Corporate wellness programs aren't just good for employees – they're good for their employers, too. According to recent studies, health initiatives can greatly improve a worksite's productivity and time management.
- 35% of employees said they missed fewer workdays thanks to the wellness program offered by their workplace. Only 25% of workers said that they disagreed that their wellness program led to fewer missed days.
- 52% of respondents to the study said that participating in workplace health programs made them more productive and energetic at work. Only 12% said they felt that workplace health initiatives did not improve overall energy and productivity at their worksite.
- 55% of employees felt that wellness activities offered by their employer improved their overall health, and decreased their risk of sickness and other health issues.
Devoting resources to employees’ physical health isn't the only way businesses are improving productivity, either. Wellness programs designed to help employees cope with depression and mental health issues have also been shown to have a positive impact. An article by the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine reported the following results from a 16 month study tracking the progress of employees with depression who took part in a Workplace Health Initiative (WHI), which allowed them to call a hotline and make one-hour therapy appointments every two weeks:
- Employees who took part in the WHI reported that their ability to create original material improved by 10.9%.
- The same group of employees reported their ability to interact with others improved by 11.8%.
- The employees with depression reported that their time management skills were impaired 44.9% of the time before being given access to the WHI, and fell to only 26.8% of the time, after the program started, and improvement of 18.1%.
- The same study tracked employees with depression who managed their own care, who reported no serious improvements in any of the above categories.
