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6 Employee Wellness Trends for 2020

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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!

How Virtual Fitness Can Help Employees Overcome Barriers to Success

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An estimated 100 million Americans make New Year’s resolutions each year. For a whole host of reasons, over 90 percent of these resolutions fail. As someone who is in the business of helping clients and their employees achieve their health and wellness goals day in and day out, I have a sense of what does and does not work when it comes to changing behaviors over the long-term. And whether it’s a personal fitness goal or a corporate wellness program, one of the most frequent mistakes I see among both employers and employees is taking too rigid of an approach. Let’s start with employees’ habits.

Many begin the new year wanting to get more physical activity in each day, so they set a time and activity, and say “no excuses.” But sooner or later, life happens. Kids get sick, so they miss a class—which turns into a week, which turns into a month. The issue is that many force themselves into an activity they do not enjoy, or fail to switch things up. As a result, they get bored or their willpower slackens once the year is in full swing. What’s more, many fitness-related resolutions do not account for the fluidity and unpredictability of life, or recognize current barriers to success.

Among employers, there are similar tendencies. Too often employers take a one-size-fits-all approach to helping employees meet their health and wellness goals. And they end up with programs designed to be easily accessible and applicable mainly for in-office employees who work traditional office hours. The most often neglected employees include those who work remotely, have an unusual schedule or travel often, and those who work for companies with geographically dispersed offices.

As employees evaluate habits and attempt to stick to new fitness goals in the new year, employers are uniquely positioned to remove barriers and help employees more easily meet their goals.

And virtual fitness can play a key role in this process.

Recent research found that employees who do not participate in their company’s wellness programs choose not to do so most often because they find it inconvenient, lack information about the company’s offerings, do not feel supported by their employer or are generally reluctant, and in some cases, have privacy concerns. Virtual fitness can help lessen some of these barriers. Here’s how:

Convenient and easily accessible for all. Virtual fitness allows employers to scale their wellness initiatives by offering fitness classes, workout plans and assessments they can stream across mobile and web-based applications, anytime and anywhere. With virtual fitness comes greater flexibility, allowing employers to reach employees who have previously been difficult to engage and support in their wellness goals. Research also found that among employees who do not participate in their company’s wellness programs, 53 percent do not participate because it is inconvenient or they lack support from their employer. Virtual fitness can help employers struggling to engage their remote employees, workers who travel often or keep irregular schedules by putting the options into their hands and making it as easy as possible to participate.

Additionally, by putting classes, fitness plans and assessments into the hands of employees, on tablets and mobile devices, employers remove any barrier to information about the program. Employees are given the opportunity for self-guided and self-directed learning, as well as the necessary structure for many to achieve their new goals.

More privacy and opportunity for family involvement. Some employees are reluctant to participate in wellness offerings due to privacy concerns. With virtual fitness, employees can access information when and where it’s convenient for them. While many employees are eager to connect with colleagues in a fitness class, others are reluctant or self-conscious, especially when starting a new program. Virtual fitness offerings help remove this barrier by allowing employees to get all the benefits of the company’s fitness programming from the comfort of their home or corporate fitness center during non-peak hours. And virtual fitness includes educational tutorials to guide participants through the terminology, moves and equipment used for the format. Virtual fitness also allows employees to work out with their families, making it more convenient and enjoyable to participate as a group.

Endless customization opportunities. Today’s employees want and expect customized experiences in everything they do. With virtual fitness, employees can completely customize their experience and switch things up to keep it fresh—which is another key to any fitness-related goal. For example, employees at our clients’ sites take advantage of a range of classes including Yoga, Pilates, Spinning, Kickboxing, Sculpting and Kinetics, prenatal classes, dance and Step classes. And because classes range in length and skill level, employees can fit fitness into their day and stay motivated more easily.

Virtual fitness also provides “office breaks” to help employees counteract the detrimental effects of sitting at work with 1- to 8-minute activities that won’t disturb their work flow or require a change of clothes. Done several times a day, it’s easy for employees to accumulate 30 minutes of exercise a day!

For many of us, the beginning of the year brings colder temperatures, darker mornings, fuller schedules and more work travel. It’s probably the most difficult time to start a new program, become more consistent with exercise or generally bring our fitness to the next level. Employers that take the initiative to help employees make progress in their unique fitness goals (and make it easy for all employees to do so) will soon find themselves reaching their own wellness program goals for participation and engagement in 2017 and beyond.

