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6 Employee Wellness Trends for 2020

We’re wrapping up 2019. It’s time to start planning for the New Year, and that means taking a close look at the issues around workforce wellness. Concepts of wellness, particularly employee wellness, are evolving, and in 2020 we’ll see a lot of organizations working to meet their employees’ needs better. Pay attention to these six employee wellness trends for 2020. I predict we will be hearing a lot about them.

The Concept of Wellness is Changing

The current multi-generational workforce is guiding the conversations around health and wellness in the workplace. Both Millennials and Generation Zs expect employers to invest in their health and wellbeing. According to research just published by ClassPass, “Seventy-five percent of professionals surveyed believe it is their employer’s responsibility to contribute to their health and wellbeing, ideally in part by providing wellness benefits to employees.”

But there’s a disparity between how employers and employees view access to health and wellness benefits. According to a study published by Aetna, 70% of employers believe they provide reasonable access to health and wellness benefits, while only 23% of employees agree. Additionally, the study found that 82% of workers across the globe are concerned that mental health issues could impact their ability to work. But only 25% of employees feel their organizations provide enough support for mental health conditions.

I’ve been writing in the HR space for years about the importance of a healthy workforce — and that means revising health and wellness programs to better meet new workforce realities. Let’s take a closer look at what some of these are:

1. Holistic benefits: Holistic benefits plans will become more readily available. Holistic benefits plans are constructed to address all aspects of care, including mind and body components. Managing mental health conditions such as stress and depression will be increasingly commonplace, extending, in some plans, to assistance with financial stressors such as college loan payments.

More companies will approach health insurance and employee benefits with an eye toward investing in both benefits and people. Those who take this direction will be focusing on the impact this has on metrics, including employee retention, productivity, workforce attraction, and company culture. “High-value options and technologies are increasingly defining and shaping holistic employee benefit programs,” according to Workforce.com.

Employees want health and wellness benefits options that fit their needs and lives, and statistics bear that out. In MetLife’s 2019 Employee Benefit Trends Study, 55% of those surveyed said they would be more interested in working for a company offering holistic benefits. Fifty-three percent of respondents said they would be more loyal to a company providing those benefits, while 52% stated they believed they would be more successful in both work and life with access to holistic benefits. Generation Z and Millennial employees rated holistic benefits as slightly more important (57% versus 52%) in their responses.

2. Equal benefits for alternative families and identities: Ensuring that alternative families have access to equal benefits will be a significant shift moving into 2020. Examples of this may include people who are caring for extended family members or elderly parents, have blended families, or are part of an LGBTQ+ community. We will see organizations begin to explore the feasibility of expanding family leave policies to provide new parents of both sexes access to flex-time policies.

3. A focus on mental health and stress reduction benefits: Stress harms overall mental health and employee engagement, so we’ll see more organizations build stress-reduction activities into their employee wellness programming. Many companies are already offering on-site, face-to-face wellness coaching, mindfulness courses, and individual therapy.

As the ClassPass survey findings illustrate, people believe their employers should contribute to their health and wellbeing. Eighty-eight percent of the survey’s respondents stated they would be more likely to recommend an employer who supports their wellbeing efforts.

4. Adventure and social good programs: Companies are adding programs like these to their employee wellness programs, which allow employees to give back by volunteering time and services. Salesforce has a fantastic program, offering its “citizen philanthropists” seven days of paid Volunteer Time Off, among other social good options. This type of initiative appeals to younger workers, and we’ll see an increase in the implementation of adventure and social good programming.

5. Expanding financial wellness programs for all employees: Going beyond the lunchtime seminars and offering in-house financial counseling and programs targeted to individual employees’ needs. Most firms will have employees ranging in age from those just entering the workforce to a cohort facing retirement. Financial wellness program possibilities are endless, from payday loans using alternative “currencies” like hours or vacation time, tuition reimbursement and student loan pay-down assistance, to credit counselors and financial concierge services. Financial stress takes a massive toll on productivity in the workplace. Savvy employers understand that whatever costs they incur expanding financial wellness programs, they will reap back two-fold.

6. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to predict evolving employee needs and benefits investments better: AI is already creating more personalized experiences for employees. Its use is allowing companies to leverage data to tweak and adjust their wellness programs, resulting in a better user experience based on the employees’ preferences and wellness goals, as well as reduced overall corporate costs through fine-tuning. You’ll see more of this in the coming year. Watch for AI that monitors the use of emojis in internal messaging systems such as Slack, allowing organizations to gauge employee satisfaction and handle issues before they get out of hand.

Evaluating Your Own Workplace Wellness Culture

Employers need to keep pace with these changes. I’d suggest we commit to conducting a yearly review of our workplace wellness cultures. Annual reviews are essential to help organizations stay abreast of changing technology, societal conditions, and worker satisfaction levels. Your review should factor in metrics like productivity and employee engagement. Afterward, plan to adjust your programs in response to the results. You might even try experimenting with corporate culture shifts such as flex-time or remote-work options — which are certainly related to wellness, as more of us are starting to find out.

Here’s looking at a healthy and happy 2020. Cheers!

Improving Company Culture Starts With Wellness

An increasing number of employers have connected the dots between employee wellness and improved workplace productivity. That’s why it makes so much sense for businesses to emphasize wellness as part of their company culture.

In fact, 72 percent of companies in the Society for Human Resource Management’s 2016 Employee Benefits survey said they currently offer some form of wellness program, .

The digital connection

If improvement in your employees’ wellness is your goal, digital technology can play a significant role in improving their health and consequently, their productivity. Research has explicitly linked the use of wearables, apps and other technology to increased employee productivity, as well as reduced absenteeism, lower stress levels and decreased employer healthcare costs.

A survey from Health IT Outcomes reported that 90 percent of employees surveyed said they wanted their company to provide a wearable device for tracking as an incentive. Companies are responding: Nearly half of the employers surveyed by the Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO) offered or sponsored a tracker device as part of their wellness program.

By investing in digital technology, employers can boost participation in corporate wellness programs. These devices are a constant reminder to employees of their health status, allowing them to monitor their physical fitness activities, heart rates, body temperatures and even sleep patterns.

A competitive advantage

Businesses that promote a culture of wellness have a competitive edge. Those adoptive businesses can build stronger employee engagement with the company’s goals, according to a study sponsored by Humana and The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

The study found that employees in wellness programs are 12 percent less likely to experience health issues caused by work-related stress and nearly 10 percent less likely to find professional obligations interfering with their ability to make healthy choices regarding nutrition and exercise.

The Humana/EIU study also confirmed that stress remains a severe health problem in the workplace. More than 70 percent of the employees surveyed concurred that company wellness programs can have at least a moderate impact in reducing stress. According to other key findings, approximately nine in 10 employees surveyed said they find participating in employee wellness programs improves their fitness as well as their overall happiness and well-being.

Keys to increasing participation

So, what’s thwarting increased participation? One key contributor is a lack of time. Approximately half of the employees in the Humana/EIU study said they were too busy to participate as fully as they would like in their company’s wellness program. One way companies can compensate is to increase the motivation for participation.

Healthcare Trends Institute recommends developing a “sticky strategy” to incentivize participation, to help companies, for example, recoup an investment in wearables. In a 2016 PwC study, The Wearable Life 2.0, more than 50 percent of respondents said that features such as monetary rewards would motivate increased use; and 45 percent said a gamification component would foster healthy competition.

Gamification also promotes a sense of team camaraderie — the idea that “we’re all in this together,” pulling for, and supporting, one other — which ultimately will boost morale, workplace engagement and productivity.

A company win-win

Clearly, there are multiple benefits — for businesses and their employees — in implementing an effective company wellness program:

  • Increased productivity
  • Decreased absenteeism
  • Reduced healthcare costs
  • Less work-related stress
  • More motivated employees
  • Better employee engagement
  • Renewed sense of team camaraderie
  • Improved health, well-being and happiness
  • Expanded alignment with company goals and company culture

The tie between corporate success and improved employee health and well-being is evident, and that’s a win-win that will take your company culture to a whole new level.

This article was first published on Entrepreneur.