Employee wellness programs are initiatives within a company that are designed to improve employees’ well-being, which includes their physical, mental and financial health.
What Are Employee Wellness Programs?
Employee wellness programs are a set of benefits that incentivize employees to prioritize their physical, mental and financial health.
By offering employee wellness programs, organizations may expect to see less sick days, lower healthcare costs and improved productivity. It also shows their workers that they care about their well-being, leading to increased employee engagement and less turnover.
What Are Employee Wellness Programs?
Employee wellness programs are initiatives organizations undertake to improve the health and well-being of their employees. Typically, these programs expand beyond physical health initiatives and offer mental health counseling for workers, considering workers’ financial, social and emotional well-being.
Roughly 80 percent of large employers and 62 percent of small employers offer some sort of employee wellness program, according to a 2023 KFF study. The pandemic inspired companies to further increase their well-being investments, particularly for mental health resources.
Why Is Employee Wellness Important?
By offering employee wellness programs, companies can improve the health of their employees, which, in turn, leads to benefits like lower healthcare costs, increased productivity and higher levels of job satisfaction.
Lower Healthcare Costs
When employees participate in regular health screenings and preventative health practices, they are less likely to get sick. And if they do get sick, they are more likely to detect and treat their illness, avoiding costly health complications. These practices are not only good for the health of employees, they also reduce the organization’s healthcare costs. A 2010 Harvard study found that, for every dollar spent on wellness programs, companies see their healthcare costs fall by $3.27 and their absentee costs drop by $2.73.
Johnson & Johnson estimates that its employee wellness program saved the company $250 million in healthcare costs over a decade. In a 15-year period, the number of employees who smoke dropped by nearly two-thirds and the number of employees with high blood pressure dropped by more than half.
Increased Employee Engagement
Employee wellness programs also show employees that their employer is invested in their well-being. This contributes to employee engagement, which leads to increased productivity and profitability — and lower turnover.
Through its employee surveys, health insurance company Point32Health has found that its employee well-being program is one of the most important contributors to employee engagement in the organization.
“These wellness programs are contributing to a positive work environment,” Peter Church, Point32Health’s chief people officer, told Built In. “People feel valued. People feel supported. People feel cared about.”
Church, who was diagnosed with cancer shortly after rolling out Point32Health’s wellness program, said that companies that support their employees during times of need can deepen their relationship with employees while living up to their corporate values.
“The only way for us to fulfill our purpose as a company — helping people live healthier lives — is to take care of ourselves and to take care of each other.”
Heightened Productivity
When employees are healthy, they take less sick days, which improves productivity. The mental health component of these programs also aims to combat burnout and absenteeism — another productivity killer.
“If your employees are healthy and happy, they’re going to come to work, they’re going to do better work and they’re going to be in a better position to grow with the company,” Bridgett Hart, vice president of employee experience at customer experience outsourcing firm ibex, told Built In.
Employee wellness programs also help employees deal with stress they’re experiencing in their personal life, which can cause distractions that prevent employees from reaching their full potential at work.
“The more an employee is thinking about some stress or challenge in their personal life, the less focused they can be on their work,” Kevin Robertson, chief revenue officer at HSA Bank, told Built In. “It’s beneficial to the employer to help eliminate some of those distractions.”
Attracting and Retaining Talent
Employee wellness programs can also help organizations attract and retain talent at the organization. According to a survey by Robert Half, roughly 73 percent of workers consider a company’s employee wellness program when choosing their future employer.
“In a competitive labor market, companies that promote comprehensive wellness initiatives stand out to top talent, serving as a powerful recruitment tool,” Sibyl McCarley, chief people officer at HireVue, told Built In. “Candidates are drawn to organizations that show a commitment to employee health and well-being, often viewing such benefits as essential to their employment decisions.”
Meeting the Unique Needs of Employees
When done right, employee wellness programs offer an opportunity to meet the diverse needs of the workforce. Companies can use workforce analytics and employee surveys to learn what employees want out of their wellness programs. Some software tools also use AI to personalize wellness benefits.
“[Wellness programs] need to serve up the right benefits … at just the right time for each member in ways that in the past we’ve just not been able to do,” Renya Spak, chief growth officer at personal health engagement platform Well, told Built In.
While wellness programs should reflect the demographics of the workforce, they should also be left broad enough to be used in a variety of ways. “You really need to be as broad as possible, because you need to be as inclusive as possible,” Church said.
Types of Wellness Programs
Physical Wellness
Physical wellness programs can include everything from reimbursing employees for their gym memberships to offering nutritious food in the workplace. These programs might also offer incentives to participate in biometric screenings, weight loss programs and other preventative health activities.
Mental Health
One of the most common mental health programs is an employee assistance program (EAP), which provides employees (and typically those in their household) with several free counseling sessions and access to a 24/7 mental health hotline. Some companies also provide access to mental health apps that help employees practice meditation, mindfulness and stress management.