Photo Credit: stacysjeannes Flickr via Compfight cc

The Benefits of Developing a Workplace Culture of Health

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Most of us try to live well but fall short of our goals. A recent study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings found less than three percent of us have a “healthy lifestyle”—despite the fact that a vast majority of us are on a quest for personal wellness.

But wellness takes a lifestyle change, and time spent at work can either help or hinder. As more companies realize that a happy and healthy employee is better for business, they’re looking for ways to develop a workplace culture of health.

Real-world results show there’s value in workplace wellness—both for employees and the bottom line. Here’s a look at why more and more organizations are being proactive about health and how you can get employees involved.

The Benefits of Having Healthy Employees

There’s no shortage of research tying work life to physical and mental health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that health promotion programs can help employees “develop knowledge, self-management and coping skills as well as build a social support network among coworkers, supervisors, and family.”

At work, these wellness benefits translate into:

  • Fewer absences. Healthy people don’t spend as much time off sick. That connection is pretty straightforward, but the effect is far-reaching: Reducing the amount of time spent away from work improves productivity and provides room for more innovation and growth.
  • Better performance. Productivity isn’t just about time spent at a desk. People who exercise, get enough sleep, and eat right are taking care of their minds as much as their bodies, which can improve concentration and focus, and help employees avoid the dreaded “afternoon slump” or feelings of mental fogginess.
  • Higher engagement. Wellness programs bring people together outside of their day-to-day work. Group activities can encourage collaboration and improve both relationships and motivation. From better engagement and job satisfaction to retention, a well-rounded wellness program can be a boon for human resources.

Companies can also see financial benefits for their efforts:

  • Lower insurance costs. The CDC point out that healthy employees spend less out-of-pocket on health-related expenses—and so do their employers. People in good health present a lower insurance risk, which translates into lower insurance costs. A look at the ROI of employee wellness programs in 2010 found that every dollar invested provided $6 in savings.
  • Improved stock performance. A survey of 49 public companies by the Health Enhancement Research Organization and Mercer found those with wellness programs appreciated more and outperformed the S&P 500.

Why a Focus on Workplace Wellness Works

Encouraging employees to take breaks during their day to exercise or eat better is fine, but what is it about workplace culture that makes healthy living happen?

  • Built-in support. Many individuals struggle with their health goals because they feel like they’re trying to do it on their own. By creating an environment that encourages employee wellness, health goals become front and center; instead of being isolated, employees can support one another on their journeys.
  • Some companies offer incentives to increase employee participation and reward commitment. Perks like insurance discounts, time off, or monetary rewards can be helpful motivators.
  • Greater confidence and mental health. The benefits of better health help people feel better about themselves, which boosts confidence and self-esteem. Plus, activities can help alleviate some mental health problems and generate a sense of well-being.

Forcing Employees to Participate Could Backfire

Some employers make participation in wellness programs a requirement. Employees who refuse may find that they must pay for COBRA benefits, and courts are supporting the move so far. Keep an eye out to see how further cases against mandatory programs pan out, but I think requiring participation may go too far. For many companies, voluntary participation provides enough return that it isn’t necessary to strong-arm employees into it.

Creating a Culture of Corporate Wellness

Some companies are well known for their health-related benefits. Google offers napping pods as well as swimming pools, ping pong tables, standing desks, and healthy foods. Kaiser Permanente provides employees with healthy recipes, programs to track wellness goals, and group fitness activities. General Electric employees receive free preventive exams, free online second opinions, and incentives specifically for nonsmokers.

Not everyone has such deep pockets, however, and they aren’t necessary; any business can make an investment in health. Corporate wellness programs succeed when they have specific goals, established budgets, and policy for company involvement.

Consider your employees and their needs before setting program goals. Find ways to encourage employees to take small steps, like getting up and moving during the day. Talk to your insurance provider, too; many insurers have built-in programs. Even educating employees about the resources available to them can be a step in the right direction.

It doesn’t take grand gestures to promote a culture of health; simple activities can yield significant benefits. With small changes, you can effectively transition your company to one that makes employee well-being a priority.

 

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