To understand what has the most profound impact on employee wellness, you need to look beyond the existence of wellness programs.
According to the Global Wellness Institute findings, if an employee identified their company as “caring about their health/wellness,” that employee’s overall health, stress and job engagement/satisfaction improved significantly.
WHAT IS “CARING”?
Among “tangibles,” compensation, benefits and recognition impact worker wellness most.
Caring companies are also more likely to provide employees with a wellness program than the non-caring (67% vs. 41%) – and encourage/offer a host of healthy options, like regular exercise (58% vs. 20%), healthy eating (57% vs. 21%), meditation (20% vs. 7%), stress reduction (35% vs. 13%), mental health services (56% vs. 34%), and wellness coaching (38% vs. 24%.)
Data suggests that what it means to be a healthy, caring company isn’t one-size-fits-all. If an employee identified their company as “caring about their health/wellness” that employee’s overall health, stress and job engagement/satisfaction improved significantly. For example: Fifty-seven percent of employees at “caring” companies rate their health/wellness high, vs. only 39% at “non-caring” companies. Only 8% at caring companies report poor personal health, vs. 21% at non-caring companies.
WHAT CONSTITUTES WELLNESS AT WORK FOR GEN X/BOOMERS VS. MILLENNIALS?
TOP FIVE WORKPLACE DRIVERS OF WELLNESS
For Gen X/Baby Boomers: 1) Can choose my own work path/projects, 2) Onsite or subsidized childcare, 3) Onsite recreation, 4) Nutritional counseling, 5) Opportunity to grow
For Millennials: 1) My company cares about my personal wellness, 2) Feel my work has positive impact on people’s lives, 3) Health insurance, 4) My boss/manager cares about my personal wellness, 5) My employer is supportive
Generally, workplace “intangibles” and emotional factors have the largest impact on employee wellness, especially for Millennials, who want to know, above all, that their company, managers and co-workers all care about their personal wellbeing. For this rising generation of workers, “caring” is the very heart of workplace wellness.
Source: Global Wellness Institute Report and Survey on ‘The Future of Wellness at Work’
