Why Leaders Should Incentive Personal Wellness Among Their Employees

Most corporations these days are taking wellness more seriously now. Half of today’s businesses offer a wellness program, which has boosted the workplace wellness industry to a $6 billion-a-year corporate favorite. With the promise to top up productivity, slash absenteeism, and reduce healthcare expenses, these wellness programs have appealed to business owners who are eager to avoid high cost illnesses. Unfortunately, in their eagerness to get employees on board, many fail to properly implement an effective plan. As a result, few employees find the motivation to take part in these programs which can ultimately topple the efforts of even the most successful wellness plans.

If you’re hoping to promote a healthier lifestyle amongst your employees, giving them a stronger understanding of the benefits of your wellness program is key. To inspire your employees to get active in your program, here are 3 real wellness impacts that can have a lasting effect on employees:

Build A Tight-Knit Team

Office gossip, opposition amongst co-workers, and negative competition can be real productivity killers in the workplace. Not only can they can distract teams from working effectively, they can also break down team morale and make employees feel as if they’re functioning in a hostile work environment. Proof of this notion was stated in a recent report, which found that an alarming 80 percent of employees chose to work by themselves because of a negative workspace. Scenarios such as this should be every company’s worst nightmare, mostly because of their ability to heighten mistakes and decrease efficiency.

Companies that encourage employees to take part in wellness challenges have a greater chance of building a sense of camaraderie amongst employees. This is because people are more likely to bond, construct a sense of loyalty towards one another, and work together when they share common goals and mutual desires. Team social wellness challenges, from reaching a certain amount of steps together to attending health seminars, can be a great way to rally teams around a common goal and bring them closer together. These challenges can promote healthy competition amongst peers where coworkers feel motivated by others to tackle their own goals while also feeling the support of their own team.

Foster A Sense of Trust Between Employee and Employer

One of the most common issues plaguing the workforce these days lies in how much employees feel like they’re being valued. In 2014, a study found that half of employees reported that they didn’t feel as if their company leaders truly cared about their well being, or respected their work. What’s more, a 2015 survey found that forty-five percent of employees didn’t trust in their own company’s leadership. Without a sense of respect or trust, employees are much more likely to feel a lack of motivation or sense of commitment to a job. Instead of individuals with lives, they can end up feeling like wind up toys working on an assembly line.

When employees feel as if their employees hold a concern about their own wellness and health the results can be powerful. Employees are more likely to take extra steps for their employers and become emotionally engaged in their work. More so, their positive work environment will often motivate them to recommend their company’s business to others. Not only does this help to decrease recruiting costs it also has the capacity to expand a business’s customer base. Workplace wellness programs help employees feel the concern and interest that their employers should actually have in them. Making this type of an investment in their health can go a long way in making teams feel valued and appreciated by higher ups.

Lift Employee Morale and Motivation

Employees who are unable to find meaning in their own work typically feel less motivated to do it. For companies, this means lower productivity and engagement, which can send sales into a nose dive and plummet their business. To avoid this and help lead an organization forward, companies typically install their employees with a brand mission that is informed by a core set of values. These aspects can help them to drive employee behavior and give employees a sense of worth and meaning in the work that they do and the daily goals that they strive for.

Workplace wellness programs can be the most effective way of giving employees a greater sense of their company’s mission and values. Team goals that are based on collaboration and cooperation can help instill in employees the notion that their work and the motivation behind their own executives doesn’t just sit on a paycheck. It reminds them that their organization was created to help solve a problem and make differences in communities. Giving employees a chance to actively and directly take part in a wellness program that encourages community building— such as cancer walks, community cleanups, getting in shape, and house restoration— can help restore their sense of purpose.

Wellness programs can provide employees an array of benefits, but they’ll never come into fruition unless businesses motivate their employees to stick with them. If you’re hoping to use a wellness program to stir and motivate your employees remember that it’s crucial to teach your employees why wellness programs work.