How Healthy is Your Wellness Program?

Wellness in the workplace has come a long way in the last ten years. What used to be limited to health screenings and brochures has evolved into a valuable part of successful businesses everywhere. Studies show a direct link between employee wellness, engagement, and productivity. The research performed by Harvard Business Review found that, on average, employers who invested in wellness initiatives saved $6 in healthcare costs for every dollar invested.

For a wellness program to be successful, it must be consistent with your company’s culture, and actively engage and support your team members. It’s not about telling employees how to behave; it’s about having a vision that focuses on the overall quality of life. It’s about connecting your employees with the company they work for by actively helping them make healthy choices. Wellness programs can be involved with work/life balance, physical and mental health, and even social, financial, and spiritual well-being.

There are many ways to provide successful wellness to your employees. Here are a few you may not have seen before. This list is not comprehensive and is meant to get you thinking of more creative ways to implement wellness. Not everything here will work for your organization. Your company’s wellness program needs to be a natural extension of your workplace culture.

1. Make Gratitude a Part of Your Office Routine
Wellness isn’t just about physical well-being. It’s also about your team’s mental health. The daily practice of demonstrating gratitude to coworkers has been found to ease depression, curb appetite, and enhance nighttime sleep.

To get started, create a way for team members to record one thing for which they are grateful every day. It can be a shared document on your network, a whiteboard in the break room, or a fishbowl with slips of paper. Challenge your team to do it for three weeks straight. At the end of the three weeks, have your staff describe any changes to their mood and productivity.

2. Sponsor Guided Meditation
Stress has accurately been called the silent killer, and science backs that up. Research has shown that being overly stressed can reduce your life expectancy.

The good news? Meditation. It wasn’t long ago that talking about the benefits of meditation would result in eye rolls from coworkers. But we have learned in recent years that meditation can have a dramatic impact on mood, stress, and productivity. Whether you choose mindfulness techniques or transcendental meditation, you have options to make it easier to offer this service to your team. There are mindfulness experts that will come to your office and teach your employees how to meditate effectively. There are even mindfulness apps that offer enterprise licensing to allow you to make them available to everyone. Transcendental meditation coaches will also provide in-office training to help you get started.

3. Make Your Office Pet-Friendly
Another great tool to battle workplace stress is to be around pets. The calmness they offer can go a long way to making your day brighter. Allowing your employees to bring in their pets can be a great morale booster. You may also want to consider adopting some little furry friends to live in your office, allowing your employees to be more connected to them. An office dog or cat can significantly increase morale and collaboration. If dogs or cats living in your workplace isn’t feasible, consider an aquarium. They can offer similar stress-relieving benefits without as much maintenance.

According to a recent Gallup poll, only 30 percent of American workers feel actively engaged in their jobs. 52 percent say they are disengaged, and the other 18 percent are indifferent. A successful wellness program can go a long way toward shifting those numbers in a positive direction. At Harbinger, we genuinely care about the well-being of our team members. We understand that for Harbinger to be successful, our staff needs to be happy, healthy, and engaged in what we do. Besides, it makes working here fun!

How is the wellness program where you work? Let us know what your business is doing to help you stay healthy and actively involved in your work. We’d love to hear some more creative ways to keep our team happy!