Stepping away from traditional workplace wellness programs

Many of today’s business owners are throwing a lot of money into workplace wellness programs because they understand the financial value of healthy employees. They aren’t, however, putting the same amount of thought into what type of wellness programs employees might actually use.

RShaunMader

Employers have seen reports like the 2014 study by Virginia Tech College of Engineering that showed unhealthy workers are less productive, most likely to get injured, and need longer rest breaks than employees with a well-rounded lifestyle. They realize that unfit employees also have a higher turnover rate, which results in additional onboarding and training costs for employers. But simply offering a company wellness program doesn’t guarantee a reduction in employee healthcare costs, especially if the programs aren’t teaching healthy lifestyle training.

Also see: “10 companies that made big benefits changes in 2016.”

Many of the workplace wellness programs being offered today still rely on traditional ideas that have proven ineffective. Many programs are metrics-focused, recommending tasks like walking 10,000 steps a day or offer small — often taxable — incentives in an attempt to motivate participants to lose weight in a short amount of time. This kind of goal-oriented program does not actually teach the day-to-day wellness choices that are fundamental to building a healthy lifestyle. A number of programs incorporate wearable technology that measures walking, but walking is only one component of health, just as broccoli is a single component of a well-rounded diet. If you were only eating broccoli, that wouldn’t be a healthy lifestyle.

Moving and breathing

Workplace culture holds the key to fixing the national health crisis, and there are better ways for employers to ensure that an employee wellness program will actually work and provide employees with lasting change.

Since you can’t meditate to a smaller waistline or diet to a better night’s sleep, here are three things that employers should make sure to incorporate into the company wellness programs — things that can actually help employees learn and maintain a healthier lifestyle:

· Improve mobility with movement that can be done right at their desk, or on the fly.

· Increase strength with a bodyweight exercise program that starts small and builds throughout the year.

· Improve their diet with nutritional guidelines and tips including recipes, best times of day to eat, and how to optimize food choices — even for the holidays.

It is commonly misunderstood how small choices made on a daily basis can undermine wellness efforts. By providing achievable daily challenges to reinforce healthy choices, workplace wellness programs that take the holistic approach in teaching healthy lifestyle habits will see better results. Small changes, practiced routinely over time, become the tools of a sustainable healthy lifestyle that produces significant long-term results.