Here are the top wellness trends to add to your wellness plan this year.
Are you struggling to decide what to invest in your wellness program? Should you offer flexible working options? What about parental support? And what about help with finances?
This article highlights the current workplace wellness trends in 2024 to help you best invest your time, effort, and money to create a happy, healthy, and productive workforce.
In this article, we cover:
The importance of work-life balance
How parental leave improves autonomy and builds trust
Why you should increase support for mental health
How technology-driven wellness programs improve program delivery
Why personalized wellness programs work best
Corporate Wellness Trends
There’s a lot going on in the world of workplace wellness, and it’s more challenging than ever to hand-pick a wellness program. Knowing what to focus on and investing your wellness dollars correctly can help you create a productive, happy, and healthy workforce.
Here are seven workplace wellness trends to look out for in 2024.
1. Improved work-life balance
Your employees want more flexibility at work, and most yearn for better work-life balance. Providing increased autonomy fosters a culture of trust at work. And while you don’t need to attend their kids’ birthday parties, understanding that employees have a life outside of work goes a long way—as simple as that sounds.
Your employees are people with families, medical and health appointments, worries, and other responsibilities. So be human!
You can introduce flexible working options to support parents, dental and medical appointments, childcare, or other last-minute scheduling, which otherwise would be difficult given the typical 9-5 working hours.
2. Invest in parental wellness
The average maternity leave in the United States is four weeks, while upwards of 6 months of paid leave is recommended for new mothers.
Meanwhile, employers who support new parents can save as much as 400% of a talented employee’s salary to replace them, as found by My Bump Pay. Investing in new parents can boost loyalty and retention at work.
Investing in parental wellness is not just about providing updated leave, either. You should also make suitable arrangements to allow for flexible working, sick days, and more.
Support working parents, and they’ll sing your praises and support you, too!
3. Increased mental health support
Back in 2022, 40% of US employees said their job negatively impacted their mental health, as stated in an article.
Yet, work has the potential to improve mental health. For many people, it can reduce loneliness, encourage creativity, and forge new friendships.
In the last few years, mental health has stolen the spotlight—and that shouldn’t change. It’s also the reason we’ve added mental health to our wellness trends list.
Here’s how you can support mental health at work:
Upskill managers and leaders to recognize signs of poor mental health
Provide mental health training and education
Make mental health days as valid as sick days
Provide employees with mental health apps
4. Technology-driven wellness programs
Most wellness programs leverage technology to improve the wellbeing experience and delivery.
For example, our clients use the FitPros app and get access to over 500+ wellbeing sessions annually, including everything from yoga and meditation for stress relief to strength and conditioning and health talks.
Your employees can tune in wherever they are, whether sitting at their desk in your office, at home watching their kids, or on a beach in the tropics.
Furthermore, employees can also join workplace challenges in the app, competing with co-workers to see who can achieve the most movement in a month or attend a minimum number of fitness or yoga sessions, for example.
We use technology to host leaderboards, improve accessibility so more people can take part, and make wellness more fun.
Technology-driven wellness programs are becoming even more popular, thanks to the rise of artificial intelligence and the increasing need for a remote and hybrid workforce.
5. Telemedicine
Telemedicine is on the rise, increasing healthcare accessibility for tomorrow's busy workforce.
For readers unaware, telemedicine is where you talk to a healthcare professional over the phone, text, or video. It allows for long-distance patient and clinician contact during and outside of standard work hours and is more flexible than traditional doctor appointments.
Benefits of telemedicine include:
More flexible scheduling
You can access medical specialists regardless of your location
It eliminates travel and time away from work
You don’t have to visit a doctor’s office when sick
You can more easily get the help you need
Although you may still be required to attend in-person appointments, the introduction of telemedicine is helping people save time and access better care than before.
6. Financial support and education
Employees are worrying about their finances, and it’s impacting their work. According to a Global Talent Trends 2024 report by Mercer, 6 hours of work time per month are spent worrying. It’s currently the leading cause of burnout in the workplace.
To help support employees during this stressful time and alleviate their concerns. Companies that provide their employees with market-competitive pay help reduce stress and regain lost productivity.
You can also provide financial education and educational talks to help your employees better understand their finances.
7. A personalized approach to wellbeing
More companies than ever before are introducing wellness programs for their employees. And that’s great!
But often, their wellness program adopts a cookie-cutter approach—they copy and paste a program designed for another organization and expect the same results. Although, this is not how it works!
For the best results, including increased program participation and better results, such as improved health, productivity, and happiness at work, you need to personalize your programs.
This means giving your employees what they want and need in a wellness program, not what another company wants.
If you don’t know how to provide a personalized approach, we recommend providing surveys and asking employees what they want in their wellness program to get started.
Are you building a workplace wellness program but don’t know how to get started? Talk to us today, and we can help you build a program that your employees value and help you get a return on your investment.
Key takeaways:
Investing in the right wellness trends increases the ROI of your wellness program
Improved work-life balance is a must for many employees
Parental wellness remains a hot topic
Telemedicine and mental health support should be a priority
Personalized wellness programs are a must for the best results
FAQs
How can workplaces support mental health?
Workplaces can support mental health by upskilling upper management to recognize signs of poor mental health and increasing overall mental health education. An open-door policy can also be introduced.
How to improve employee wellbeing at work?
Host employee wellness challenges, provide flexible working options, improve financial support and education, and provide a better work-life balance to improve wellbeing at work.
What is a wellbeing strategy?
A wellbeing strategy is a plan that aims to improve employee health and wellbeing. Example tasks in a strategy may include setting up workplace challenges, encouraging daily movement and nutritious lunch options, and providing flexible work arrangements.
Looking for more? Contact a Wellbeing Manager to discuss your organizational wellbeing needs.
We provide workplace teams with mindful practices, personal and professional wellbeing growth, fitness instruction, and opportunities for social connection. We aim to inspire the highest potential in people at work, in life, every day, so they can show up healthy and at their best.
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