Has your office ever tried to do a monthly wellness challenge with everyone to only have a handful of employees jump on board? Wellness isn’t one-size-fits-all.  We’re seeing exciting new technology and programs that better help employers engage their employees in wellness activities and help track overall effectiveness. 

In this blog post, we’ll explore if wellness challenges are right for your organization, talk about measuring ROI,  share some fun, unique challenges and explore some of the offerings of one of our favorite wellness providers.

Are Wellness Programs Right for Your Organization?

It’s a fact. Unhealthy employees affect your bottom line.  Did you know that employees with two or more lifestyle risk factors (eg. being sedentary, being overweight, smoking, or high alcohol intake) are absent 50% more often than those without the risk factors, and cost their employers two to three times more in health benefit costs?

Unhealthy behaviours (like not exercising) lead to health risks which lead to chronic disease which leads to health care costs. When employees have the opportunity to focus on their wellness at work, they will be more likely to create healthy behaviours.  

We like to say that if you don’t take care of your wellness now, you’re going to have to take care of your illness later.

Many business owners and managers have doubted the return on investment (ROI) of wellness programs.  It’s more a “nice-to-have” rather than a mandatory piece of employee health and wellness.  But recent studies are proving that investment in these programs is showing positive returns.

We love providing ways for our clients to engage their teams in wellness. Benefits don’t just have to be the normal traditional benefits for businesses. They can include fun software and activities that help promote overall employee health. 

Measuring Plan Effectiveness

Measuring plan effectiveness typically includes the cost-savings achieved related to health care spending (through reduced plan claims), as well as productivity increases due to a reduction in sick days taken by employees. 

Nearly half of employers don’t consistently track absenteeism, morale or overall health spending by their employees.

“It is so important for an organization to be tracking current indicators (such as absenteeism, employee engagement and detailed benefits plan usage,” says Corrie Omand-Brown, Employee Benefits Specialist at Navy & Sage Benefits Ltd.  “

 It is estimated that nearly half of employers in Canada don’t consistently track employee absenteeism nor do they track the specific causes of individual absentee instances. Also, because most employers focus only on absenteeism when analyzing wellness program ROI, and neglect to account for the indirect and longer term costs associated with poor employee health, there is a tendency to underestimate such costs. Time away from work is a large part of the wellness ROI equation – particularly when looking at near term and direct costs. However, the longer term impacts of poor employee health are often larger than employers realize.

“The cost of recruiting and training replacement workers and the cumulative negative impact that unhealthy employees have on productivity, workplace injury risk, and employee morale far exceed the costs of absenteeism” explains Dr. Farrell Cahill, head of research at Medisys Health Group.

Calculating the ROI based on the hard savings numbers provides most companies with the justification for implementing such programs.

A Little About Wellable  Easy to Implement

Wellable is a company that helps organizations create experiences that make employees want to show up for work. Instead of plain old fitness challenges that may be daunting for some employees, Wellable’s wellness challenges create engaging work environments where employees feel encouraged and inspired to add overall wellness into their routine. Wellable supports programs that deliver positive employee experiences across the three most important environments for employees – technology, culture and physical space. And they are completely customizable and user friendly.

Wellness is Different for Everyone

Wellness looks different for every single participant. While some people swear by their Apple Watches, others prefer to not use any technology to track their progress.  While some employees are already extremely active, others may need more motivation and encouragement for physical activity.  We like wellness programs that allow employees to choose their preferred method for tracking activity.   In addition, we love customizable challenges that combine other activities of positive health, such as nutrition, mindfulness, gratitude or teamwork to help appeal to all groups.

The result is happier, healthier and more engaged employees. When your employees are thriving, so is your work environment and the specific work that is being done. Happy employees create good work. 

Wellness Challenge Theme Ideas

There are lots of options out there for wellness challenges.  Here are a few ideas to help get you started. 

• Resiliency Challenge
• Kindness Ninjas – promote acts of kindness in your workplace
• Happiness Challenge 
• Healthy Holidays 
• Better Nutrition
• Gratitude Challenge
• Move More Challenge 
• Personal Wellness Assessments 
• Sleep Tight Challenge – to promote better sleep
• Total Wellness Challenge 

As you can see, not every single challenge is physical either. This allows your management group to decide on different challenges that help suit everyone on the team! You can do a physical activity challenge one month and then a sustainability one the next. Our unique wellness solutions make it easy to switch things up and to always keep your monthly office challenges engaging and possible for everyone on your team.

If you’re already a client of Navy & Sage, you have full access to these challenges and more. If you’re not a client already, we are happy to help you find the best fit for your team. If you’ve been trying to improve the workplace comradery and feeling like your team needs to come together, especially during COVID-19, this could be it! 

If you’re interested in learning more about our Health and Wellness Solutions and how to integrate it into your workplace, reach out to us today. We love chatting about wellness and how that looks for different businesses. 

References:

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3. Vivien Brown (2019), Medisys Health Group, How Virtual Care is Reshaping the Future of Canadian Benefits Programs, retrieved from https://blog.medisys.ca/virtual-care-canadian-healthcare
4. Canada, C.B.o., Smoking and the bottom line: the costs of smoking in the workplace, C.B.o. Canada, Editor. 1997: Ottawa.
5. Vamos, E.P., et al., Comorbid depression is associated with increased healthcare utilization and lost productivity in persons with diabetes: a large nationally representative Hungarian population survey. Psychosom Med, 2009. 71(5): p. 501-7.
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