Wellbeing Programs Your Employees Need, But Don’t Ask For

Wellbeing is a multi-layered cake that everyone wants a slice of. For the best experience, you dig deep through all the layers to get myriads of flavors and textures. Omit one layer and the cake feels incomplete. Similarly, Wholistic Wellbeing is a failed project until you look after each and every aspect – from maintaining your fitness levels for physical wellbeing to keeping in touch with your friends and colleagues, i.e., social wellbeing. In a workplace, it’s hard to enjoy this multi-layered cake when you're burdened with deadlines, stress and poor work-life balance.

So, how can we have our cake and eat it too?

The answer lies in a wholistic wellbeing program.

Implementing a wellness program in the workplace has become a necessity, now more than ever. With employees feeling overwhelmed by work and inching closer to a burnout, an employee wellbeing program seems to be the best way to look after your employees. However, merely offering yoga or meditation sessions is not enough. Each employee has unique wellbeing needs and requires a personalized program. The Roundglass Wellbeing at Work Survey Report found some gaps between wellbeing programs offered by organizations and the ones that employees actually need.

Here are the top four wellbeing programs your employees need, but don’t ask for:

Doctor consultations

Just like a car or bike needs frequent maintenance and servicing, your body also requires regular health checkups. This is one of the most important wellness ideas for remote employees, especially during the pandemic. Although, health checkups sound like a basic perk, the Roundglass Wellbeing at Work Survey Report found that only 37% of surveyed organizations offer doctor consultations. Early detection can prevent chronic illnesses and help you shift from a curative approach to a preventive one. As employees spend most of their time at work, offering doctor consultations can save them a lot of time and help prioritize their wellbeing. Moreover, analyzing health risk assessment (HRA) data can help organizations come up with an appropriate employee wellbeing program. Unfortunately, only 16% of surveyed organizations utilize HRA data currently — something that can provide valuable insights on what your employees need.

Lifestyle disease management programs

Lifestyle diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cancer, PCOD and heart ailments require constant medical supervision and long-term planning for treatments and tests. They also require patients to build habits that prevent further health complications. Although there are several ways to help such patients keep a close eye on their health conditions, as per our survey only 35% of surveyed organizations offer lifestyle disease management programs to their employees. Using technology and digital platforms for implementing a wellness program in the workplace is a great way to do so. It helps you build positive habits like incorporating healthy foods in your diet and monitoring your vitals to maintain a digital record that can be shared with a doctor. It also enables organizations to personalize their employee wellbeing program, as per individual needs.

Stress management programs

“This is stressing me out” is a common sentence you hear at work. In fact, we hear it so often that we’ve become immune to its consequences and dismiss it with, “Oh it’s just work-related stress. It will go away.” However, dealing with stress requires a deep understanding of the root cause. An employee wellbeing program targeted specifically towards stress is the need of the hour, especially as working from home has left people exhausted due to juggling multiple responsibilities at once. According to the Roundglass Wellbeing at Work Survey Report, only 44% organizations offer stress management programs. Offering such programs can be a huge step towards normalizing conversations around mental wellbeing and encouraging them to speak up. For instance, when an employee feeling overworked due to the negligence of his/her colleagues speaks up, managers can take measures to create a more collaborative work environment.

Access to counsellors

The stigma around mental health is such that employees would rather feign a headache or fever to take a day off for their mental wellbeing, instead of being honest with their managers. Employees share everything with their colleagues, from weekend plans to their favorite dish. However, when it comes to mental health, they prefer to deal with it in silence for fear of being left out of promotions, important decisions or social gatherings. To tackle this issue, organizations must offer an employee wellbeing program that provides access to counsellors. Unfortunately, currently only 34% of surveyed organizations do so. Implementing a wellness program in the workplace can become more productive with the help of a mental health professional. Counselling also offers a more private environment for employees to open up and come to terms with their issues.

How many of these programs does your organization offer? Tell us in the comments.