1. Organize Fitness Activities: Conduct regular fitness sessions like yoga, aerobics, or meditation and provide gym facilities to promote physical activity and combat the adverse effects of a sedentary lifestyle.
2. Hire Full-Time Medical Staff: Ensure the availability of medical professionals on-site to address immediate health concerns, provide medical advice, and improve overall employee attendance and wellness.
3. Offer Healthy Food Options: Provide nutritious meals and snacks in the workplace cafeteria and consider extending lunch breaks to encourage mindful eating and better digestion.
4. Invest in Mental Health Programs: Implement programs that address mental health issues like stress, depression, and substance abuse, and host awareness camps to support employees’ mental well-being.
5. Create Nap Rooms: Set up nap rooms to allow employees to rest when needed, reducing fatigue, improving health, and decreasing the need for sick leave.
Most employees spend most of their waking hours at work, contributing to business growth and success. Their mental and physical wellness is critical to their optimal performance. This realization has led many organizations to seek the best ways to improve employee wellness.
Hence, developing an effective wellness program is of utmost importance for the organization.
The health and wellness of employees directly impact the profitability and productivity of an organization.
This should naturally make employee health and fitness a strategic focus area for business organizations.
Sadly, most organizations still follow the strategy of solving employee health issues as and when they arise.
The good news is that most organizations are gradually changing their outlook and adopting more wellness-driven strategies.
Employee wellness programs can help promote a healthy work environment, ensuring the happiness and engagement of employees.
These programs are designed to improve the workforce’s physical, mental, and emotional state.
Contrary to popular belief, employee wellness is a concept that organizations have been following for several decades.
However, till recently, most organizations focused only on benefits such as health insurance, accident coverage, and general health awareness.
Now, wellness programs go beyond these and provide comprehensive healthcare and well-being solutions for employees.
Discussed below are five practical steps that organizations can take to improve employee wellness through such programs:
Most employees spend long hours in the office sitting at their workstations, which can have damaging health effects.
According to research, 20% of deaths of people aged 35 years or more were attributed to lack of physical activity.
Organizations are trying to change this by conducting different fitness activities such as yoga, workout sessions, meditation classes, aerobics, and Zumba.
Several organizations have offered gym facilities at the workplace for their employees to ensure their fitness.
A qualified doctor or medical personnel at the workplace to attend to the medical needs of employees can enhance employee wellness.
It can also improve attendance, as employees prefer these services rather than pay hefty consultation fees elsewhere.
In addition to treating employees for immediate medical issues, these medical professionals can offer employees reliable advice on leading healthy lives.
Most organizations have canteen services that offer meals and snacks to employees.
Limiting the available options to healthy food items is yet another effective way to improve employee wellness.
Organizations can also consider increasing the duration of the lunch break to prevent employees from gulping down their meals.
This is important as eating the food properly is essential for effective digestion and, thus, overall health.
Organizations can even opt for counseling sessions with professional nutritionists to develop the best healthy meal options.
An effective employee wellness program focuses on improving their physical and mental health.
Hence, organizations should invest in programs to help employees manage mental health issues such as depression, substance abuse, and stress.
Organizing health camps to generate awareness about various health issues is another effective strategy that organizations can adopt
The concept of nap rooms is becoming increasingly popular in modern organizations.
Enabling employees to take rest if they feel too tired or stressed at work can help in improving their health.
It can dissuade employees from taking full or half-day sick leaves as they can rest at the workplace.
This option can prove especially beneficial in organizations where employees regularly need to work late into the night.
Taking the above steps to improve employee wellness can offer long-lasting benefits to organizations in the form of increased employee productivity and a deeper sense of loyalty. These initiatives assure the employees that they are much valued by their organizations.
Lead author: Sagar Chaudhuri, the Co-Founder and CEO of HiFives. He is an HR Tech Evangelist with over 25 years of corporate and entrepreneurship experience. In the past, Sagar has worked in leadership roles with companies such as Genpact, Infosys, and ICICI Bank. He has an engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow. Connect on LinkedIn
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