Written by: Dr. Dana Neacsu, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
In the past few decades, companies have started integrating employee wellness programs into their corporations. Originally, employee wellness programs were reserved for only the largest corporations. It was believed only to be used by those who could afford the extra costs of screening employees for certain diseases and improving their mental health.
Nowadays, employee wellness programs permeate the workplace. This is because employee wellness programs are vital for employee mental health and a healthy workplace. Employees can transform their psychological and physical health by giving them the tools to engage positively with wellness.
A successful wellness program can have numerous benefits for employees. With the right tools, employees can take their wellness into their own hands by adopting and maintaining healthy behaviors. This blog dives into the importance of creating an employee wellness program that helps employees put their best foot forward.
What is an Employee Wellness Program?
Broadly, an employee wellness program is any activity designed to support better health at the workplace and home. These programs can cover both mental and physical health. Employee wellness programs often include fitness programs, social support, medical screenings, and incentives.
Popular methods of employee wellness include things like health screenings. These measure blood pressure and other important body metrics to determine an employee’s overall health. Afterward, employees can compare themselves to the general population. Employees who may fall behind in certain areas of their health are often given incentives with some form of reward if they can reach certain health milestones.
How to Implement Employee Wellness Programs
All kinds of health should be covered when creating an employee wellness program. Too often, employee wellness programs spend all of their effort on physical health. As a result, these programs completely overlook the mental health of employees.
Mental health and employee wellness are vital to the climate of an overall workplace. Yet, too often, the stress of deadlines and work relationships coupled with outside life can cause employees to falter.
Mental Health
Stress reduction is one of the most tangible aspects of mental health that a proper wellness program can tackle. Through a company’s health program, employees can effectively mitigate any stress that would see them being less productive and happy employees.
Stress reduction programs can help participants realize that their heightened levels of stress may negatively affect their lives. Such high-stress levels can impact both the personal and professional lives of employees, damaging their mental health.
Some popular ways to implement stress reduction in employee wellness programs include stress management resources. These resources include having available music, books, or online resources that employees can consult. Employee assistance programs, or EAPs, can also greatly reduce employee stress by helping employees find healthier ways to deal with the daily anxieties that they feel.
Neurofeedback
Neurofeedback is an important part of promoting employee mental health and wellbeing. Neurofeedback is a type of “biofeedback.” It uses the body’s biological functions to teach the brain new patterns. For example, neurofeedback teaches the brain to exhibit self-control over brain functions. It does this by measuring your brainwaves and providing a signal. Usually, accompanying video or audio feedback helps the participant’s brain consciously choose a healthy choice.
Neurofeedback has traditionally been used to treat conditions like anxiety disorders and ADHD. However, neurofeedback has also been shown to effectively increase employee performance by helping them choose healthy habits over bad ones. Neurofeedback has demonstrably positive effects on the mental health of employees. With neurofeedback, employees can be helped away from damaging habits and be trained to become more productive, healthier employees.
Benefits to Employee Wellness Programs
Employee wellness programs have plenty of benefits that affect how employees think, feel, and act. Here are a few positive benefits for both companies and employees.
1. Improved Employee Morale
One of the most tangible benefits to employee wellness programs is vastly improved employee morale. Wellness programs help employees live happier and healthier lives. They also tend to feel more valued at the workplace.
When a company offers employees a wellness program, that employee feels that the company values them beyond just their ability to work. This allows employees to feel fulfilled in their job. As a result, employee morale is significantly improved, allowing creativity and productivity to flourish.
2. Reduced Stress for Employees
Employee stress has been linked to lower productivity, higher employee turnover, and poor job performance. In today’s high-paced workplace, employees often feel overwhelmed and out-of-sync with their surroundings.
Employee wellness programs have been scientifically proven to help reduce the high levels of stress that employees feel. Having an employee wellness program can remind employees that they are not alone and that their company values them and their wellbeing. Lower levels of stress can allow them to clear their minds and better focus on the task at hand.
3. Lower Absenteeism
Especially in larger companies, absenteeism can plague employees and drive down workplace performance. However, by implementing employee wellness programs, companies can decrease absenteeism.
Employees with good health behaviors and lower stress levels due to workplace health programs are much more present both physically and mentally than those without access to wellness programs. Lower levels of employee absenteeism lead to vastly improved productivity and employee relations in a company of any size.
4. Improve Overall Health
Wellness programs help employees get in a better mindset to care for their health. For instance, wellness programs can encourage regular exercise, better nutrition, and decreased substance abuse. Having better overall health will also prevent serious health issues in the future. Improving the overall health of employees helps them feel better physically and mentally, leading to more enthusiasm for the job and increased energy.
5. Reduce Healthcare Costs
Companies also financially benefit from improving the overall health of employees. Healthy employees are less likely to take time off because they are sick. They are also not as prone to getting sick or hurt on the job compared to someone weak, frail, or with poor overall health. Employees with better overall health will also have fewer medical expenditures, which can be costly to companies.
6. Builds Teamwork
When employees attend wellness programs together and work on their collective health in a group setting, they tend to learn more about one another. This helps improve trust and communication amongst employees. Strong communication skills are important for coworkers, and it helps improve creativity. When coworkers feel comfortable and brainstorm together, they can delegate work and solve problems more quickly.
7. Attracts Quality Employees
Job candidates tend to look for workplaces with a high quality of life and positive benefits. Having an employee wellness program is an excellent way to help companies stand out as a positive working environment. It shows that their employees are important to them, and they want them to succeed in their personal and professional lives. Making the workplace an attractive environment for employees helps attract top talent and gives companies a larger pool of applicants.
Dr. Dana Neacsu, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Dr. Dana Neacsu is trained in both conventional and integrative medicine and her goal is to offer her patients the best treatment from both medical worlds. Her practice is a unique combination of ancient medicine techniques like Reiki, functional medicine cutting-edge protocols and biohacking devices of the future. The core of her practice remains however the patients themselves and their incredible power of self-healing and courage.
References:
Marzbani, Hengameh et al. “Neurofeedback: A Comprehensive Review on System Design, Methodology and Clinical Applications.” Basic and clinical neuroscience vol. 7,2 (2016): 143-58. doi:10.15412/J.BCN.03070208
Song Z, Baicker K. Effect of a Workplace Wellness Program on Employee Health and Economic Outcomes: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2019;321(15):1491–1501. doi:10.1001/jama.2019.3307
Schwatka, Natalie V et al. “The Impact of Worksite Wellness Programs by Size of Business: A 3-Year Longitudinal Study of Participation, Health Benefits, Absenteeism, and Presenteeism.” Annals of work exposures and health vol. 62,suppl_1 (2018): S42-S54.doi:10.1093/annweh/wxy049
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