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The Importance of an Employee Wellness Program

May 20, 2019

There are many benefits that a well-designed employee wellness program can bring to your business. If you have found a shortage of wellness program options available to you in the market, the tides may be turning in favor of SMBs when it comes to employee wellness.

The benefits of an employee wellness program aren’t meant for large corporations only. The majority of Americans work for small to mid-sized businesses and shouldn’t be overlooked when it comes to wellness programs. Therefore, Terryberry encourages smaller organizations to reap the benefits such a program provides. Terryberry offers a robust corporate wellness program with a full feature set — wearable technology integration, wellness challenges and education, social encouragement, and a thoughtful incentive program –that are accessible for smaller organizations.
By offering your employees the knowledge and resources required to make healthy life choices, employers can boost workplace morale, reduce stress, and increase overall productivity. Terryberry is here to help you create and implement an employee wellness program that you and your employees can enjoy.

What is “Wellness”?

The process of creating the optimal employee wellness program starts with defining “wellness” and exploring what an employee wellness program can do to benefit your employees.

“Wellness” means a lot more than a simple clean bill of health. The best employee wellness program goes a lot further by driving a focus on setting and maintaining good health practices. A wellness program seeks to provide the tools to improve the overall health of an entire workforce through a variety of methods such as wellness challenges, education, and .

Creating an Effective Employee Wellness Program

When creating an employee wellness program in your workplace, it’s important to consider health aspects of the whole person. These can include:

  • Nutrition
  • Fitness activities
  • Mental health exercises
  • Community service
  • Social activities
  • Team-building exercises
  • Stress-release activities
  • General health benefits

Terryberry Wellness is a platform designed to offer the flexibility to focus on the health behaviors that are most relevant to the organization and individual participants. Using the health assessment tools in the platform, you can identify the most helpful ways to promote health and wellness in your workplace, and the utilize the program’s suggested modules and challenges to focus on those specific areas.

The Most Important Features of an Employee Wellness Program

A successful employee wellness program is tailored to meet the unique needs of your employees. There is no cookie cutter solution for every workplace, and this is especially true in the case of underrepresented small and mid-sized companies. Overall, most programs cover at least some of these options:

  • Physical Fitness
  • Healthy Nutrition
  • Mental Wellbeing

Terryberry Wellness seeks to provide small to mid-sized businesses with valuable health-related programs. Here are some of the ways you can make sure you hit all the marks!

Physical Wellness

Promote regular physical activity by organizing a fitness related challenge for your employees. One common challenge you can propose is a monthly step challenge. In this challenge you encourage your employees to meet a step count goal. This is a fairly inexpensive program to implement, and you can offer a prize as an incentive. This prize can be something as simple (yet rewarding) as a gift card to a local restaurant offering a health-conscious menu. Check out Terryberry’s regional Workplace Walking Challenges to find one near you.

Small businesses can also encourage physical wellness by promoting the importance of preventative care. You can offer your employees incentives for scheduling regular annual check-ups with their healthcare provider in the form of prizes like Award Points.

Nutritional Wellness

Physical wellness is an important way to promote a healthy lifestyle in the workplace, but it isn’t the only avenue at your disposal. Make a difference in the lives of your employees by highlighting the importance of healthy eating!
Small to mid-sized businesses typically possess a family-like environment. Often times, you spend more time with your work family than your actual family, and there’s no better way to bond than through a healthy meal.

Promote wellness in your workplace by encouraging healthy eating habits. For instance, make an effort to keep healthy snack alternatives stocked in the office kitchen. You can also provide schedule flexibility so that your employees won’t feel rushed to eat. This will allow them time to make their own lunch at home or whip up a healthy snack at work instead of making the mad dash to the nearest fast food place.

Mental Wellness

Mental health is just as important as any other facet of our health. When your employees are experiencing unnecessary workplace-related stress, they will be unable to operate as efficiently which can lead to decreased productivity overall.
Make an effort to reduce stress in your workplace by implementing employee recognition programs, providing mental health resources, and practicing empathy. Encourage attention to organization within the workplace to cut down on the stress created by clutter, and take a moment each day to let your employees know that you appreciate their efforts.

Let Terryberry Help You Promote a Wellness Program in Your Small to Mid-sized Business

The benefits of an employee wellness program extend far beyond cutting medical costs. By setting up an employee wellness program with Terryberry, you can help your employees take care of themselves. Such a program also introduces increased interaction between employees outside of regularly established work tasks.

The return on your investment will be clear almost immediately when you implement employee wellness programs. This National Health Awareness Month, take the necessary steps to keep your employees healthy, happy, and productive! Contact Terryberry today.

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