Building & Promoting Workplace Wellness

Employees’ health and wellness have a direct bearing on their job performance. Indeed, happy and healthy workplaces have greater productivity, engagement, and attendance than stressful or unfriendly ones. Thus, an investment in wellness initiatives and well-being challenges is also an investment in your organization’s longevity. Yet this approach prompts many questions : how do employers build effective workplace programs? What components do they require? And how can employees contribute to these programs’ success and make them inclusive? Givhero’s team and digital wellness platform can clarify these points and help your organization’s well-being program get off the ground.

Building Workplace Wellness

Building & Promoting Workplace Wellness

Supporting workplace health and wellness can help you build a thriving organization. While workplace wellness initiatives require investments of time and patience, creating them can attract top talent and establish a positive reputation for your company. Indeed, you can demonstrate your commitment to workplace health and safety by establishing a robust well-being program. With that in mind, let’s explore the fundamentals of workplace wellness and how Givhero’s digital platform can support your efforts.

1. What is Workplace Health and Wellness?

The term workplace health and wellness encapsulates more than just the physical condition of employees. As per the CDC’s workplace health model, employers can help support their staff by nurturing their health and happiness. Therefore, workplace health and wellness refers to the protection and promotion of employees’ physical, mental, emotional, and social fitness.

2. What are the Benefits of a Workplace Wellness Program?

Work-based programs and policies can encourage positive health outcomes as well as prevent the spread of illness. They also illustrate your recognition of the time and energy that employees put into their professional roles. On the other hand, the organizational benefits of workplace health promotion are manifold.

Research has found a marked increase in employee engagement with company culture following the institution of such initiatives. Moreover, since they aim to support and improve individuals’ health, these programs and policies can usher in increased productivity. Happy and healthy employees, after all, perform better than anxious and debilitated ones.

Finally, positive workplace health reduces employee turnover, as workers tend to stick with organizations that prioritize their well-being. These effects constitute a significant ROI for your contributions to workplace health and safety.

3. What are Examples of Workplace Wellness Programs?

Popular workplace wellness program options include:

  • Nutrition coaching
  • Health screenings
  • Weight loss programs
  • Daily step/exercise programs
  • Preventative health screenings
  • Stress management coaching
  • Hydration challenges

While many workplace wellness initiatives focus on physical health and wellness, well-being also includes mental, behavioral, and social aspects. We recommend incorporating mental wellness initiatives, such as digital wellness apps, employee assistance programs, and counseling services.

Additionally, you can boost the efficacy of your office’s wellness programs by incorporating socially responsible endeavors. These include donating to social causes, volunteering for charity drives, and supporting community events. Givhero’s digital platform offers social wellness functionality so employers can incorporate such activities.

4. What Companies Have the Best Employee Wellness Programs?

Given the ubiquity of workplace wellness, you may wonder which organizations have become adept in its practice. Industry experts cite Wiley, KPMG, ServiceNow, and Monster as leaders in enhancing employee well-being. All these companies cite a few factors as instrumental to their success.

First, they organize wellness efforts to support their vision of the workplace’s culture and community. They also find creative ways to meet employee expectations and deliver value. Finally, they recognize that workplace community and connectedness can arise out of employee engagement with the company’s culture.

5. How Do You Implement a Wellness Program in the Workplace?

Your organization differs from all others—including your partners and competitors—to some degree. Thus, implementing a wellness program will also work differently for your workplace than all others. Nevertheless, you should follow some foundational steps to establish your wellness program.

At Givhero, we recommend starting this process by surveying your staff with a health risk assessment or the like. Assessment tools allow you to learn the priorities and concerns of your employees so you can design a program for your office culture. You can also take survey results to management and present them as evidence of the need for a wellness program.

Next, you should establish a wellness committee. An internal and employee-run unit, a wellness committee gives staff a voice in your workplace health and safety. Once established, it can work with you and your organization’s management to create objectives for your office well-being plan: lowering healthcare costs, boosting productivity, avoiding injuries, and so on.

Following these steps, you and your team can create your program’s components and initiatives. You might refer to an outside source, such as the CDC’s Work@Health Program, for training or insights. Alternatively, you can investigate popular program options. Consider incentivizing engagement through social wellness initiatives (discussed above) or adopting corporate wellness software to help with implementation (discussed below).

