Corporate wellness programmes have gained prominence in recent years as an essential part of any company’s approach to their employee’s health and productivity. A person’s work life is no longer limited to the absolute basics of the task at hand with the importance of an environment that supports a fully rounded individual in their working life becoming a must have. More often than not when these efforts are less than successful, it’s due to a tendency to treat them as a quick fix, whereas a thorough corporate wellness initiative must take a root and branch approach to improving every aspect of the situation.
There is no hard and fast rule for what constitutes a corporate wellness programme beyond the intention by the company to promote, encourage and reward a healthy lifestyle. This can take many forms, including offering healthier food options in the workplace, group fitness challenges or trips, subsidized gym memberships, participating in weight management or smoking cessation projects, or awareness campaigns towards a fit and active lifestyle.
The benefits of a corporate wellness programme are obvious. By supporting and engaging with employees in their journey to healthy activities, a company can make it much easier to succeed in their goals by embedding that positive attitude throughout their day, rather than requiring it to be restricted to before or after work. Research has strongly indicated that efforts towards healthy living are much more likely to succeed when attempted in a group or with supervision. By working towards targets with colleagues, not only does the likelihood of achieving those new plateaus of fitness increase but it will foster camaraderie and morale in the office. It can also have the additional effect of developing and improving on team work skills, problem solving and communication – all essential tools which will reflect themselves in your personal and professional lives.
Successful wellness programmes also offer a range of benefits to employees beyond simple weight loss. As part of a fully rounded wellness programme, positive group activities like yoga, discussion groups or workshops can be used to develop employee’s self-esteem, tackle stress and anxiety, improve their confidence and public speaking ability and help them become happier, more productive and focused both in the office and at home.
While every programme will ideally be tailored to the needs of the company in question, they will all share a commitment to honestly evaluating the current environment on offer, the needs of the people who work there, and genuine opportunities to improve and introduce new initiatives targeted at the areas which will most benefit the staff. Engaging with a corporate wellness programme can bring a myriad of obvious and subtle benefits to every part of a company, and it’s no surprise they have become the new standard of high quality in the corporate world.
