do a survey. Talking with your employees to get an idea of the programs they would like to see at their job and what they need in a wellness program can take the guesswork out of brainstorming. It's important to note that if you have a certain budget, you may want to make up a list for the employees to choose from that would fit within that budget so you can follow through with their suggestions.
Step 2: Make the program easy to utilize. If you offer a program that is inconvenient for workers to get to, use or understand, they won't likely take advantage of it. For example, you'll want to offer a stress-reduction program that fits within their health insurance network.
Step 3: Incentivize employee participation. Everyone loves a good competition or team-building exercise and developing a program that rewards participation in it can be a great way to get employees motivated to join in. Understand what motivates your teams and set the incentives to align with them.
Wellness in the workplace should not only resonate with employees but motivate them to participate. Caring for the health and happiness of your teams can ensure long-term retention.
