Virgin HealthMiles Survey Examines Cultures of Wellness in the Workplace

 Virgin HealthMiles’ newest survey of nearly 1,300 businesses has found a crucial connection between the effectiveness of an organization’s cultural wellness and the wellness of its employees. A healthy workforce helps ensure increased morale, job satisfaction, and a general commitment to performing at top levels. The survey found that while 87 percent of employees think that employer-sponsored health and wellness programs play an important role in choosing an employer, employers continue to struggle when it comes to communicating and measuring the effectiveness of these programs.

Of all survey respondents, 80 percent of participating businesses offer health and wellness benefits and 47 percent of these groups extend benefits to spouses; a quickly growing trend to extend corporate wellness culture. Encouragingly, 77 percent of employees have positive feelings about this trend and feel that such efforts have a beneficial impact on workplace culture.

“Creating a culture-first mentality is a critical step for employers when it comes to building a highly engaged workforce,” Chris Boyce, CEO of Virgin HealthMiles, said. “The trends outlined within this survey mirror what we’re seeing in the market: employees become much more motivated and productive when they know that their employer cares about their total quality of life, which goes beyond traditional wellness and includes physical, emotional, financial and social health.”

Other key survey findings include:

• 61 percent of wellness plan participants say that incentives play a key role in deciding to participate. The most commonly offered programs are: physical activity programs (58 percent), smoking cessation (50 percent), weight management (49 percent), and health risk assessments (47 percent).

• Just over half of employees reported having a good understanding of participation requirements in wellness plans offered by their employers. The most heavily relied upon communications method was email (82 percent), but 26 percent of organizations now use a direct communication model.

• More than half (67%) of employers are exploring ways to directly relate wellness programs to bottom-line benefits.