6. What is Corporate Wellness?

Corporate wellness is another term used in the wellness sphere. It simply refers to wellness efforts in large companies, that is, work-based programs and policies aimed at improving employees’ health and happiness. Therefore, corporate wellness works similarly to workplace wellness in small organizations. The distinction lies in the program’s scale.

You may also hear the terms corporate wellness providers and corporate wellness programs—again, “corporate” is a descriptor for the domain these entities operate in.

7. What is Corporate Wellness Software?

Building & Promoting Workplace Wellness

The term corporate wellness software applies to digital apps and tools that support the adoption and practice of workplace wellness programs. As you might imagine, wellness programs can create a great administrative burden. Corporate wellness software helps alleviate it.

Givhero’s employee health platform, for instance, provides a home base for any size organization to run its wellness initiatives. It offers a range of useful features, such as functionality for management and individual employees to create customizable reports on the progress of wellness goals and challenges.

Moreover, users can create teams with others in their organization and work together on challenges. They can also personalize their account and use their smartphone or wearable technology to track their progress. And our platform’s social wellness functionality provides intrinsic motivators—including Causes, Challenges, and Cooperation—to engage your staff.


The Elements & Objectives of Employee Wellness Programs

Building & Promoting Workplace Wellness

Defining workplace wellness is the first step in understanding wellness programs and their importance. After establishing these fundamentals, you can better recognize how these programs can support your organization. But you should also consider how these programs influence your employees and what resources are available to pursue workplace wellness programs. Givhero can help you delve into these insights and mine them for all their benefits.

1. What is the Goal of an Employee Wellness Program?

An employer’s wellness program should promote employee well-being through access to organized health and wellness opportunities. An organization arranges and markets these programs to encourage its staff to improve their wellness through initiatives. Such initiatives support the elements of well-being, including mental wellness, physical wellness, emotional wellness, and social wellness.

To promote engagement, wellness program organizers can designate objectives, such as improving specific areas of employee health and contributing to social causes. In striving toward common goals, employees feel motivated to join and participate.

Although employees must take initiative to reap the benefits of corporate wellness programs, employers help motivate involvement by designing and implementing compelling programs. By doing so, they demonstrate a level of understanding with their employees. Furthermore, they send the message that they care about employees beyond their workplace involvement.

By doing so, they demonstrate a level of understanding with their employees. Furthermore, they send the message that they care about employees beyond their workplace involvement.

2. How Do Wellness Programs Help Employees?

Wellness programs provide an avenue for employees to take control of their wellness in a supportive environment. Well-designed programs include motivational techniques like goal setting, aspirational encouragement, friendly competition, and intrinsic motivators. These motivators—including social causes—incentivize positive behavior with social wellness rewards.

Wellness program benefits include the creation of a support structure for employees. Effective programming creates comradery and a sense of unity among participants. Employees can get acquainted, offer encouragement, and keep each other accountable for staying committed to the program. As a result, the program creates workplace solidarity.

3. What Does a Wellness Program Include?

Wellness programs must include clearly defined objectives, resources for carrying out objectives, and incentives. We also recommend offering participants access to health and wellness industry providers, including:

  • Benefits advisors and brokers
  • Wellness companies
  • Health insurance providers
  • Health systems

Finally, incorporate any necessary resources for carrying out the program, such as facilities, equipment, or passes to outsourced services. Giving employees the things they need to succeed is crucial for an effective wellness program.

Engaging wellness programs offer more than generic incentives like swag or monetary rewards. They involve customizable goal incentives, like unlocking donations to charities that participants support.

Workplace wellness programs reach their greatest potential when they include access to diversified opportunities. Engaging employees’ total well-being calls for programs that exercise more than physical wellness, as we mentioned earlier.

Finally, successful programs adapt to employee ability. Difficulty levels should adjust based on each employee’s potential and circumstances.

4. What are Examples of Wellness Activities?

Wellness programs at work can encompass several activities, but the most popular ideas include:

  • Healthy Pot Lucks
  • Races
  • ‘Walk and Talk’ Meetings
  • Animal Sanctuary Volunteering
  • Meditation Work Breaks
  • Big Brothers Big Sisters Meetings
  • Yoga Classes
  • Walking Club
  • Competitive Team Sports
  • Localized Volunteering

The activities that a workplace chooses will reflect its overarching goals for employees. Thus, some activities may be ongoing while others occur as standalone events. Also, they may act as cornerstones for dynamic initiatives like competitions, logging time, or participation events.

