11 Best Employee Wellness Programs Examples
We don’t need to stress the importance of a healthy workforce again. You know it’s crucial to take care of your employees’ wellness. But being aware of something and actually putting that knowledge into practice are two different things. In this article, we will dive into the 11 best employee wellness programs – also called corporate wellness programs – that you can find out there.
It’s easy to list the benefits of a wellness program, but when it comes to getting an effective employee wellness program off the ground there is a lot to think about. It always starts with a plan, an idea of the various components you’d like to integrate into the program, the budget needed and the goals you want to achieve.
It may not be easy to imagine beforehand how exactly all these different pieces will fit together into a wellness program that’s both appealing to employees and effective.
Luckily, there are plenty of great examples out there to help you get inspired. We’ve selected 11 of the best employee wellness programs so you can see what the possibilities are and use the inspiration to get your own program started.
11 Examples of Employee Wellness Programs
1. Tinder
Who? Tinder is the world’s most popular social app for meeting new people. Users get to like or dislike other users and chat if both parties swipe to the right.
Tinder’s Wellness Program
For its employee wellness program Tinder turned to Fitspot, a corporate wellness program provider – or wellness solution revolution as they call it. Elements of the program include on-site weekly workouts on Monday evenings, monthly content to help employees make healthy decisions (in the form of a newsletter, wellness posters, or an audio experience called Tune in Tuesdays). Content topics can be anything from healthy recipes to sleep management and the importance of mindfulness.
Of course, the employees are being asked for their feedback via surveys so that the company’s wellness program can adapt to their needs if and when necessary.
2. Nike
Who? Nike, Inc. is an American multinational involved in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing and sales of footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories, and services.
Nike’s Wellness Program
As is to be expected from a company in the sportswear business, Nike – or at least its world headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon – has an impressive fitness center at the disposal of its employees.
The ‘Bo Jackson Center’ boasts weight rooms, yoga studios, and a cross-training room. On top of an indoor basketball court and a turf field that is. Elsewhere on the 200-acre Nike campus employees get to enjoy an Olympic sized swimming pool and, believe it or not, a rock climbing wall.
3. SpaceX
Who? You know, one of Elon Musk’s companies, the aerospace manufacturing, and space transport services company.
SpaceX’s Wellness Program
Alright, this is not one of the most elaborate employee wellness programs examples because it’s more of a perk than an actual program. It can, however, boost your employee health and wellness considerably which is why we wanted to mention it anyway.
SpaceX employees get to enjoy the benefits of an in-house masseuse. That’s right, a masseuse. A great way to relieve stress, especially given the amounts of pressure they are under and the long working hours.
4. TransferWise
Who? TransferWise is an Estonian developed and UK-based peer-to-peer money transfer service launched in 2011.
TransferWise’s Wellness Program
What better way to blow off some steam after a long, hard day’s work than in a sauna, right? Along the same lines as SpaceX’s masseuse, TransferWise has a built-in office sauna for all of its employees to use.
5. Expedia UK
Who? Expedia is a global travel company.
Expedia UK’s Wellness Program
The people at the UK office of Expedia have come up with an interesting feature for their employee wellness program: their staff gets a so-called Wellness Allowance.
Employees can use an amount between 400 and 1200 GBP to spend on fitness related items. Think of tennis shoes and gym or sports club memberships for instance. The big advantage of such an allowance being the fact that your workforce gets to choose – within a certain ‘wellness-proof’ bandwidth – what they want to do with it.
6. Hotjar
Who? Hotjar gives its clients insights into how visitors are really using their website, collects user feedback and helps visitors turn into customers.
Hotjar’s Wellness Program
Strictly speaking, this may not be one of the typical employee wellness programs examples. In fact, it may be more of an employee perk. However, a work from home (WFH) option is something that could definitely increase your employees’ (mental) health and wellness.
As such, it fits perfectly in today’s post.
