Success Secrets and Stories
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Success Secrets and Stories
The Power of Wellness Programs for Enhanced Productivity and Retention
Explore the transformative power of employee wellness programs with Greg Powell and me, as we uncover why 83% of employees are ready to leave workplaces that neglect their well-being. Discover the key to unlocking superior productivity and retention by harnessing holistic wellness initiatives that address mental, physical, and emotional health. Drawing on Livia Martini's from Wellhub compelling insights, we examine how the corporate landscape is evolving in response to stress, inflation, and AI-related anxieties. Greg provides invaluable HR perspectives on bridging the gap between C-suite executives and employee mental health priorities, highlighting leadership's crucial role in fostering supportive environments.
Smaller organizations aren't left behind—we tackle the unique hurdles they face in offering comprehensive wellness programs. With the post-COVID-19 shift in workplace expectations, learn how smaller companies can enhance employee engagement through creative use of community resources. We delve into the generational shifts reshaping workplace norms and the vital importance of well-communicated benefits. Finally, we wrap up with strategies for maximizing leadership potential, inspired by my book "Building Your Leadership Toolbox," and invite listeners to engage with our community for continued growth. Join us in navigating the challenges and opportunities in building a thriving workplace centered around employee wellness.
Presented by John Wandolowski and Greg Powell
Welcome everyone to our podcast on success secrets and stories. I'm your host, john Wanoloski, and I'm here with my co-host and friend, greg Powell. Greg, hey everybody, yeah, so today we're going to talk about in this podcast exploring wellness programs, and people have to understand that wellness programs is really a competitive advantage and it's a real tool in terms of retaining top talent. The companies see that you're engaged and this is one of the things that really makes a difference on whether your organization is strictly dealing with the numbers or if you're looking at the people. And I really wanted to try to take advantage of talking about this as a specific subject on how you really can move the needle. These are programs that people aren't giving a lot of thought to, but the progressive companies, the companies that are really succeeding, understand that this is part of engagement. This is engagement from the company side and trying to help the individual and if it's done right, it's dynamic.
Speaker 2:So I found this interesting article. It is from WellHub and it's by Livia Martinen and it's from November 15th of 2024. And Livia talked about the workforce has a new top priority, why well-being is key for the bottom line. She goes on to say in recent HR kind of leadership notices, the competition for top talent is not subsiding and the figures are smashing expectations, showing robust growth in the economy. Smashing expectations, showing robust growth in the economy. But now the company has new studies showing that it is critical in things in terms of the organization and if it wants to compete and excel, it has to build wellness programs to deliver real results. The other example she gives is the state of work-life wellness in 2025. And in that study it is packed with new findings that make it very clear it shows that today's workforce is seeking comprehensive suites of solutions that address their needs and their aspirations.
Speaker 2:However, many organizations are not doing well as they think.
Speaker 2:Inflation, stress and the fears of what AI is going to do to any of our working environments are affecting the employees and, clearly, their wellness.
Speaker 2:To understand what makes a wellness program successful in driving productivity, attracting new employees, retaining existing employees, is satisfaction. To understand how those things affect the workforce is really the key. She works for a company called WellHub and they survey over 5,000 full-time employees with a range of different industries in North and South America and even Europe. The Wellness Hub people have discovered that work stress has become the leading cause of decreased mental wellness, while inflation and worries about being replaced by AI may be getting to the attention of the public sphere. For today's employees, the stress of the daily grind has risen to the top, and the younger they are, the more likely to say that, suggesting that this problem will only grow with members from the Gen Z. As they're starting to enter the workforce, that baggage kind of follows them along. So from a perspective of understanding these kind of effects, greg, with your HR experience, maybe you can expand a little bit about the next part in the article.
Speaker 1:Thanks, john. So I think about the C-suite right, the top of the house, the famous CEO, cfo, chief marketing officer, whatever. Oftentimes they seem to be out of touch with mental health issues and needs, and you might think, well, how can that be? They run these companies. How can they be out of tune? Well, they don't really realize what's going on inside their inner ranks. And you have to piece through some research to find that 94% of CEOs believe their organizations are doing enough to support mental health in the workplace and only two thirds of workers agree. Now there's a little bit of a disconnect there. We're going to talk a little bit more about why that happens.