5. How Do You Make an Office Fitness Challenge?

To organize an office fitness challenge, begin by identifying a goal. What objective do you intend your employees to achieve? You can further define your goal by considering which component of wellness it falls under.

Next, have your workplace wellness committee determine the specific initiatives employees would like to focus on. They may consider conducting annual or bi-annual polls to understand what employees would like to accomplish through the wellness program.

Then, brainstorm office fitness challenge ideas that will support the goal. Challenges may include the cessation of fast food or coffee intake, 30 minutes of daily exercise, or logging miles for cardio activities.

Finally, create measurable increments for employees to work towards throughout the challenge, as well as other timeframes or guidelines you believe necessary for participating.

For instance, you could set a target number of steps for your company’s step challenge, or a set amount of donations for individuals.

6. What is an Employee Wellness App?

Building & Promoting Workplace Wellness

An employee wellness app is the user interface component of corporate wellness software. It allows employees to access wellness initiative information including challenges and leaderboards.

These apps can integrate with fitness trackers and health devices, input data, track goal progress, and connect users with social causes that they support. Givhero’s resourceful employee wellness app allows employees to schedule wellness activities and communicate with their coworkers.

Modern workplaces can benefit from the Givhero app’s customizable features for workplace wellness. Employees can select any number of goals your organization creates while measuring their progress in multiple metrics.

Givhero makes it easy for employers to onboard new employees and validate their wellness data without spreadsheets or manual entry. Additionally, employers can keep employees updated and motivated with push notifications and digital coupons. The app is fully automated, which relieves administrative workload by up to 80%. It also offers custom reporting for employees and management.


How Employee Resource Groups Promote Workplace Wellness

Building & Promoting Workplace Wellness

While workplace wellness programs can provide a significant boost to employees’ well-being, they require additional support to deliver optimal support. For instance, employee resources groups (ERGs) can give non-managerial workforce members a voice in the direction of company-wide programs. Therefore, employers who wish to improve their office’s wellness, productivity, and/or engagement should investigate and implement ERGs. They can further support such efforts with Givhero, a social wellness app that creates a shared platform for employees and management.

1. What Do Employee Resource Groups Do?

Run by and composed of employee volunteers, ERGs increase staff members’ engagement with their organization through means consistent with the organization’s values. Workers first congregate around a particular motive, idea, or value; for instance, employees at your organization may create a health and wellness committee. Once created, the group meets and furthers their shared interest. So, a wellness committee might develop and evaluate strategies, propose engagement initiatives and suggest alternatives to company initiatives.

Yet no matter their focus, ERGs should support or improve company culture. For example, since Millennials and Gen Zers like working for organizations that contribute to social wellness, a volunteering ERG can increase job satisfaction and strengthen employee engagement. It may also boost their organization’s recruitment efforts and improve its brand image.

2. What are Some Employee Resource Group Examples?

While ERGs may center on shared interests and hobbies—such as cooking, reading, or exercising—these groups can also fulfill important organizational purposes. A diversity committee, for instance, can advocate for or increase a company’s inclusivity by promoting equitable measures and creating accessible opportunities.

The Givhero team sees particular value in mental health and wellness committees since many people who suffer from such issues struggle to talk about them. Such a group could help share their employer’s available resources—like HRAs and EAPs—and advise leadership on how to enhance those resources.

3. Do Employee Resource Groups Work?

Before investing materials and time into an ERG, employees and management will want to know whether these groups can fulfill their goals. Yet this determination hinges on their metrics of success. If employees simply want a group of peers to exercise with, they can do so with relative ease. But companies seeking to boost DEI or expand mental health resources will have other standards for success.

Today’s business sector leaders debate the merits of ERGs for company cultural diversity, but the Givhero team believes all organizations can benefit from them. No matter their focus, ERGs give employees opportunities to unite through shared interests beyond work. They can also help management create a more responsive and welcoming workplace. Best of all, ERGs can increase employee engagement and wellness.

