World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as: A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Wellness is defined as: The complete integration of body, mind, and spirit – the realization that everything we do, think, feel, and believe has an effect on our state of well-being.

So why should an Organisation focus on Wellness of its employees? Is it just the tick mark activity for the Organisations or does it go beyond to add tangible and intangible value to the Organisations?

Employee wellness programs are usually a collection of initiatives within an organization to promote healthy lifestyles among employees, and in some cases, spouses and dependents of employees. These initiatives address different areas, or dimensions of wellness and well-being.

How does the Wellness Wheel work?

The theory is simple; balance the different areas of your life, and you’ll start to find that your life will improve. It’s a bit more than that, though. It isn’t merely about not getting ill, it is about making the most of your life. It’s about living life to its fullest and maintaining continuous, positive activity to keep us healthy and happy.

Benefits for the Organisation :

• It promotes healthy behaviour

it can be surprisingly hard to articulate any concrete benefits of employee wellness programs, especially from a business standpoint. However, that’s exactly what you need to do if you want to make a good case for a program you’ve been thinking about implementing.

Workplace wellness programs study report by Rand Health Quarterly indicate that lifestylemanagementinterventions as a component of a wellness program can reduce risk factors, such as smoking, and increase healthy behaviors, such as exercise. wellness programs can have a significantly positive effect on employees’ health—and their lives. 

• The program increases employee engagement

Wellness programmes align employer and employee goals more closely. They increase employee engagement with the company’s Vision, Mission and Goals. Employees are also more likely to see their own wellness as being linked with professional success. Companies that build a wellness culture thus acquire a workforce that is not only more focused and engaged, but that sees that culture as benefiting their careers.

• Specialised wellness programs can offer good return on investment

When Organisations implement a well defined wellness program, they see reduced absenteeism resulting in better through-put from employees. An engaged employee has direct corelation to increased effectiveness and better productivity.

Organisations may be at different stages in their journey of wellness initiatives and programs. One of the important pillars irrespective of the stage is Organisation wide communication and awareness.

One of the effective ways is to schedule training sessions that not only help communicate the wellness value proposition, but also acts as a feedback mechanism from employees. This in turn will help in fine tuning the proposition. At Exponentia Learning Solutions Pvt Ltd, a Learning & Development company, we offer health and wellness awareness training programs that acts as an important cog in the wheel for overall wellness initiative of the Organisation.