Speaker 1:But poor employee physical health is a real issue. Employees aren't exactly thriving in terms of physical health either. So about 54%, about half, consider themselves to be in good shape. That's a self-diagnosis there. And even fewer say they're eating well. And all these problems can exacerbate each other, creating a negative well-being cycle how you feel about yourself Trying to get through each day. People being trapped in a routine is probably poor of habits and it's really hurting their health. But guess what? There is some good news. Some organizations are taking on wellness programs that work and they're seeing excellent results. And in companies like these, programs are much more likely to save that employee and have that employee stay engaged and with the organization.
Speaker 1:Let's talk a little bit about holistic wellness. Right, holistic wellness is key. A crucial part of the solution is to understand that your team members may have different ideas about what constitutes a wellbeing program. Right, there's some folklore out there. There's some rumors, some bad information out there. Some employers believe that having health insurance and access to mental health resources is probably all you need. But guess what? Today's employees have a deeper, more nuanced vision of what wellness really is. They see the whole personal being involved. They feel engagement, but they also feel enjoyment, they feel pressure, they feel growth I mean, they got the family issues, education. What's the success? So much going on for individuals to think about today. And the more an organization does to provide a wide variety of resources to help their team members, the better they're going to be as far as being able to overcome these issues.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about return on investment in wellness. Yes, this is not just a pie in the sky fun thing to do. There is actually return on investment in providing wellness programs. This also makes employees more likely to choose to work for an organization as far as that attraction piece, and in a study that was shown, 83% of employees said they'd consider leaving their current employee if they didn't take a stronger focus on well-being. Right now, more than half say their employees are kind of failing, they're falling short, meaning the majority are ready to pick up and go somewhere else. That they think is handling wellness the way it should be.
Speaker 1:It's one of the reasons why companies have found out when they enact these programs that the track of investment stays very positive. So we have a CEO, cesar Carvalho. He explained in Fortune that more than half, 56%. So they get returns of more than 100%, meaning they're getting at least double their investment. So two for one, you can't beat this. You put $100 into wellness, you get $200 return. That's pretty good, right. And in looking at a map to strategize the wellness opportunity, hr teams should face this unavoidable truth Helping the workforce reduces stress, improves overall wellness. It's essential. Wellbeing is no longer a perk, it's a must have and, as people leaders have said in the past, you can do so much transformation with a good wellness program.
Speaker 2:John you can do so much transformation with a good wellness program. John, and you know that this article kind of like really resonated with me in terms of how retention is really the key. And I found an older article and it's from 2010 and was done by stephen miller and he's a online manager and editor at SHRM Magazine and he did this article in January of 2010. But it was so much on the point that I think the heading is probably the most important Wellness programs as an employee retention tool. Employees say that they work harder and perform better and miss fewer days at work. Now, in light of the article that Livia had done and what Stephen is talking about, it's a commonality that employee retention is the key. Retention is the key and finding organizations and like insurance policy programs and ways of trying to bring in wellness whether it be mental health, physical health If you're showing that you're actually doing the effort and you have those things on your list. It's interesting when new employees are looking at coming for a company. They're asking those kind of questions. You can tell them that it's the healthcare organization or you can actually talk about the benefits and give a little bit more context to it and how that drives a new employee and how that also affects an existing employee is just as dramatic. What was important is wellness programs are clearly a win-win opportunity, especially in the times where not only the employer, it's the employees that are both looking at budgets. The employer is looking for retaining people, energizing people and reducing the number of sick days. The employee is looking for a better health and work life.
