Published:

03/19/2015 06:12pm

5 Ways Your Workplace Wellness Program Can Empower Your Employees to Make a Difference

CEOs of some of the country's largest companies are scrapping the spreadsheets and foregoing discussions of their wellness program's ROI.
Why?
Because unlike the return on your marketing investment or the cost of new products and services, your investment in employee wellness goes far beyond your bottom line.
As reported by the Washington Business Journal, when Honest Tea CEO Seth Goldman gifted every single one of his employees with a new bicycle, he wasn't thinking about how he'd make that money back.
Instead, Goldman's ROI was measured in improved employee perception, better company culture, and an exponential feeling of wellness that expanded from his employees to their families and, ultimately, the community.
Across the country, successful wellness programs are putting a priority on people. Instead of focusing on financial returns, more and more corporations are considering how investing in their employees' wellness impacts family life, community involvement, and society as a whole.
Here are 5 big benefits of creating employee wellness programs that go beyond the bottom line.
1. The Promotion of Personal Health
Healthy employees are not only more productive in the workplace; they are happier, more focused, and better able to withstand workplace challenges without getting stressed and upset.
A supportive, targeted employee wellness program creates a thriving company culture that's focused on long-term retention, team-building, and maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
2. Empowering Emotional Health
In the past, employers focused primarily on the financial benefits of physical wellness, such as the reduced health insurance costs associated with turning smokers intononsmokers.
Today, leading employee wellness programs address employee health in three dimensions: physical, mental, and emotional.
Empowering your employees' emotional health means adding program benefits that don't necessarily have an immediately traceable ROI; things like encouraging walk breaks, setting up a dedicated nap room, allowing for personal and mental health days, and establishing work-from-home options.
All of these emotional benefits not only boost workplace morale; they enhance your company's reputation and position you to win 'Best Place to Work' awards, both of which will attract top talent to your firm.
3. Strengthening Families
Great employee wellness programs have a positive impact on employees and their families. Just as the health of all your employees impacts the whole, the wellbeing of each employee's family impacts your company culture on a deep level.
Without a happy home life, no amount of workplace perks will keep your employees at peak performance. That is why cutting-edge wellness programs across the country are including more and more family-oriented events and services in their offerings.
The 2015 Youth Empowerment Summit (YES) is the perfect example of the importance of wellness for the entire family. During the summit, parents and students will come together to address 360 degrees of personal and familial health; from physical fitness and emotional wellbeing to financial health and education.
Including events like YES in your wellness program is the perfect way to empower healthy families within your company.
4. Inspiring Action
Great wellness programs inspire employees and their families to take action. Through workshops, discounted memberships, and special events, employees are encouraged to make positive changes in their health and wellbeing. The results they see in terms of physical, mental, and emotional fitness, coupled with encouragement from those running the program, inspire them to be equally proactive in the workplace.
5. Building a Better Community
The ramifications of better and better employee health are truly exponential. Beyond the individual, and even beyond the family, a strong workplace wellness program can positively impact the community at large.
An important part of overall health and wellness includes giving back. Part of a successful wellness program should include opportunities for volunteer work, such as citywide clean-up initiatives or volunteering at a local soup kitchen.
Giving back boosts self-esteem and emotional wellness while allowing your employees to forge deeper, more meaningful bonds with one another. Additionally, it is a great way to position your company as an innovative community leader.
So what kind of ROI can you expect from a 360-degree approach to employee wellness?
"Who knows?" says Seth Goldman of Honest Tea.
While larger companies like Marriott can measure the impact of their wellness programs in terms of direct ROI, your company may want to take the Goldman route. Higher employee retention rates, improved workplace morale, fewer health insurance claims and a better work-life balance all add up to the true sum of total wellness: priceless.

Fran Dean Bishop is an award winning business coach and CEO with 20 years in the health management industry. She founded Aerobodies Fitness Company, (now AFC Management Services), in 1994 as a corporate service provider of health promotion, fitness management and behavior change programs for the private sector and federal agencies. Fran also designed and launched two successful health technology innovations, MyEquilibriumCoach and MECkids.com. To request Fran for a speaking engagement or workshop, contact her at franb@afmsco.com - 703-402-8477.