When you’re building a company, the money you’re bringing in is only one small part of the process. The moment you bring an employee into the mix, you’re creating a company culture that dictates how the people who work there experience their time in the office (or logged in online), their fulfillment in the work they do and ultimately how they feel about your company as a whole.
In short: the best leaders care about their employees as people, not just their work.
Corporate wellness programs are resources that companies provide their employees to support healthy behavior in their lives. It can be physical like yoga, and gym discounts, financial like financial planning, investment classes, or even spiritual, like meditation. It’s not all for start-up tech companies offering kombucha on tap or dog-friendly offices – any office in any industry can begin programs that benefit the health of their staff.
Right now, 58% of companies in the US offer some type of employee wellness program, and that’s been shown to offer some major improvements in employee retention, happiness and productivity.
A study by the Economist Intelligence Unit found that programs that focus on an employee’s mental and physical wellbeing – not just their work – make employees feel like their company’s goals are more in line with their own. That, in turn, makes them work harder, stick around longer and feel more fulfilled by their jobs.
And it’s not just for existing employees. One of the hardest parts of being an HR manager is recruiting motivated and qualified to fit into their company’s mission. Studies have found employees are significantly more likely to recommend someone to work at a company that has these programs, and they’re seen as a major draw for potential candidates as well.
What that means is that these programs send a clear message: this company values them as an individual, not just as another body at a desk. Because no one is looking for a job they don’t feel engaged in.
In the workforce, that means a lot. A Gallup study found that employees who are engaged at work are 45% more likely to adapt to new and changing situations. Wellness programs like yoga and meditation expand on that tendency and give employees the tools and resources they need to successfully pivot whenever needed without stress or worry.
As is becoming more and more clear, mental health matters far more in the workplaces than many employers or employees let on. According to the National Small Business Association, employee stress is the number one concern of almost half of all small business owners, and for good reason. 3 in 5 workers are burned out in their jobs, and when workers experience burnout they are less productive, less motivated and overall less happy than those who aren’t. Call it a numbers issue or call it empathy – but an office operating on stress and caffeine alone can’t run forever.
But even beyond that – beyond the studies and the research – wellness programs like yoga and meditation send a message to employees that their company cares about more than just the work they produce. That they see them as real people – and that goes a long way.