Speaker 2:Some of the things that are interesting is when you look at how the survey is actually applied. 47% of the workers actually participate and that's one of the challenges of getting people to actually go and use these programs. But when you see those people who are actually putting the time and the effort and using the programs, they're reducing health care costs by 30%. Their chances of living longer increase 30%, 40% and there's incentives that sometimes the health care companies are doing or the company itself is doing in terms of incentive to look at some of these programs, especially when you have a lot of people that are having issues and maybe you can affect that end result that they're too stationary and they're in the office all the time. They have to get out, they have to be active, they have to get some steps in that part of participating it and enticing people to get with those programs is really the key.
Speaker 2:But I think the other article and this article both talks about stress and if the wellness programs are working, you are doing probably one of the best effects of trying to reduce stress. You're introducing healthy eating, healthy exercise that the whole kind of mindset changes. Instead of being that victim of dealing with the stress, you have a little bit of control that you can actually manage. And what's interesting is that workers consider fitness programs or wellness programs as one of the most important things they're picking out of today's shopping market no longer part of what you would want to pay money for because, like anything else, as time has gone on, there's more participation from the employee that used to be covered by the company. You have to be careful in what you're picking and what's important. Sometimes these wellness programs are offered at no cost to the employee to encourage participation. I think the interesting element of it is health care selection, greg. Maybe you can talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 1:Thanks, john. So there are definitely worries about changing health plans, and that's employees as well as employers, and as workers seek ways to improve their health, they're concerned about potential changes in their current programs. Let's be honest here. It's still a business. Companies are trying to minimize their costs, insurance companies are trying to maximize their profits. Somewhere in the middle there's an employee saying, hey, I need health care, I need wellness programs, what can you do for me? And so the worries are legitimate. But I think there's a lot more effort in trying to get a good balance so that employers can find quality wellness programs. Employees can participate in them.
Speaker 1:So let's talk again about the return on investment. I think we can quantify that a little bit. There have been some rigorous studies conducted that indicate a very positive return on employee-sponsored wellness programs. Right, that's good, that's a good thing, and this is a report that's still dated February 2010,. But I think it still holds up today.
Speaker 1:The evidence suggests that large employers adopting wellness programs see substantial positive returns even within the first few years of adoption. So it doesn't take five years or 10 years to show a return. It's fairly quickly, and there's some dollars that we can share with you. Medical costs fell about $3.27 for every dollar spent on wellness programs and absentee day costs fell about just under $3 for every dollar spent and, among other findings and Citibank in particular reported an estimate of saving $4.50 in medical expenditures per dollar spent on the program. Again, that ratio of what you spend and what you get back is very positive as far as return on investment and, aside from savings on healthcare, wellness programs are more likely to see lower replacement costs for absent workers as well. So we're still talking a win-win you invest the money on wellness, you get it back multiple folds, john.
Speaker 2:So Greg and I have both worked for different organizations and I've been asked to work with smaller organizations and trying to help in terms of consulting for equipment or facility issues and what's really, I don't know, disappointing or not surprising. Smaller organizations don't have an HR department and sometimes there's nothing more than a benefit day where different vendors come in, they set up a table and they have a shopping cart kind of mentality of what do you offer? And I can tell you right now that those conversations and those times are like gold in terms of the employees. They have to have the time they're talking to their spouses on the phone on what can we do? What can we afford, what do we need? What does your benefit cover versus what they're talking about? And how does that benefit work?
Speaker 2:If your organization's small and you're only trying to get this fit into where I saw it done during only lunchtime and he couldn't talk to them any longer than the hour period of time. That's all they were allowed to talk to him, you're not really doing your employees any service. You're just not. Let's take another example You're working for a smaller organization and maybe they have an HR department, but when you're asking for services that aren't in a normal package, that aren't directly related to an office visit or to a hospital. What if you're asking for mental health or child care or something else that's not on the standard program? You have to be able to understand it.
Speaker 2:Your job as a leader is to step up and ask what does the insurance company also offer? Can I talk to them? Can you talk to them from the HR side of it? What can we do to expand and help these people? And then there's the other side of it. If you're in leadership and you're getting roadblocks and maybe you know, greg, you can talk about this you help them understand that there might be resources in churches or communities. Why don't you expand a little bit about?
