How a corporate wellness plan can revolutionise your business
Posted on 6th June 2023 at 14:30
A corporate wellness plan is not just about bringing in healthy habits and healthy behaviors, organising group yoga or wearing fitness trackers, it is an indispensable element of a flourishing business with potential for both staff and the organisation as a whole.
Here, we delve into the importance of implementing effective wellness programs in your workforce and explore strategies for achieving wellness goals.
An effective workplace wellness strategy looks at the individual and at the broader company as a whole. A happy, healthy and productive business is like an ecosystem, where everything relies on and depends on the other.
Looking at a whole system approach and workplace wellness programmes is really beneficial to boost the effectiveness of workplace culture.
The importance of working with an effective corporate wellness company
Incorporating a healthcare solution like Verve Healthcare has become increasingly important as employers recognise the benefits of investing in a healthy workforce. It's not just the right thing to do, it makes good business sense too. It's as important for your company to have healthy habits as it is for your staff - and that means a holistic approach to healthier lives for all.
By monitoring the health of your employees through regular surveys, Verve Healthcare can help you keep your staff healthy, happy, and productive while reducing the overall load on sickness-related costs.
Our surveys are a bit like mini health risk assessments, using our corporate wellness platform to assess how your people are doing and spotting elements that could derail them from being healthy and happy at work.
We are a corporate wellness company that's totally focussed on health outcomes for the individual employee and your company as a whole.
The benefits of implementing corporate wellness programs
Some key benefits include increased productivity, reduced absenteeism and presenteeism, improved morale and job satisfaction, lower costs for employers, and enhanced company reputation among potential recruits or clients.
We find that companies that have wellbeing as part of their daily habits tend to have healthier employees and happier employees. This not only boosts the experience for employees but also improves the customer experience. After all, we all want to associate with an organisation that cares about us, whether that's as a staff member, a customer or a supplier.
You can reduce the cost of absenteeism and presenteeism
It seems that absenteeism is increasing year on year. Research from the Office of National Statistics shows that:
The sickness absence rate - the percentage of working hours lost because of sickness or injury - rose to 2.6% in 2022, an increase of 0.4 percentage points from 2021 and the highest it has been since 2004, when it was 2.7%.
An estimated 185.6 million working days were lost because of sickness or injury in 2022; this level was a record high, but the number of days lost per worker, at 5.7, was not.
Groups with the highest rates of sickness absence in 2022 included women, older workers, those with long-term health conditions, people working part-time, and people working in care, leisure, or other service occupations.
And according to data from the Health and Safety Executive, presenteeism is also causing lost productivity to companies, with 35 workdays lost per worker each year in the UK. It's more difficult to count, but we all know the effects of a colleague coming into work when really they should be at home ill. Apart from the risk of spreading infection, as in the case of colds and flu, the impact on colleagues having to do extra to cover a co-worker who is 'there-but-not-there' can be significant.
Incorporating Verve Healthcare's innovative approach into your organisation's wellness strategy can help spot an issue before it becomes a problem. It's all confidential for the individual, and as an employer you have access to an oversight dashboard so that you can spot any potential hot spots and address them at a company level.
We do this by monitoring your workforce's mental and physical health regularly using surveys and a portal specifically for them.
This proactive method ensures that potential health issues are identified early on. Appropriate clinical interventions can be provided promptly before they escalate further - ultimately leading towards a better employee experience, a better quality of life for everyone and a positive work culture.
There are clear examples that show how corporate wellness solutions can benefit employee health and wellbeing. To ensure successful workplace wellness programs, there are six essential steps to consider.
Our free guide shows six essential steps for successful workplace wellness programs
The Verve Healthcare wellbeing strategy guide sets out six important steps that you can take today to create an approach for your own company. Have you downloaded yours yet? You can get a copy for free today on this link.
The six steps are set out in greater detail in your guide:
Engage others - a whole-company change cannot be drawn up and implemented by one person alone. good employee engagement means listening to your teams and being responsive
Be clear about your organisation's objectives - healthy and happy staff are essential for productivity, and you need to make sure that everyone is aligned.
Understand the size of the financial impact - here we encourage you to check the potential impact on your own company by using our free wellbeing calculator
Pinpoint the problem - the type of wellness program you create needs to be absolutely linked to the overall problems you want to solve or opportunities you want to grasp.
Measure how you are doing - how to set clear targets and monitor them
Spend your investment wisely - how to set a realistic budget that means you are tackling the areas that matter the most (and that can save you money)
Why do companies struggle to start implementing effective workplace wellness programs?
Employers have a duty to protect the health and safety of their workers under the Health and Safety at Work Act. Workers too have a duty to look after themselves. Yet despite this many employers still struggle with implementing effective workplace wellness programs.
This can be for a number of reasons:
They think it's expensive to implement an employee wellness program
Preventing ill health actually costs less than fixing ill health. We all know that reducing healthcare costs to the NHS makes sense, yet some employers are still baulking at a preventative approach. The long-term benefits of a healthy workforce can outweigh these initial employee healthcare costs. By focusing on prevention and early intervention, and enabling healthier habits and healthier lifestyles, businesses can reduce expenses related to absenteeism, presenteeism, and decreased productivity.
They focus on managing symptoms rather than addressing the root cause of problems
Spotting and addressing the root causes of illness rather than just managing symptoms offers a solution for organisations looking to implement cost-effective wellness programs.
The Verve Healthcare approach promotes overall health through personalised health interventions as appropriate, tailored to individual needs. This aspect of our corporate wellness strategies can empower employees to take control of their wellbeing and instill daily health habits. We help companies reinforce a culture of health and a culture of wellness. It's all about keeping employees healthy and reducing the administrative burden of absenteeism and presenteeism.
By implementing effective workplace wellness programs, organisations can reduce employee health care costs and create a healthier work environment.
Our health assessments cover:
Employee mental health
Stress management and burnout
Physical (musculoskeletal) health
Wellness challenges
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