Remember when offering a wellness program entailed providing some healthy snacks in the office and offering yoga or weight loss classes?
Well, those days are gone.
Today, workplace wellness means prioritizing employees’ mental and physical health, and making it easily accessible to everyone no matter where they work – onsite, remote or a hybrid of both.
Oh yeah, and one more thing: Workplace wellness programs are a must-have if you want to win the battle for talent.
It’s predicted that the global wellness market will experience a growth of 9.9% annually and hit $7 trillion by 2025, according to a new Global Wellness Institute report.
So, as a benefit, workplace wellness is a big attraction and retention tool for employers.
Here are some wellness program features likely to trend into 2023.
Wellness apps
As we stated earlier, if you want your wellness program to be a success, it must be easily accessible. That means you need a wellness app. Having an app provides a centralized hub that can be accessed anytime, anywhere, by any employee.
Wellness apps also free up HR from a lot of administrative work.
If you’re looking to partner with a wellness app vendor, here are questions you need to ask, according to Sprout, providers of a workplace wellness platform:
- Can the app integrate with an existing company initiative, such as employee assistance programs?
- Will the app grow with the company as you add new employees?
- Can HR customize programming?
- Is it HIPAA compliant?
- What are the capabilities for user-generated goals and challenges?
And since wearable technology has been a fitness industry trend for years, apps need to be compatible with employees’ wearables.
Nowadays, wearables do much more than track steps. They provide a wide variety of fitness metrics, and even provide guidance and feedback.
Functional fitness
What is functional fitness?
It’s fitness training that focuses on conditioning employees’ bodies to perform at their peak during everyday activities, exercise and sports, according to Launchjuice, a concept development consultancy that helps companies tap into the wellness sector. The focus is on improving strength, flexibility, balance and coordination.
And it ties in nicely with wearable technology. “Functional fitness gives employees the ability to take control of their health, and track progress and change,” notes Launchjuice.
It may sound cliché, but things like yoga and Pilates classes are great for improving strength, flexibility, balance and coordination all in one fell swoop. So, look for opportunities to work functional fitness into your wellness offerings.
That also includes looking at ergonomics in your employees’ office and home work setups. And educate employees on what a proper workstation looks like.
Nutrition education
Employees are busy with work and life. There’s little, if any, time to research and learn about nutrition. So, as employees look to be healthier versions of themselves, they want to eat healthier.
Therefore, nutrition education is an important element to add to your wellness programs. Consider bringing in nutritionists to teach Zoom classes or add a nutrition app to your program. Offering healthy snacks is fine if you have enough employees in the office to make it worthwhile or have the budget to mail healthy snacks to remote employees.
Basically, employees’ vision for 2023 is to be healthier, happier versions of themselves. Employers that help them reach those goals will garner loyal employees who want to stay where they are.
