How can leaders support employee wellness through lifestyle benefits?

Modern work life requires initiatives supporting employee wellness and growth, encompassing the many aspects of employees’ lives, both in and out of the workplace. But, as we’ll see, these types of initiatives are not always easy to implement. Today’s most effective leaders need to consider how to make wellness the norm in the fabric of their company culture – and this is important because employee wellness is directly linked to business and organizational success.

How we can define employee wellness

Employee wellness should include everything from being productive and feeling good at work, to making conscious decisions in relation to nutrition, exercise, relaxation, and sleep. Initiatives like lifestyle benefits, can help leaders support employees’ wellness and transform the company culture and its goals, to align with overall business and organizational goals.

Employee wellness and critical success

A high employee turnover is expensive from a time, money, and innovations perspective. Retention of employees does require resources as well, but the ROI of healthy and happy employees can exceed the costs of losing talent. Regardless of how business and organizational success is defined, no one can “pour from an empty cup”, as the saying goes.

Lifestyle benefits are important for employee wellness for a range of reasons. The Global Wellness Institute defines wellness as the active pursuit of activities, choices and lifestyles that lead to a state of holistic health. The key word there is it’s an active pursuit.

Leaders and HR professionals can reduce the risk by successfully implementing and using lifestyle benefits. Having employees that feel supported and encouraged to make better decisions about various aspects in their lives, including nutrition, and mental and physical health, increases their likelihood of being more productive at work, and living a healthier, happier life.

Why some organizations struggle with employee wellness

Some companies struggle to incorporate these initiatives into their culture for various reasons. Some simply don’t know how to make employee wellness a priority, which makes it hard for individuals to access resources. Some don’t know what benefits employees find desired and useful, simply because they don’t ask what that could be. Some fail to create a collective excitement around employee wellness, and should consider how to effectively implement wellness benefits that the employees value.

Do they want to make nutrition a priority, and improve access to healthier and low cost food in the workplace? Would a program designed to be incentive-based around PTO to attend wellness activities be desired? What are mental health resources that employees feel comfortable engaging with?

If the employers don’t match the programming with their values, it will be difficult to incorporate them into the workplace culture. Some employers do not communicate the value or purpose of individual improvements in relation to organizational goals and success. Employers need to consider how to make wellness the norm in the fabric of the company culture.

Organizations getting employee wellness right

Many people are value-driven and choose their next employer with great care. Organizations that consider employee wellness and offer lifestyle benefits not only attract and retain a good and productive workforce, but also take responsibility for building a sustainable future of healthy societies and workforces.

Wellness companies, like Nike, are successful at prioritizing and incorporating employee wellness into their culture – and attracting like-minded people. And it’s not hard to see how such companies prioritize employee wellbeing given their focus on people as their greatest resource.

There are various ways in which leaders can support employee wellness through lifestyle benefits.

Flexible work arrangements: The COVID pandemic clearly illustrated the need for flexible working, and it quickly became the preferred choice of work arrangement for many people globally. Offering flexible work hours or remote work options can help employees to strike a healthier work-life balance, which reduces stress and improves mental health and overall wellbeing.

Physical and mindfulness programs: Access to fitness facilities or organizing group exercise classes and challenges encourage healthy behaviors, and mindfulness sessions provide opportunities for relaxation and reflection. This enables employees to switch off from the routine of their working day, and return to work with a fresh perspective and clear thinking.

Mental health support: Providing access to counselling services, mental health resources, and stress management workshops can help employees cope with challenges and improve their mental wellbeing.

Nutritional guidance: Healthy eating impacts all aspects of life, both in and out of the workplace, including sleep, mental health, and exercise — and leads to lower absenteeism, higher productivity and active, fulfilled lives. Organizations, including Amazon, Google and PayPal, are prioritizing the nutrition of their employees and encouraging them to understand personal nutritional needs, make smarter food choices and build sustainable eating habits for life, by using healthy eating platforms.

Professional development: Offering training, skill development programs, and career advancement opportunities enhances job satisfaction and contributes to their overall sense of purpose and wellbeing.

Related: How investing in a health and wellness program benefits your employees and your business

Closing thoughts

As we’ve seen, employee wellness is directly linked to business and organizational success, so the role of leaders is crucial. Naturally, people look for leadership that is underpinned by strong beliefs, guidance, support and behaviors. Leaders can support by example, and ensure that lifestyle benefits are integrated in the accepted behaviors of their workplace culture.

Again, this makes it easy for wellness needs to be weaved into the fabric of the organization, but leaders must be the drivers of this for it to succeed and need to take responsibility in setting the tone.

Fanny Pihl, Lifesum employee wellness director