5 Tech Companies Who Prioritize Employee Wellness

It’s now more important than ever to create a program that promotes wellness within your business. With the transition to remote work, companies are thinking creatively about shifting wellness programs entirely online.

Even before the crisis, wellness programs benefited both employees and organizations at large. Harvard found that for every dollar spent on employee wellness, company medical costs fell $3.27 and absenteeism dropped $2.73, generating a 6-to-1 return on investment.

The Importance of Company Wellness Programs

By implementing a wellness program for your company, you can reap the following benefits:

• Improving the health and productivity of employees
• Improving morale and loyalty among employees
• Lowering the overall cost of employer-provided healthcare

You can follow this step-by-step guide to set up a well-rounded wellness program for your company. You can also harness digital tools for employee wellness. Utilizing tools like Burnalong is great for developing a robust wellness program for your company. Specifically, digitals tools make it simple to transition to a digital platform for health benefits. In this time of transition to remote work, online tools can be an effective centerpiece of employee wellness programs.

Here are 5 examples of successful employee wellness programs that we gathered to help you get started:

OnePiece Work

Working together has always been a foundational idea for OnePiece Work, and that includes staying well together. With a variety of wellness benefits that have shifted to accommodate pandemic-related workspace changes, we aim to help employees continue to improve their physical and mental health.

OnePiece Work’s employee wellness initiatives include:

• A partnership with nutrition and wellness Coach Brooke Simonson from the Health Investment for a 10-day Wellness Challenge.

The 10-Day Wellness Challenge provides a fun, motivational way for employees to boost their health and learn methods for including wellness in their regular routines.

• An extended holiday break

The COVID-19 pandemic has been stressful and taxing for all. OnePiece Work is offering additional time off for employees so that they can recharge and spend additional time with family.

• An adjustable standing desk & ergonomic chair for each employee

The shift to at-home work can make it difficult for employees to be active throughout the day. We provided our employees with a standing desk and chair to improve their work-from-home setups and improve daily productivity.

Zappos

At Zappos, employee wellness is — and always has been — a priority. As Bhawna Provenzano, Zappos’ Wellness Benefits Coordinator, explains:

“Our employees’ health and wellbeing is our number one commitment. We want to offer a great experience and remove as many barriers as we can to treatments.”

Zappos supports employee health and wellbeing by:

• Reimbursing employees for pet adoption fees each year (up to $250) when they rescue an animal from a local animal shelter

Pets can make a large, positive impact on employees’ mental health. Zappos works to remove the burden of adoption fees for their employees so that they can reap the emotional benefits of owning a pet.

• Providing the Destination Wellness program

Since 2017, Zappos has been holding Destination Wellness, a program giving employees the opportunity to participate in activities surrounding the mind, body, and soul. The program includes three challenges a day, including money-saving, mental fitness, and physical fitness exercises.

• Free counseling services

In addition to supporting employees’ physical health, Zappos supports their workers’ mental health with free counseling and mental health services.

Calm

Calm is an app with features designed to help users focus, relax, and sleep. It includes meditations, stories, music, and other tools for improved mental health. With its focus on mental wellness, it’s no surprise that Calm supports the wellbeing of their workers with various initiatives.

The following health and wellness benefits are offered to employees at Calm:

• A full month vacation time

Providing time off is one of the best ways for companies like Calm to prevent employee burnout and improve productivity.

• Option to join a book club

Calm workers have the option to join a book club as an enriching social activity to enjoy outside of the office.

• Virtual company-wide “daily calm”

Especially during the hectic workday, it can be difficult to slow down and remain calm. Calm has been holding a virtual, company-wide “daily calm” to help all employees release tension and return to work with a more relaxed mindset.

Postclick

Postclick is a digital advertising company that helps other companies boost the return on their online marketing investments. Olivia Bair, Sr. Director of HR at Postclick, previously joined our webinar to speak on the topic of solutions for remote teams. In this discussion, we covered strategies for supporting wellness among team members, including:

• A work-from-home stipend

Postclick provides a work-from-home stipend to all of its employees. The stipend can be used to enhance their work-from-home experience in any way that employees see fit. This may include food, mental health services, or donations to charities of their choice.

• Theme days at work

Olivia recommends planning fun and collaborative “theme days” for the company, such as Pajama day, Sip and laughs, and “Wear-Your-Favorite-Sport-Jersey” day. These events give employees a chance to engage with their coworkers outside of work, which boosts the overall morale of the company.

Salesforce

Salesforce is a cloud-based software company with a prominent global presence. With a steadily increasing employee base, Salesforce has honed in on wellness benefits to support their workers’ health and wellbeing. Named the #1 best company to work for by Fortune in 2018, it’s clear that Salesforce makes the satisfaction of their employees a top priority. They offer the following wellness perks in addition to baseline benefits for their team:

• Wellbeing reimbursement

To help their employees learn more about how to stay well outside of the office, Salesforce reimburses employees for up to $100 in activity costs per month. Online gym classes, cooking classes, massages, or digital meditation programs are all examples of resources that Salesforce employees can access with this benefit.

• Mental Health

Salesforce recognizes that every aspect of wellness is important, including mental health. So, the company works to foster a good work/life balance among its employees. By providing employee assistance programs including access to wellness resources such as Thriving Mind and Plum Village’s Zen Meditation app, launching B-Well Together webinar series, and daily wellbeing survey.

The Bottom Line

A company is only as strong as its employees. Especially in these turbulent times, employers have much to gain by making the wellness of their employees’ a lasting priority.

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