Corporate wellness programme for employees: Benefits & types

People strive to get hired by the best multinational companies, drawn by the various benefits that come with the job opportunities. No matter how great the financial benefits are, if your organization fails to offer a positive work culture and environment, the employee is bound to feel stressed and overworked. Due to this, the physical health and mental health of an employee can be affected, which isn’t ideal for either the employee or company. A burned out employee will look towards exiting the company and it will also affect the company’s productivity, increasing employee turnover. They’ll have to start looking for another employee quite soon. One way to overcome such issues is to build a corporate wellness program and take a step towards improving the work culture harming your employees health. The corporate work culture can be tiring, let’s take a look at what it stands for.

A] What is the corporate work culture?

Corporate culture refers to the character of the company you work for. It includes general beliefs and behaviour of the company and the employees, management strategies of the company, and the work environment.

• You have a fixed time to start your work but no fixed time to leave your office.
• There are long sitting hours, constant exposure to blue screens, and immense mental pressure to meet deadlines and physical and mental stress.
• This makes it difficult for the employees to invest their time in other activities.

B] What is a corporate wellness programme?

High-stress levels can predispose an employee to white-collar illnesses like blood pressure, inflammation of joints, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, obesity, muscular and bone issues and psychological problems. It affects the ability to perform well in the office and affects the company’s progress.

Workplace wellness programmes are organized by the companies for the benefit of their employees, and their companies too. The main aim of the companies is to manage stress, boost health and have a work-life balance. They hire professionals like psychologists, dietitians, fitness coaches and doctors, who regularly keep in touch with their employees to keep a check on their health. They arrange for seminars, intervention and educational programme, health check-ups, vaccinations, diet and psychological counselling, fitness routines etc. on a regular basis.

C] Benefits of corporate wellness programme to the employees:

• Convenience: With a busy schedule, the employees find it difficult to find time for extra activities. You tend to skip the gym during the workday and head towards a sedentary lifestyle. But, if the company has its gym and the instructor as a part of the employee wellness programme, then it becomes a convenient place to work out. An employee can use the gym while coming to or leaving the office. It saves the extra time required for travelling to the gym. With the availability of the gym instructor, there is an assurance of exercising right and avoiding any injury.
• Better consistency: When there is a diet consultation or fitness routine that the whole office or the team-mates follow, it is easy to adhere to the programme. A workout buddy or a co-worker’s company gives better consistency in the programme that you follow. Working out in pairs or a group helps to keep up morale, give each other motivation to stay fit, and push each other to get better each day.
• Ice-breaking session for the team/ employees: Few employees are introverts or find it difficult to interact with their fellow employees or teammates.  They feel shy to even ask for help. Bonding over such programme other than work, helps them to break the ice, open up and communicate well. This is good for team-building, and a step towards understanding each other’s strengths and weaknesses. There is less animosity and a better work atmosphere.
• De-stressing for the employees: Challenging work deadlines, long hours of work, internal competition and extreme pressure to perform well each time stress out the employee. Fitness programmes like diet consultation, psychological counselling, easy workplace workouts, or hobby sessions help to de-stress the employee. Such programme help to channel stress in the right direction without affecting health or work performance.
• Better productivity: Being under constant stress affects the ability to give the best to your work. There is a mental blockage, you tend to make silly mistakes and the quality of the work is hampered. But such health programmes help employees to work stress-free, give better performance and help the company fare.
• More attendance of the employees: Unhealthy staff tends to fall ill more often and skip office. But such health programmes ensure that the employees follow a healthy lifestyle. Healthy living increases immunity and the employee doesn’t fall sick often. With less frequency of illness, there will be fewer sick leaves and more attendance.
• Value for money/ Reduced insurance claims: Better health means less hospitalization or fewer illnesses amongst the employees and they will not claim insurance coverage from the employer. Retaining such healthy employees is a value for money for the company as they reduce the extra expenses of the company.
• Corporate stability: If the employee is happy with the company, healthy, and good at his work, there is increased employee sustainability and company growth. A company doesn’t have to keep hiring new people for the same post, spend extra resources to train the new employee and not offer extra remuneration to fill the post. This enhances corporate stability and adds to its profits.

D] Different wellness programme that can be included:

• Tabata workouts: Tabata workouts are bouts of 4 minute intense workouts that you can do every few hours in between your office hours. You can start with jumping rope or spot jogging as a warm-up, followed by high-intensity interval workouts like burpees, plank, mountain climbers, high knees, jump squats, lunges, plyometric push-ups, etc. These workouts give a kick start to the metabolism, break the sedentary lifestyle pattern, and also break the weight-loss plateau.
• Stretching while seated: These days all the work is done with just a click of the key. Prolonged use of screens leads to bone, muscle and tendon-related issues of the shoulder, neck, wrist, back and hip. It is best to perform stretching exercises while you are seated at your desk after every few hours. This helps to release the tensed muscles and prevent any severe injury. You can perform neck stretches, shoulder stretches, arms and legs flexion and extension exercises, and lower back stretches. The best part of these stretches is that you do not need to get up and go to some other place to exercise.
• Yoga sessions: Yoga sessions help to keep you healthy, your body flexible, and avoid any sitting-related issues of the body. It also prevents any work related issues like wrist sprain, lower back pain, hip joint inflammation or knee pain. Yoga sessions at least thrice a week will give you the desired results. Always remember to perform yoga asanas under the supervision of a professional yoga teacher to avoid any injury.
• Breathing sessions: Breathing exercises help to relieve stress. It helps to keep the blood pressure in control, manage anxiety, reduce depression, and maintain mental stability. Perform breathing exercises once or twice a day to get maximum benefits.
• Meditation sessions: The constant work pressure means constant stress. Mediation sessions in between office hours can significantly reduce stress, help to see clearly through the solutions and give better performance. Meditation keeps the employee level-headed and makes them behave responsibly. You can perform guided meditation or meditate using some music. 5 to 10 minutes of meditation will help you reduce your daily stress levels.
• Diet consultation: With a sedentary lifestyle, diet plays an important role in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. A person is tempted to eat junk during the evening snack hour. Proper guidance for the eating pattern ensures that the employee is in the best of health most days. Eating right keeps you disease-free, maintains a healthy weight, gives flawless skin, and boosts immunity.
• Inter-team Health goal competitions: Healthy competitions with harmless rewards motivate the employee and the employer to give their best shots at work, keep up the enthusiasm of the employees and follow a healthy lifestyle.  There can be competitions like total weight loss of the team, fewer sick leaves of a particular team, the best performance of maximum people of which team, highest incentive of the team member, or highest profit in which department.

Conclusion:

Companies that incorporate health and fitness programme should take into consideration the needs and preferences of the employees. Taking care of employees automatically helps the company in various ways. The only care that should be taken is that it should be done under the strict supervision of professionals to avoid any side effects.  Sudam Shelar offers a wide range of fitness services which include corporate wellness programs dedicated to assisting employees and companies.