Over the past decade, the consciousness about wellness has turned into a flourished business that turned over almost $4.2 trillion. Does wellness mean individual wellness only? Interestingly, workplace wellness is on the rise. Both large companies as well small companies have already implemented such wellness programs. The survey shows it is almost 80% of large companies and 50% of small companies are involved in this program. However, despite their pervasiveness, in many cases, people are not sure about what exactly, works.
So, workplace wellness initiatives aren’t just a craze. If you are an entrepreneur starting out, or if you have a small business to scale, it can be difficult for you to know where to start. The first question arises here is which of the wellness offerings among the array of options is worth the expense? But then considering the wellness of your employees is one of the pivotal parameters that should be considered if you want a health business. And this wellness means their well-being: physical, emotional, intellectual, financial, social, spiritual.
10 ways that small business can follow to build the health culture
- Make a holistic HR policy: Offering health insurance merely solve all the wellbeing factors of employees. Of course, this is the first step but only opting for it never conceptualize the plan or program the culture of health in an organization. Revisit your HR and work policy. Have you mandated unreasonable hours of work to the employees? Give them work-life balance to get the maximum productivity and build a health culture.
- Additional and health benefits:Policies are simply guidelines that create comprehensive culture of health. So, include policies which are beneficial for the employees like parental leave, flexible working hours, 360-degree feedback process. Additionally, include programs like optional perks like financial incentives for health goals. Facilitate classes like yoga, exercise, aerobics, etc through professional services. Arrange for health sessions by professionals.
- Selective food choices: Office environment itself can be a big influencer that can determine the mood and decisions of its employees. For example, take simple case of food choices in cafeteria. It solely depends on the food options you are providing to your employees. If your cafeteria is full of junk foods people will have no other choice than those unhealthy foods. But if you keep salad bar, who will wait for grill corner to have a burger? Similarly, getting water is easier than soda water or fresh apples.
- Environment friendly office campus: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. Similarly give your employee some break between their work. Let them stretch their muscles, walk around to the campus. If you don’t have open free space, no matter keep one or two trademills. Insist them to use stairs instead of elevator.
- Nap rooms:Many large companies offer dormitory for employees especially for pregnant and sick people. Well, a 30 minute break between work or a sanctioned nap is no bad idea if the working hour is frantic like 6am to 9 pm. It keeps to maintain employees work-life balance.
- Telemedicine on job: This is a popular choice nowadays but as per recent survey over 55% of individuals aren’t aware of telemedicine offerings, which can be more convenient and cost-effective than in-office visits
- Reward your employees: Incentives are one way behaviour driver. Here are a range of incentives you may want to consider: It can be monetary bonus like cash,reduction in insurance premiums, points towards insurance premiums or airline tickets, discounts at certain retailers. Similarly, it could be prestigious bonus like special mentions in a company newsletter, lunch with the CEO, award in recognition of a commitment to health, offer a range of rewards and offer scalable incentives, with gradual increases, to keep employees motivated to stick with the healthy changes they’ve made.
- Provide the right services Personalized support for your employee is a major component that can create a culture of health in the workplace. Companies need to offer a variety of ways to access support, from a traditional online directory of links, to meetings with one-on-one integrated health care representatives, or the development of a mobile app.
Different services can be facilitated for this purpose like:
- Free, online health assessments, with confidential, personalized results.
- A commitment to and ongoing support of a healthy foods policy, with nutritious meal and snack options on-site to help employees make smart food choices
- Webinars or on-site workshops on a holistic range of topics to motivate and educate.
- On-site flu shots and health clinics.
- In-house dry-cleaning or banking services remove the stress of daytime errands.
- Offering time off for fitness.
- On-site emergency daycare.
- Gym memberships or reimbursements.
- On-site financial counseling.
Conclusion
To conclude, as a business to build a health culture in your organization you need to go beyond traditional wellness programs and incentives. The overall approach must be holistic that will cover an employee’s emotional, physical, financial, social, and spiritual goals through different measures of services. Depending on the employee population plan the investment and outcome of employee health planning.