There are many who see the benefits of having a workplace health promotion program (more commonly known as wellness program).
But not many companies know how to implement one. There’s also lots of misconceptions about wellness programs, which means companies leaders choose options fairly blindly, doing their employees a disservice. Besides, some programs are more successful than others (usually because they’re well-designed and well-executed.)
Every company is different, so the wellness program will need to be customized to meet the needs of workers.
Several companies have also realized that its better to shift the focus away from individuals, and individual lifestyles, toward programs that target the full set of factors that shape the collective health of populations.
Companies that encourage employees to do yoga, sleep more, and get to play with pets
Do you know of any company that encourages its employees to do yoga, sleep more, offers pet therapy (and much more)? Insurance giant Aetna (AET) is one such company.
While most companies would worry about the costs that offering these benefits to its employees would incur, besides reduction in productivity, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini says providing these benefits has helped the company boost business.
Mark says it’s helped the company by reducing health care costs, creating more productive and engaged employees, which results in higher customer retention rates.
“We put them through mindfulness and yoga we measured their heart rate ability afterward, looked at their health care costs a year later, and we saw $3,000 reduction in health care costs and 69 minutes more in productivity,” says Bertolini based on a study conducted on the impact of mind-body stress reduction.
“People, planet, then profits,” says Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini.
So how does one create an evidence-based health promotion program that does work?
Here are some useful links:
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