Wellness Programs: An Investment and Commitment to Well-Being
Wellness programs - What are they exactly? A wellness program aims to be a strategic initiative to improve the overall health and well-being of employees. Their design is to boost company culture, promote engagement and provide additional benefits to employees through education, resources, and potential for reduced healthcare costs by preventing or managing chronic conditions.
When most people think about a workplace wellness program, the first things that jump to mind are walking challenges, weight loss challenges and water tracking. While these are perfectly fine focuses to have when considering wellness, balancing a primary focus on just one wellness aspect like physical health can stunt the growth and engagement in these programs. Every employee will have different priorities for their health, which can stem from generational differences, personal health history or just being passionate about matters such as community projects or mental health.
The question comes to mind then, why are wellness programs even that important? Doctors are already promoting healthy lifestyles, why does the workplace need to promote the same message? A wellness program in the workplace offers an opportunity for companies to show their commitment to their employees’ health and well-being, plus promoting employee engagement and boosting the company culture to be as supportive as possible.
At Centre, we take pride in promoting our core values: Integrity, Compassion, Safety and Security and Empowerment; with these core values in mind, we have developed a Wellness Program with four Pillars of Wellness: Physical, Mental, Financial and Social/Community that will have monthly rotating themes that will hopefully provide a new resource for all our employees to learn more about how they can prioritize their well-being every day.
Each month we will share tips and strategies through our Wellness Weekly posts on our company Intranet. Every computer will automatically open to our Intranet when you open your browser, and we encourage all employees to take the time to read through these weekly posts to learn about what’s happening with the Wellness Program and what activities and engagement are available during that month. As always, we greatly value any feedback, especially for new programs such as our Wellness Program. You can find the feedback form linked in each Wellness Weekly post moving forward.
Ambrose Zavislak
HR Specialist