The concepts of health and wellness are at the forefront of the world, but that’s often where they stay—as ideas and lofty goals. Some embark on a journey to embrace healthy living, scribbling on scratch paper their New Year’s resolution, only to find that the year has passed and they are no closer to a healthy lifestyle.
Once people enter the workplace, the office birthday cake beckons and the drive to work out on a daily basis diminishes with an increased workload. Helping our employees maintain a healthy lifestyle is one of the core reasons Laser Spine Institute decided to start a wellness program.
Benefits of a Wellness Program
Starting an office wellness program offers its teammates the opportunity to engage in health-related tasks and challenges throughout the year. Teammates can earn prizes and work toward maintaining a healthy lifestyle while at the office. We provide a number of wellness tools to our teammates, including an annual biometric screening, member health assessment, online wellness program, and running and walking teams.
Introducing your team to a corporate wellness program has myriad benefits. A wellness program goes a long way toward building team camaraderie and encourages employees to work together across departments, deepening their bond as coworkers.
Additionally, a wellness program can offer both the organization and the employee cost savings. Depending on how you set up your wellness program, your company can save money on insurance, as can your employees.
Not only does it help in the realm of cost savings, but a wellness program also gives you the opportunity to have an impact on your employees’ lives. It helps to provide awareness and potentially save lives from chronic conditions such as diabetes.
How to Start a Corporate Wellness Program
Setting up a corporate wellness program can be difficult if you don’t have the correct resources. Some things you will learn through trial and error, but here are some tips from Laser Spine Institute:
- Communicate thoroughly. We know what a wellness program is, but not all employees do. We are working continually to communicate with our teammates what our wellness program encapsulates. We try to communicate in a way our staff easily understands.
- Get employee feedback. Make sure management understands and supports the mission of the wellness program. Align the plan with employee health needs. If the plan meets employees’ needs, they’re more likely to be engaged.
- Understand your end results and goals. In the beginning stages of planning your wellness program, make sure that you identify the goals of your program. If you don’t set these goals early on, you won’t be able to measure success or make needed changes to the wellness program. Another important aspect to consider is to make sure the wellness program aligns with your company’s values and business goals.
- Make sure it’s easy to administer. If your wellness program is not easy to carry out, you’ll set your company up for failure. Make sure that your program is sustainable. You can’t continue if it’s not easy to manage.
- Continually promote your wellness program. Rolling the wellness program out and doing nothing else isn’t going to be successful after a few months or a year. Your employees will forget about the wellness program, and you won’t be able to sustain results. Make sure you are continually promoting the program through challenges or health-related initiatives.
Wellness programs can be a great asset to a company—whether it is big or small. The bottom line is that because of Laser Spine Institute’s wellness program, our employees are happier. They’re earning fiscal savings and are more engaged in the organization. When our teammates feel well, they work better and they’re more likely to be more productive.
As senior vice president of Administration, Justin Horne oversees the development of employees through recruitment, education, career growth, engagement, benefits, and performance evaluation for Laser Spine Institute, a leader in minimally invasive spine surgery.
