Health and Wellness Programs Make for Happier, Healthier Employees

If you haven’t instituted a health and wellness program in your small business, you may be doing your employees and your company a disservice.

Programs that emphasize the physical, mental and emotional well-being of employees on and off the job not only can increase morale, but they can promote health and reduce absenteeism at the same time.

by Tamara E. Holmes

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According to a study conducted in 2000 by the National Mental Health Association, the estimated cost of depression was $43.7 billion per year — $31.3 billion of which was due to indirect costs such as lost productivity and absenteeism from work. Add other mental disorders such as anxiety, as well as physical illnesses and emotional problems like substance abuse, and you can kiss a good number of productive work days good-bye.

Ideally, health and wellness programs give employees resources and information to help them stay healthy and, in the process, stay happy.

There are many different types of activities that can fall under a health and wellness program. The only common denominator: activities must help employees improve their lives.

A weight-loss program that works with employees to change their eating habits and exercise, for example, seeks to better employees’ physical health. The direct benefit to your small business is that healthy employees are more productive.

Seminars on dealing with depression and anxiety are other programs you might want to incorporate. By teaching employees how to handle stress on the job, you’re making them better suited to handle work pressures and you’re showing them that you’re aware of the stressful circumstances they deal with every day.

A health and wellness program can be as big or small as you want. Bringing consultants in to hold monthly seminars on health issues might serve your purpose of informing employees about physical and emotional health topics. Or you might hire a fulltime employee or employees to staff an employee assistance program — one that provides licensed counselors to listen to employees who are struggling with emotional issues and help them work through their problems.

Exercise programs also fall under health and wellness. If you can’t afford to staff a company gym, you might offer to pay for membership to a local gym as a company benefit or have trainers teach aerobics, yoga or other exercise classes once a week.

While continuing education is a part of most businesses, you can add a health and wellness component by offering employees the opportunity to take classes in areas other than those connected to their core positions. By helping an employee to further his or her interest in, say, photography, you will be increasing that person’s knowledge base and helping him or her to improve as a person. Ideally, your business will benefit from employing a more well-rounded individual.

If you’re not sure what types of services you should implement, go directly to your employees. Have them fill out a survey stating whether or not they would participate in certain activities.

Then, start small. Implement one activity at a time to see what type of response you get. If employees like the activity, plan more. Also, use employee feedback to determine what types of activities your staff would enjoy. For example, an older workforce might enjoy the benefits of yoga while a younger workforce might prefer to have someone come in and teach a Pilates class.

Of course setting up a health and wellness program will cost time and money. If you don’t dedicate fulltime staff to the task, you’ll still have to pay outside consultants to come in — even if it’s simply to conduct a seminar or information session.