Speaker 1:that are supporting your organization, but most of our organizations that have, whether plants or offices, are in communities, and communities offer different programs churches, as John had mentioned, maybe schools but just do a little detective work to see what might be out there that you can participate in and have your employees participate in as well. Years ago and I'm probably being kind here the wellness topic was never discussed. It just wasn't. And then something happened. It's called COVID and it shined a light on mental wellness and physical wellness and the need for improved and well-communicated benefits. To address specific benefits, Not your medical, dental, life insurance, but things much more important, much more pertinent, and the topic and opportunity just couldn't be ignored any longer, as employees actually spoke up. That's what they were looking for. They spoke up with their voice as well as with their desire to stay or leave the organization. Mental wellness became a real issue for folks during COVID, for all members of the family, Whether you had one working spouse or two, and the issues that came up with working inside the home or outside, kids going to school or not being in a classroom, and how they were feeling about things and trying to be socially still connected. Physical wellness has become an expectation by both employees and employers. Because you spend so much time in the office, right, you spend a lot of your energy and effort. So if you want to be in your tip-top shape, probably makes sense to see if they've got a fitness center. You want to work out? Do it there, right. Make it convenient for the employee. Have it there. Offer classes my last employer Pilates classes bootcamp after work offered right there for convenience for folks, right on site. Again, you would be surprised how often they were used, how often people participated and they look forward to it. They gave us a challenge to do more.
Speaker 1:But one of the biggest things regarding wellness and it's alluded to this a minute ago is the demographics in the workplace. So John and I come from a group that you might've heard of called the baby boomers, and when we were coming up, we were pervasive in the workplace. Right, it was a lot of baby boomers, no-transcript. Hey, in addition to this, bonus programs and that, what other kind of benefits do you have that aren't just your classic benefits? What other wellness kind of programs mental and physical wellness programs do you offer? And so my last organization. We got a lot of experience with it.
Speaker 1:It was interesting to me, especially during COVID, that how employees really spoke up and participate. So we had some programs right in place. We had more programs. We started doing more communication John kind of mentioned lunchtime seminars but we got out in front of folks and got people to be connected employees connected to what we had to offer and it was great. It was fantastic. And even the folks that didn't participate got people to be connected employees connected to what we had to offer and it was great. It was fantastic. And even the folks that didn't participate were happy to be working for companies that offered it. So this is who is in place today. It's not the 60, 70-year-old person that's your CEO or CFO anymore. They're probably more like 30 or 40 years old and they have a different take. We, John and I, had to do these things. We had to tough it out and work when you're sick and not even say the word mental illness. Those days are thankfully, long gone, John.
Speaker 2:So we spent time trying to give you some perspectives of how important wellness programs are, but we alluded to probably the one reason why it is paramount in 2024. Covid changed the game and it has affected generations and it's going to take a long time to try to counter that. And we have to be prepared for the next COVID, because it's going to happen. And having the mentality and the understanding of what we've learned through this experience and how do we gain and get ahead of it for the next experience is really the essence of being engaged in wellness. So this is really a key component of leadership. It's sometimes and often isn't in your direct responsibility, but that does not give you an excuse to say that it's somebody else's fault. If it's an important element within your organization and you're in leadership, you need to bring it up because that voice is necessary.
Speaker 2:So that kind of capstones, everything you're trying to get across for this podcast, if you like what you've heard, yeah, my book, building your leadership toolbox is available on amazon. My podcast, our podcast is available on apple and google and spot, spotify and a lot of other formats like the one you're listening to. Dr Durst is booked in his MBR program, which is the basis of our program, is available on successgrowthacademycom, and if you'd like to get a hold of us, our website is wwwauthorjawcom, and the music is brought to you by my grandson. So we want to hear from you. Drop us a line, tell us what you think, how we can make this program better for you and maybe address issues that you think need to be discussed. Thanks Greg, thanks John.
Speaker 1:As always, next time.