Besides, having the right equipment at home – a good-size screen, the right type of chair, etc. – is essential in order to prevent your staff from getting back, neck or other issues.
So in fairness, the fact that Hotjar gives its employees 4000 euros to create their very own home office contributes not only to their mental health and wellness but to their physical state as well.
7. Netflix
Who? Netflix is one of the most popular online TV and film streaming platforms that also creates its own content.
Netflix’s Wellness Program
Employee health and wellness is about more than just their physical health. It’s about employees not having to worry when they’re about to become a new parent, or when they need to take a day off to take care of something that’s going on in their personal lives. Or simply want to go on a well-deserved holiday.
Needless to say that if your staff stresses about asking time off they’re probably not their most happy selves. Which won’t make them their most productive or creative selves either.
Netflix gets this.
Which is why the company offers its employees unlimited time-off for vacation and sick days and why it offers its new moms and dads up to one year paid time off (a rare thing in the US).
8. Zappos
Who? Zappos is a Las Vegas-based online shoe and clothing retailer (famous for its company culture).
Zappos’s Wellness Program
Yes, Zappos has the on-campus fitness center and yes, the company has a weight management program that helps Zapponians (the Zappos employees) about living a healthy lifestyle.
So clearly, employee health and wellness is important at Zappos.
But there’s more.
Do you ever feel like you want to fall asleep just after you’ve had lunch? If you do, Zappos gets you. They’ve got a nap room designed for doing just that: take a quick nap, recharge and return to work.
9. Airbnb
Who? Airbnb is an online marketplace and hospitality service for people to lease or rent short-term lodging including holiday cottages, apartments, homestays and more.
Airbnb’s Wellness Program
At Airbnb, they take employee health and wellness very seriously. They have an entire employee experience team which job it is to ensure the health and happiness of Airbnb employees.
And with success: Airbnb regularly pops up in ‘best and happiest places to work’ lists.
A few things that are really important according to Mark Levy – the company’s former Global Head of Employee Experience – are:
At Airbnb, the offices are truly designed together with the employees. The latter give input on how they want to work (sit vs. stand, desk vs. something else, etc.) and they get to design some of the meeting rooms.
Another thing they do is give everyone – as much as possible anyhow – a longer break at the end of the year.
In order to proactively address stress and burnout casualties, the company tries out concepts like no-meeting Wednesdays and offers things like Headspace and yoga.
10. Fitbit
Who? Fitbit produces activity trackers, wireless-enabled wearable technology that measures a person’s steps, heart rate, sleep patterns and more.
Fitbit’s Wellness Program
For many companies, employee wellness and wearables go hand in hand. This is probably one of the reasons why Fitbit became the next big thing in the land of corporate wellness in the first place.
But how do they do employee wellness at Fitbit?
Well, they use their own tracker (obviously).
The most active staff members – or should we say steppers? – receive rewards which is meant to get the less active employees moving. The basic idea is to cut down on sick days, illness and fatigue through small, fun contests and fun rewards. With or without a wristband, we’d like to add.
11. SMEs
Who? Small and medium-sized companies, the ones that often don’t have the budget for expensive napping pods or on-site fitness centers.
An SME’s Wellness Programs
The best employee wellness programs don’t necessarily have to be expensive. Small and medium-sized companies can still make sure their employees stay healthy.
How?
By introducing Fibre Fridays for example, like they did at the Ontario based company Williamson Group. Once a week, the executives paid for a big tray of fruit and vegetables for its employees.
Or by starting a weekly office running session. During the lunch break perhaps, or after work. And those who don’t like to run could simply go for a (fast-paced) walk.
Got Inspired?
Well, there you have it, 11 of the best employee wellness programs examples. The two most important things to take away from this article though are to be creative when it comes to employee health and wellness – you don’t need a big budget to make an impact – and to communicate with your workforce; what do they want and need to be their most happy, healthy selves?
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