All too often, employees and management find themselves on opposite sides of the system. It is almost inevitable. After all, the employees want higher wages and the management wants to keep costs down. The employs want more time off, and the management wants increased productivity. That is why it is so nice when something comes along where the employees and the management can agree on the issue wholeheartedly. Such is the case with a good corporate wellness program.
The idea of the corporate wellness program is pretty new to businesses. Until recently, employee health and stress relief was viewed as the responsibility of employees. Nowadays, all that has changed. New thinking has come into business practices. People realize that healthy, happy employees are more productive employees. They also realize that corporate wellness programs keep health care costs down, limit absenteeism, and all in all do a lot to make the workplace a happier, healthier, and more productive environment.
Deciding on and implementing an employee wellness program can be a little bit difficult, however. First of all, it represents pretty new thinking to a lot of management. Usually, when people think about making the workplace a more efficient operation, they think about cutting down on programs, not expanding them. A new corporate wellness program can amount to a rather significant expenditure of funds right off the bat. Your average employee wellness program can cost thousands of dollars per employee. Giving free yoga classes, providing health screenings, counseling employees on how to reduce health risks – all of that amounts money to get it off the ground.
Nonetheless, it is worth it. You can keep your medical costs down, keep your workers healthy, and even increase job satisfaction. A recent survey of employees who have gone through corporate wellness programs suggests that they are happier with their jobs. Happier workers means workers more likely to stay, and employee loyalty is a big concern among most businesses.
How you implement your corporate wellness program depends on the size of your business. For small businesses, a corporate wellness program can be implemented piecemeal. At first, classes can be offered, employee response can be gathered, and further options can be made available. For a large corporation, hiring someone to set up a comprehensive program makes a lot more sense. It is all a matter of scale. Bigger businesses can afford to provide bigger benefits, and it tends to cost them less money to do so..