Prioritizing employee wellness is a smart move — it not only makes for a healthier, happier workforce, but benefits the organization’s bottom line with considerable ROI potential. With healthy employees, the impact on business is tremendous — from fewer medical claims and sick days to more positive approaches to work and greater productivity.

HR leaders and corporate wellness organizations understand the value of tools to track and manage employee health and wellness. When the right tools are integrated into a comprehensive wellness platform, it benefits both employees and employers in many ways.

Employees engaged in a robust digital wellness platform can get a full picture of their health conditions and health risks. They are empowered by a personalized, comprehensive program designed to manage and improve their wellness. Over time, they tend to be healthier, more confident, happier, and report higher job and life satisfaction.

Successful wellness programs have the power to improve the health as well as productivity of the workforce, decrease absenteeism, promote employee recruitment and retention, boost morale, decrease medical costs, prevent lifestyle-related disease, and improve the company’s bottom line. Over time, employers can optimize the health of their workforce and analyze the program’s outcomes data to drive continued success.

So what is the secret sauce for a successful employee wellness program? While there’s no one perfect combination that works for all populations, there are a few essential elements for a truly impactful program:

Focus on “baby steps” for truly permanent positive behavior change. You already know that effective wellness programming must focus on the root cause of poor health: unhealthy behaviors. But to really stick, behaviors must be acquired over time and practiced until they become habit. They must build on previously mastered skills and habits for long-term success, one day at a time.
Surprise and delight your staff. You know how important it is to make programs fresh, fun, and engaging to prevent employee drop-off. But the elements of delight and surprise are truly captivating — they keep interest but provide random, but valuable positive reinforcement for healthy behaviors. You can insert delight and surprise qualities in any of your strategies — gamification, challenges, group activities, incentives, rewards, and other creative ways to motivate, inspire, and keep your staff accountable.
Prioritize nutrition. As much as wellness is about all elements — including fitness, sleep, mental health, stress, etc. — we know that what we eat has an overwhelming impact on our overall health. In fact, diet is the #1 predictor of disease risk and mortality. But improving diet quality can and should be done in an inclusive, non-judgmental way.

Diet ID can help you develop a wellness program that cuts costs (improving diet quality can save on average $263 per person per year; preventing type 2 diabetes in one person saves $8,500 per year) and improve overall wellness of your workforce. The platform provides personalized nutrition plans and judgment-free nutrition education for each staff member and helps you easily risk-stratify your population. The reports provide valuable insights and rich data that can be segmented by demographics, team structure, and more.

Read more about our wellness solutions here and feel free to schedule a demo if you’d like to try it out!