Wellness programs are now a must for a corporation looking to improve its work environment. Employee wellness programs are often centered around weight loss, smoking cessation, and offer resources like gym memberships. More employers are finding ways to meet employees' needs through their wellness offerings. In fact, 84% of large employers offered a wellness program in 2019.
Wellness programs can help improve employee morale and create a culture where employees feel comfortable and cared for.
To offer these holistic benefits, many employers have been building their own health and wellness programs. However, there are many pros and cons to building a wellness program from scratch. It's important to consider the resources needed and other options available for creating a wellness program.
How Corporations Build Wellness Programs
When companies build their own wellness programs from scratch, they are relying on their own resources. For the best results, companies need a team of current employees that can focus their energies on a new wellness program. This team would conduct surveys to see what types of programs are needed, and would build a budget to meet those needs.
Once resources are independently gathered, the wellness program has to be well-communicated and easily accessible to employees. The finished product can benefit both employee and employer, but the journey towards the finish line can have some challenges.
Benefits of Building a Wellness Program
When companies choose to build their wellness program from scratch, they have complete control over the benefits. Employers can use their own staff, hone in on their strengths, and truly build a program that fits in their company's culture. When conducting surveys, companies receive a full understanding of their employee's needs and can meet those needs without wasting resources.
Wellness programs from scratch can also save companies money. Companies would not have to pay for a vendor that isn’t right for them, and they have more control over what they spend money on. Wellness programs save money by focussing on preventative care. In fact, 60% of companies say that their wellness program helped them save on overall health care costs.
The finished product can also help employees feel cared for and encourage employee well-being. However, it is important to remember the challenges of creating the program.
Challenges of Building a Wellness Program
Wellness benefits gained popularity in the 90s, and by the early 2000s, corporations started to focus on solution-based wellness programs. These wellness programs were aimed at specific health risks to improve employee health. Businesses could build their own wellness programs to focus on weight loss or smoking cessation. With centralized issues, companies didn’t need many outside resources to build a program.
However, employees today are in search of holistic benefits. Holistic benefits are meant to support their medical, physical, and mental health. Providing a variety of benefits takes more time and money than many businesses can sacrifice.
Over half of HR professionals say their number one reason for not building a wellness benefit is the cost. Current employees have to spend more time creating a holistic program while working within a budget that may not be sustainable.
If these employees are not well-versed in creating workplace wellness programs, there may be a lot of trial and error until a successful program is made. Without the right resources, a wellness program may not be able to meet employee expectations. It may be hard to make employees participate and maintain benefits if it does not have a strong foundation. To avoid using resources on a program that may not be ideal, employers can look to vendors for providing holistic benefits.
Build Benefits Easily
Wellness benefits are difficult to create because of the many intricacies employees need today. Employees need diversity, choice, accessibility, and a program to meet a multitude of their needs. This is often difficult for companies to do on their own, which is why a quality vendor can help. Companies like FitOn Health are dedicated to helping employers build a wellness program that lasts.
The right wellness vendor can provide an employer with the benefits they need, without wasting time, money, or resources. Wellness programs have been shown to make employees 12% more productive. Employers can reap this benefit when their programs are engaging and holistic.
Vendors like FitOn Health can get your company on track to offering the perfect wellness program. FitOn Health offers diverse fitness resources and makes the benefits easily accessible on the FitOn Health mobile app. Companies can get the best of both worlds with FitOn Health.
Employers can offer complete and holistic benefits that meet their employee's needs while avoiding the challenges of building a wellness program from scratch. Employees no longer have to go through the wellness benefit process alone. Working with an honest, communicative, and ambitious partner like FitOn Health can help employers improve their workplace.
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