Pivoting corporate wellness to build a robust workforce and increase the competitive edge for charting out successful business strategies

“Health is the greatest of human blessings.” As the quote by Hippocrates rightly points out, the recent months have thrown light on how health of an individual is the most vital pre-requisites of having a holistic wellbeing. Earlier, people viewed health and wellness from a curative healthcare perspective; however, it is now being looked upon from a preventive healthcare aspect. This realisation has led to an upsurge in demand for fitness and wellness services.

The rising awareness of how fitness activities contribute to the overall wellbeing of an individual by building a stronger immunity, has led companies to focus more towards their corporate wellness initiatives. These services are being designed and curated in a manner which presents users with not just physical health, but also mental health guidance. Various players in this industry have emphasised on how the demand for these services has risen, especially during the nationwide lockdown.

Even as we were socially distant, companies were extending virtual corporate wellness services to their employees in order to help them in dealing with the work-from-home stress and unwind from the monotony of staying indoors. This has proven to have contributed towards improved and better employee productivity and health, translating further into improved performance at remote work.

To detail this further, some of the ways in which corporate wellness initiatives contribute to holistic employee well-being are as follows-

Helping employees transition from in-office working to remote-working -  

When the way of the world transitioned from in-office working to remote-working, various organizations felt the need to look-out for employee health. The lockdown and remote working brought added pressures of carrying out day to day tasks for an employee, and a key concern for many organizations was to maintain a healthy workforce. Many pivoted their corporate wellness initiatives to cater to the needs of the newly remote workforce. With the lockdown, how were organisations to extend preventive health services and aids?

Having had technological advancement, fitness and wellness service providers extended content, programs and services through virtual platforms using video-conferencing tools or pre-recorded guidance videos, which helped the transition from physical to virtual for scores of employers.

Encouraging remote team-activities to build synergy - 

Employers can encourage the workforce to participate in virtual team-activities that could range from either wellness coaching to performing various fitness or yoga sessions via video-conferencing. These help in bringing employees together and create a communicative link which contributes in developing a sense of community and makes employees feel engaged and productive. 

Also, professionals at various hierarchical levels get a chance to interact and perform creative activities together.

Corporate wellness services build employee efficiency and productivity - 

When an employee partakes in a corporate wellness program, his health data and activity log is kept into consideration and professionals such as dietitians, mental health consultants and fitness trainers, work in-sync in order to deliver personalised experience. This also helps in keeping accountability and monitoring progress.

Further to this, companies can take measures to educate employees on the benefits that they get through employee assistance programs (EAP). Providing this guidance will lead to employees feeling a sense of belonging at their workplace, see the value the company looks at them with and combat stress as they face unexpected challenges. A happy workforce will result in delivering better quality work output, which in turn takes businesses to greater heights.