4. What Makes a Good Company Wellness Program?

Building & Promoting Workplace Wellness

While ERGs contribute to effective wellness programs, they work best within larger organizational well-being efforts. Implementing a successful wellness program requires several steps, such as conducting assessments, enlisting management support, establishing wellness goals, and leveraging Givhero’s platform to create and manage wellness challenges.

Our team also believes gratitude can boost employee engagement and wellness efforts. Whether organizational leaders verbally thank employees for their work or surprise them with a meal and prizes, displays of gratitude strengthen a company’s culture and coworkers’ relationships.

Givhero’s corporate wellness platform also builds gratitude into its programming. When initial participants make progress on health and wellness objectives (such as daily active minutest, meditation session, or water consumption goal), the app notes their efforts and donates to a charity of their choice. In this way, Givhero uses intrinsic motivation to spur engagement and well-being efforts.


Practicing Social Wellness to Achieve Organizational Well-Being

Building & Promoting Workplace Wellness

Instituting wellness programs and organizing employee resource groups (ERGs) are significant strides in achieving workplace well-being. Nevertheless, our definition of well-being extends beyond the confines of one office or company. Workplace social wellness encompasses not only relationships between employees but also those between employees and the surrounding community members. Such an inclusive, forward-thinking atmosphere stimulates productive interactions, employee satisfaction, and a positive brand image. Additionally, Givhero’s digital platform transforms nebulous philanthropic goals into practical and strategic social wellness activities and initiatives.

1. What are Examples of Social Wellness?

Again, the term social wellness refers to the quality of relationships and interactions we have with individuals and groups around us. Health and wellness industry experts understand that social wellness affects well-being because our connections to others influence our emotional and mental wellness. Indeed, well-being incorporates all aspects of health.

Of course, this discussion generates a natural question: what exemplifies positive social wellness? Individuals should aim to build healthy and supportive relationships with those they feel closest to, such as friends, family, and romantic partners. Moreover, they should strive for constructive interactions and connections with acquaintances and coworkers they see often. Doing so entails balancing their social and professional responsibilities.

2. What are Some Social Wellness Activities?

While several social wellness activities can help you as an individual, what about activities for your entire office staff? Some popular social wellness programs for offices include:

  • Community engagement through volunteering and service days
  • Organizational drives for canned goods, gently used clothing, or blood
  • Health initiatives that incentivize participation through charitable donations
  • Conflict mediation through in-office counseling services, which can facilitate 1-on-1 and group discussions
  • Charitable and community giving through the Giving Tuesday initiative, charity walks and 5K runs, or payroll deductions to local causes

3. What is Social Wellness in the Workplace? How Do You Develop It?

Building & Promoting Workplace Wellness

Workplace social health and wellness can support your organization’s talent attraction and brand-building efforts. We’ve often discussed how activities in this vein inspire employee engagement with organizational programming and provide clear wellness goals. Nevertheless, Millennials and Gen Zers prefer working for companies that support their communities. You can thus leverage social wellness to hire and retain employees.

Furthermore, working for social wellness can lead to partnerships with nonprofit organizations. Givhero can help you in these efforts by connecting you with our nonprofit partners. Currently, our clients can donate to the United Nations Foundation, the American Cancer Society, Feeding America, United Way, and other notable causes.

4. How Do You Support a Charity Virtually?

We mentioned above that charitable donations could incentivize participation in health initiatives. Still, some HR professionals may feel wary about engaging with charities due to the administrative workload that doing so often entails. However, Givhero’s corporate wellness software circumvents the need for such an administrative burden.

Through our platform, you can create a wellness program—such as a walking challenge—that allows your employees to earn donations (and donate too) to their charities of choice. In that scenario, your organization would donate a certain amount to an employee’s selected charity for achieving daily goals. One-tap onboarding and integration with fitness and health trackers make Givhero a tool for optimized employee engagement and performance.

Support Employees’ Health and Wellness and Achieve Workplace Well-Being!

Prioritizing employee health and wellness entails a firm grasp on the topic’s facets and including your entire team in its practice. Nevertheless, effective workplace wellness programs—backed by well-structured ERGs and interest in social wellness—deliver priceless benefits to your organization and support for your employees. To incorporate your initiatives into company culture smoothly, turn to Givhero for support and guidance. Our digital wellness app can help you pull off successful programs and create a culture of well-being and productivity. Call us today at (240) 801-5927 or schedule a call with one of our representatives now!