Financial Wellness
Recognizing that finances can cause significant stress in employees’ lives, companies have started incorporating financial literacy training into employee wellness programs. These programs, which can include anything from personal finance seminars to retirement planning consultations, show employees that their company is invested in their financial success.
12 Examples of Employee Wellness Programs
1. Health Screenings
Health risk assessments and biometric screenings are the backbone of employee wellness programs, as they provide health insurers with employee health data that can then be used to offer lifestyle changes that would improve employees’ health. Health insurance companies often offer incentives for employees to participate in these screenings, as well as preventative health programming like smoking cessation and weight loss management programs.
2. Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)
EAPs provide employees with free confidential counseling when they need it. Typically offered through an employer’s health insurance provider, these programs allow employees to discuss a wide range of personal concerns, including work stressors, substance abuse, legal assistance and marriage counseling. These programs are typically limited to a handful of sessions, but counselors can refer employees to other mental health services when needed.
3. Wellness Challenges
Wellness challenges are contests that incentivize employees to exercise or participate in other healthy activities. At ibex, a customer experience outsourcing company with more than 30,000 employees around the world, employees participate in step challenges. Participating employees log how many steps they take each day, and everyone who reaches 10,000 steps each day is put in a drawing to win fitness-related prizes.
4. Gym Reimbursements
Gym reimbursements are a popular incentive to encourage employees to exercise. These reimbursements, which are funded through a post-tax lifestyle spending account, allow employees to recoup the funds they spend on gym memberships or home exercise equipment.
5. Healthy Food Options at the Office
Companies can encourage their employees to eat healthy by offering nutritious food in the workplace. Healthy food contributes to the physical health of employees, but it also improves employees’ ability to think and focus. Sugary, processed foods, on the other hand, can make employees feel tired and drain them of the energy they need to do their best work.
6. Financial Wellness Programs
Roughly 57 percent of employees say finances are the top cause of stress in their lives, according to a 2023 survey, and nearly half those employees say finances issues have distracted them from work. Some employers attempt to alleviate this stress by offering financial education through workshops, webinars or consultations with financial advisors. Robertson said a growing number of employers help employees save money by encouraging them to contribute to a post-tax emergency savings account.
7. Flexible Schedules
Employees have a better work-life balance when they are allowed to have flexible schedules that allow employees to take breaks to go to doctors’ appointments and pick up their children from school. This approach allows employees to accomplish their work during times when they are most productive. By focusing on employees’ output over their timecard, employees will feel empowered, which contributes to higher levels of employee engagement.
8. Smoking Cessation Programs
Many employers and health insurance companies offer smoking cessation programs to help employees quit smoking. Companies benefit from employees’ improved productivity, health and When employees quit smoking, companies save money on healthcare costs and the productivity losses from smoke breaks.
9. Health and Wellness Fairs
Health and wellness fairs are events where employees can access educational resources about health and wellness topics, including information about the suite of wellness programs offered by the employer. Ibex, for example, hosts health and wellness fairs that provide free vision exams, blood pressure checks, massage chairs, pickleball tournaments, dental care consultations and a nutritionist who offers tips for eating a healthy diet.
10. Well-Being Time
To encourage employees to think about their personal health and well-being, Point32Health sets aside “well-being” time every other Friday afternoon in the summer. During that time, the company reminds employees about the well-being resources it offers, as well as other education related to personal health.
“If I can give you enough tools, and if I can give you the time, then the people who need it the most will use it the way they need to the most,” Church said. “Some people just look at it as bonus time off, but I think that as we balance the stresses of a job or the stresses we have in life, that that time is extraordinarily beneficial.”
11. Mental Health Apps
A survey of more than 1,100 employees from 66 companies found that 69 percent of employees had improved their anxiety or depression with the help of a workplace mental health platform. Mental health apps like Headspace and Calm — subscriptions to which companies can offer — can help employees learn how to meditate, practice mindfulness and learn healthy sleep habits.
12. Commuter Benefits
Commuting to work can be costly and time-consuming. Some companies offer commuting benefits to help their employees get to the office. Some programs offer a stipend or reimbursement for parking or bus fare, while other programs incentivize eco-friendly options like public transportation or bike commuting.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should an employee wellness program include?
An employee wellness program generally includes health screenings, an employee assistance program (EAP), financial wellness programming and reimbursement for gym memberships and home fitness equipment. The components of a wellness program should be tailored to the diverse needs of an organization’s workforce.
How much do companies spend on employee wellness programs?
Companies spend an average of $742 per employee on employee wellness programs, according to a 2017 survey by UnitedHealthcare.
How do you promote a wellness program at work?
HR teams can promote their employee wellness program through the company’s intranet system and benefit documents. They can also remind employees about their wellness program through email newsletters and posters around the workplace.
