Benefits Of Health And Wellness For Your Workforce

There are a ton of benefits of health and wellness that impact employees and employers. The CDC states that research shows healthy employees are more likely to deliver optimal performance in the workplace. Employers can take advantage of these positive changes to improve the way they do business.

However, why should your company do this, and how should it go about doing this? Keep reading to find the answers to these questions and more!

Benefits May Be More Important Than Salary

Everyone agrees that a higher salary is better than a lower one. This is a basic and fundamental part of the employer-employee relationship. However, determining what is more important becomes a little more difficult once benefits enter the equation. There isn’t an exact correlation between a specific dollar amount and a specific benefit.

This is especially true because many people insist that benefits are more important than salary. In fact, some studies have shown that around 80% of people would choose to forego a pay raise if it meant taking advantage of other workplace perks. This makes it clear that workers care about the benefits offered by a workplace.

Because of this, offering benefits has a range of positive effects for the employer. These include improved recruitment, improved retention, and a better financial situation.

Benefits help with recruitment. Workers are attracted by the benefits provided; thus, more of them will apply to work at companies that offer these benefits. Companies are then able to spend less money advertising for positions. In addition, greater recruitment capabilities allow companies to spend less time dealing without workers in key positions, which positively impacts how business is done.

Benefits are also an attractive feature that helps companies retain employees. Employees enjoy their specific benefits and are reluctant to leave them, even for companies offering similar benefits. This allows a company to create a workforce filled with employees who have been around for a long time. These employees will be well-versed in how the company does business, making them more effective, and they will perform much better than fresh recruits. Plus, the company ends up having to spend less on training.

In addition, the fact that many workers consider benefits more important than salary allows the company to save money. A company offering a few impressive benefits can offer less money than its competitors. This has a positive impact on the company’s overall finances.

A Happy Team Starts with Engaged Employees

a group of people working together in a office

It is important to engage employees in their health and wellness choices. You can try to guess what will work for your company, but you likely don’t know or understand everyone’s situation. There may be problems you weren’t aware of, or there may be a surprisingly large portion of employees dealing with the same issue.

The best way to address this is by engaging your employees in the decision-making process. Send out surveys asking what benefits they want and what benefits they don’t care about. Then, take this data and compile it together. Look for trends and see if any specific benefits stand out as truly desirable.

Once you have done this, you can decide what health and wellness choices will work best. However, make sure to check back in with employees after you make your decision. This will allow you to make changes or adjustments if the plan doesn’t quite work out as expected.

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Doing all of this has the added benefit of creating a happy workforce. Simply providing health and wellness benefits makes employees appreciate the company more. It is a benefit that feels more personal than a salary. This is a great motivator and further connects the employees to the company.

Meanwhile, engaging your employees in the process emphasizes this connection even more. Actively involving them in the process shows that your company isn’t just providing benefits to make them happy; it wants to make these benefits work for them. Employees will understand that your company has made their health and wellness a priority.

Emphasizing this connection has some direct benefits for the company itself. Employees with a deep connection to the place they work for are more likely to believe in the company itself and less likely to leave. Simply providing benefits improves retention, but this improves retention even more.

Increased Productivity

Health and wellness benefits are not just limited to recruiting and retaining employees. They also lead to increased productivity by creating a healthier workforce. Creating a healthier workforce has a range of effects that all go on to improve productivity.

To start with an obvious example, healthier employees miss less work due to sickness. Employees who are actively engaged in positive health and wellness benefits will become sick less often. This may be because their health insurance allows them to get the treatment they need to recover faster. It also may be because they live a healthier lifestyle and do not have to deal with issues that result from an unhealthy lifestyle. It may even be because they are dealing with less stress and are getting less sick because of that since stress can weaken your immune system. No matter what the situation, healthier workers show up to work more often.

Healthier workers also deal with fewer long-term problems. Having regular access to healthcare allows them to receive regular checkups. These may spot and eliminate an issue before it has a chance to become a serious problem.

Healthier workers are also happier, which will positively impact the company in several different ways. Happier employees are more ready to work than unhappy employees and, because of this, are more productive. Happiness is also highly contagious; one happy worker often leads to the entire office being happier. This creates a better workplace culture.

A well-thought-out approach to health and wellness is necessary to increase employee productivity in these ways. Providing proper health care is obviously important, as it allows employees to treat their health-related issues. However, you also want to be sure you are providing the necessary resources for employees to reach other health-related goals. This includes programs that help them lead a healthy lifestyle.

Employees Want Choice

Providing a mix of healthcare and healthy lifestyle programs may take time and effort. There are a lot of different corporate wellness options out there, and it is hard to pick out options that will work. This is why providing employees with enough room to choose their own options is helpful.

The first way to do this is to offer a robust health plan. These plans will offer the flexibility needed to suit a wide range of people. Plus, many individuals appreciate a little flexibility within their plans, as they may have health issues that require this.

This is especially important in businesses with a large number of employees. In these cases, it is impossible to find a comprehensive health plan to cover your employees’ conditions, yet one that is not overly ambitious. Instead, a robust plan with some flexibility will help everyone.

In addition, other health benefits offered should be varied and come from a few different places. Some employees will love it if you offer subsidized gym plans. However, some may prefer a different gym or have a gym at home, so this benefit will not impact them. Because of this, you may decide to offer a subsidized subscription to a health food plan. Some people who didn’t like the gym plans may end up liking this, while other people who liked the gym plan may not like this. No matter what combination ends up playing out, offering more benefits ends up pleasing a larger number of employees and improving community health.

Just make sure the benefits have enough variation and are not just different versions of the same thing. For example, offering subsidized gym memberships, access to fitness classes, and cheap workout gear are all great benefits. However, they will only appeal to people who want to exercise more.

Put Better Health in the Palm of Their Hands

One of the best ways to encourage health and wellness among your employees is doing so through their mobile devices. After all, the vast majority of people have mobile devices and use them on a regular or constant basis. So, in many cases, the best way to communicate health and wellness information is through that same device.

This is where Xcellent Life comes into play. Xcellent Life is a digital health program and application that provides healthcare information and advice to users. It even helps bridge the gap between patients and providers by connecting the two in various ways, whether through telehealth or real-time human diagnostics. All in all, Xcellent Life offers an experience that changes lives and is like nothing else out there.

Help Your Team Enjoy the Benefits of Health and Wellness

There are plenty of benefits of health and wellness within the workplace. It creates a better and more productive workforce that will, ultimately, be with you for the long run. So, helping them goes back around to help you.

Creating an environment that promotes this is possible for any company. By providing a few key benefits, you can change the lives of your employees for the better. Just make sure to engage your workforce in the decision-making process and to choose diverse options. Doing so will have a big impact on the quality of your approach. Have questions about how Xcellent Life can fit in with your benefits package? Send us a message now.