Employee Wellness 2018: How To Establish Your Company’s Wellness Plan

Versique

December 28, 2017

It is no surprise that wellness has been a big trend in the corporate world throughout 2017 and will continue to ramp up in 2018. As healthcare costs continue to rise, year over year, implementing an employee wellness plan should be top of mind for employers.

Studies have shown when implementing corporate wellness programs there has been a decrease in healthcare spending, increase in employee engagement and retention. Not to mention, happier and healthier employees.

Starting an Employee Wellness Program 

Here at Versique, our employees and their well-being are one of our top priorities. Because of this, we decided to implement a Wellness Program going into 2018.

To begin research on the best way to implement programs such as this, two members of our Corporate Services team (Caroline McMahon & Pamela Holsten) attended Fitbit Captivate, a wellness program conference held in Chicago. This conference is designed to get the inspiration and tools companies need to create engaging wellness programs that drive great company culture and business performance. The conference focused around all the areas of workplace wellness including mindfulness, diet, exercise, and a work-life balance. Caroline and Pamela had the opportunity to learn from the best of the best in the industry about how important a wellness program is for workplace culture.

One of the biggest concepts emphasized at this conference was the need to get executives behind the program. Upon returning from Chicago, our two employees presented to our executive team what they had learned and a proposal on what it would take to create this program.

Understandably you could see how getting this commitment level from executives could be challenging for most, but luckily, they were ready to jump right on board. At Versique one of our core values is Continuous Improvement, so giving our employees the tools needed to improve their health aligns perfectly with our core values.

Versique’s Wellness Plan 2018

Not everything can fall right into place when you decide to move forward with a wellness plan, but here are some of the advancements and partnerships we decided to take on for 2018.

• Lifetime Fitness: With Lifetime Fitness’s Corporate Partnership, we are able to subsidize the price of memberships for our employees. Since announcing the program, we have had over 75% of our employees sign up for a membership for 2018. There is constant chatter across the office about which classes’ people are attending, what teachers they liked the best, and planning morning workouts together before the workday.
• Fitbit: Partnering with Fitbit, is helping to create healthy competition throughout the office as well as getting employees up and moving. Every employee in our office received a Fitbit and has been placed onto a team. On January 15^th we will start our first challenge to see which team can average the most steps over a three-week period. Employees have already started to come up with creative ways to get more steps in, and there is no doubt our treadmill desks in our new office will be getting their use come mid-January.

Small but Impactful Ways to Incorporate Wellness

In addition to our new partnerships, we have come up with small, but impactful ways to incorporate wellness into our office.

• #WellnessWednesdays: This is an opportunity where we have a speaker come in each week to discuss more about varying areas of wellness.
• Standing Desks: In our new office, every desk will be adjustable from standing to sitting.
• Walking Treadmill Desks: Our new office will also have two walking treadmills for employees to enjoy.
• Healthier Options: We have chosen to provide healthier options at company events.
• Corporate Workout Class: With our Lifetime Fitness partnership, we will be doing a quarterly group workout class at Lifetime.

Since announcing the program, the excitement and feedback around it has been outstanding. Employees are excited to get involved with the program, and get healthier in 2018.

While the benefits of decreased healthcare cost and increased employee engagement and retention are great benefits of creating a wellness plan, ultimately it is about creating healthier employees. Why?

Because the employees are what matter most.

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