It’s no secret that workplace wellness is an increasingly popular topic of conversation, and many companies are beginning to understand the importance of wellness and adopt programs into their company culture.
A recent study done by Buck Consultants showed that 74 percent of companies consider well-being to be a key element of their employee proposition.
The problem is, our current approach to workplace wellness doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because the approach is to mass produce a wellness program. When in fact, you’re dealing with unique human beings with different biological needs. Each employee is different, and wellness plans should reflect that.
The future of employee wellness is actually quite simple. It’s ensuring the biological needs of employees and personalizing wellness plans based on the involvement each individual employee.
Biological Need
If you’ve found the right employee, how do you keep them? You keep them by providing for their biological needs.
Each individual has unique needs that should be addressed. However, we all start with a basic set of biological needs that is universal. Everyone needs to sleep, eat and move their body. As more research finds, providing for these basic biological needs is the key to unleashing the full physical and mental capabilities of your team.
Sleep
We’ve all been in the position where life gets in the way of the 8-9 hours of sleep we want, but far too many of us allow lack of sleep to become a habit. Making sleep a priority is imperative to function at your full potential. The benefits of sleep include:
- improving memory
- inspiring creativity
- lowering stress
- fighting emotional disorders (like depression)
- functioning at a higher level of productivity
- adding your body’s physical functions, such as metabolism.
Movement
Spending time at the gym after a 9-hour day at work is probably the last thing many employees want to do. However, there are many ways to implement movement throughout the work day that don’t require “exercise.” “Sedentary behavior is driving up healthcare costs and affecting performance and productivity. One almost shockingly simple solution is to get people moving,” Betsey Banker, CWWS, CWWPM, Wellness Manager at Ergotron, says.
“There’s so much that an executive or HR professional can’t control when it comes to what impacts employee wellness and productivity – like what people are eating or how much they’re sleeping – so it’s important that they take advantage of their influence in the office and workstation environment. Whether it’s standing meetings, walking paths or sit-stand workstations, employers can embrace movement in a way that has a positive impact on employee health and productivity every day.”
For employees to perform at their highest level of productivity and creativity, integrating and promoting movement throughout the work day is important.
Meditation
Allowing employees to have quiet reflection time has massive positive impacts on both the physical and mental state of someone’s being. Some ofthe benefits of meditation are
- lowers stress
- promotes body and self awareness
- allows the mind to work through a backload of data, clearing space for new thoughts and problem solving.
Something as simple as a short, daily guided meditation allows employees to quiet and focus the mind. A great place to start is a 21 Days to Mediation plan.
Personalization
Benefits work best when they’re aligned to company culture and growth goals. As well as an approach to benefits that meets employees’ unique needs.
A MetLife study surveying benefit trends involving baby boomers, Gen X and millennials showed that personalizing benefits is a huge draw for businesses trying to retain top talent in 2017.
The result of the study showed that across 3 generations, 70 percent of employees said that personalized benefits would increase their loyalty to a business. At the same time, it would allow them to worry less about health and financial issues.
Ron Goetzel, senior scientist and director of the Institute for Health and Productivity Studies at Johns Hopkins University says, “In the months and years ahead, employees will have a greater say in the design, implementation, and fine-tuning of programs.”
The future of employee wellness is simplifying our approach to wellness and caring for the basic needs of employees. No human can function without the fulfillment of biological needs of sleep, movement, and quiet reflection time. After these universal needs are met, the next step is to personalize employee wellness. Provide an approach that is as unique as your employees’ needs. When humans thrive, companies prosper. Learn more at Beni.fit.