The Truth About Corporate Wellness Programs and Employee Wellbeing

The terms wellness and wellbeing have been buzzing around the world of business for a while now, and for good reason. In 2022, the global workplace wellness market was valued at $53 billion; it’s projected to grow to $78.56 billion by 2031.

The global workplace wellness market is lucrative because happy employees are great for business. According to Gallup, employees who believe their employer is invested in their wellbeing are:

• 69% less likely to look for a new job
• 3x more likely to be engaged
• 5x more likely to recommend their employer as a great place to work

Employees who are feeling their best are also less likely to miss work, meaning employee wellbeing directly impacts absenteeism. Employee health and wellbeing also affects employee productivity, company morale, turnover, and your bottom line.

But what’s the best way to promote employee wellbeing at your organization? In this guide, we’ll dive into the evolving landscape of employee wellness programs and explore wellness initiatives that actually work.

Corporate Wellness Programs: Key Takeaways

Remember your “why.” Employees who are healthy—physically, mentally, and socially—are more likely to be engaged. And that helps your bottom line.

Know that wellness isn’t one-size-fits-all. Your organization depends on the contributions of your entire workforce, whatever their wellness goals. Whether they struggle with mental health, chronic illness, social isolation, or run ultramarathons (or all of the above), it’s crucial to know that psychological and physical differences don’t mean “better” or “worse.” Diversity makes your business better.

Respect your employees’ privacy. It’s impossible to know all of an employee’s strengths and struggles, which is why legislation like HIPAA, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), and Title IX exist to protect employees from discrimination based on their health history, gender, race, and other characteristics. You can encourage everyone to participate, but don’t pry or pressure anyone if they decline.

Help everyone feel included. While it’s certainly possible to run a successful wellness challenge, it’s important to approach the topic with sensitivity, inclusivity, and an open mind. Celebrate the diversity of your workforce, and remember to keep your programming inclusive. Focusing on your “why” (which should be a happy and healthy staff) helps you focus your initiatives on what really matters—your people.

Mental Health in the Workplace

You may be tempted to think employee wellness programming is just a matter of encouraging more physical activity or setting specific, measurable health outcomes—but forgetting about mental health would be a mistake.

According to SHRM, mental-health-related absences increased 300% from 2017–2023, and 33% in 2023 alone. What’s more, our recent compensation trends report revealed mental health was the top reason many employees (35%) left their previous job.

The cost of mental health conditions and their consequences is more than $280 billion annually, with businesses shouldering almost half of that burden. With more than 20% of US adults experiencing mental illness, it’s critical you consider employees’ mental and emotional wellbeing when planning your compensation strategies, retention plans, and employee engagement initiatives.

If you’re thinking about organizing an employee wellness program, make sure it includes a solid focus on mental health and wellbeing.

Do Employee Wellness Programs Work?

In short: it’s debatable.

While some vendors claim wellness programs save companies money, the results aren’t clear, especially for those claiming encouraging workforce weightloss cuts company costs. Plus, poorly constructed wellness programs have often come under fire for allegations of discrimination, such as shifting costs to certain employees and being inaccessible or unaccommodating to employees with disabilities.

How the ACA Made Wellness Programs More Accessible (and Controversial)

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), employers can offer discounts to employees who participate in wellness programs and achieve certain outcomes. Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, this also makes it easier for bias to creep in.

Before the ACA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) prohibited group health plans and health insurers from discriminating based on individuals’ preexisting conditions. This meant everyone paid the same premiums regardless of their health status.

In 2013, the ACA amended HIPAA to allow for premium discounts, rebates, or other rewards for adhering to a wellness and disease prevention protocol. The ACA outlines two kinds of wellness programs:

• Health-contingent: These wellness programs are based on a specific outcome, like quitting smoking.
• Participatory: These wellness programs are not based on outcomes, meaning there’s either no reward, or the reward isn’t tied to achieving a specific outcome. For example, an employee might receive a discount on their monthly health insurance premium for participating in a smoking cessation program, even if they don’t actually quit.

Both health-contingent and participatory wellness programs must meet certain requirements—they can’t be overly burdensome or costly, and there have to be reasonable alternatives for employees who can’t participate due to a health condition.

It’s crucial to make sure your program is compliant with legislation that protects employees from discrimination. The easiest way to do that? Get your employees involved, understand what they want and what their goals are, and make sure everyone is included and reasonable accommodations are available.

Workplace Wellness Initiatives That Actually Work

Wellness isn’t one-size fits all, and what’s “healthy” for one person may be anything but good for another. For example, nuts and seeds are widely recommended as a good source of healthy fats and fiber—but they can be extremely dangerous to those with an anaphylactic nut allergy. The truth is, health and wellness are incredibly complex and individualized.

Successful workplace wellness initiatives engage their employees as whole people. But most importantly, they’re not coercive and they don’t punish employees for not achieving (or participating in) programs with specific health outcomes in mind (especially those that aren’t universally accessible).

Rather than make blanket statements or apply wellness assumptions to your entire workforce, consider holistic definitions of health and wellness. Below, we’ve gathered a few workplace wellness initiatives that actually work.

Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs)

Employee assistance programs (EAPs) are work-based resources that offer free and confidential assessments, short-term counseling, referrals, and follow-up services to employees dealing with a range of personal or job-related concerns. These can include:

• Workplace violence
• Compulsive or regular substance use
• Stress
• Family problems
• Psychological distress

EAPs give meaningful, individualized support to employees. Plus, you don’t have to administer them as they’re typically outsourced. Win-win!

Stress Management and Mindfulness Programs

Workplace stress management and mindfulness programs give employees tools to mitigate stress and improve their quality of life. This can be tackled in-house (through business initiatives like reducing meetings or setting up a focused wellness retreat), or, like an EAP, outsourced to a coaching or training company.

Successful stress management and mindfulness programs will implement some of the following elements:

• Encourage employees to take meaningful breaks and separate work and personal time.
• Facilitate meditation through programming, trainings, or an app.
• Incentivize screen-free time.

Whether you’re in a high-pressure industry, experiencing occupational stress, or simply have a lot going on, everyone is susceptible to workplace stress and burnout. Work-life balance is ideal, but it’s not always achievable, especially when it comes to hybrid or remote work modes where life and work often run together.

Corporate Fitness Programs

Finally, we’ve arrived at the classic corporate fitness approach. But don’t be fooled—this isn’t the problematic employee wellbeing program of yore. To get a corporate fitness program right, you need to focus on empowering your employees to take charge of their wellness journey.

Offering gym membership reimbursement? Sure! But setting weight loss goals for your staff? Yuck. The point here is to offer accessible options and let your employees choose for themselves. A wellness program should help employees feel their best—not stressed.

More Employee Wellness Initiatives

While the ideas above are a great starting point, having a meaningful and positive impact on your employees’ wellbeing means making relevant culture changes that allow them to care for themselves as whole people.

Here are a few more ways businesses can get employee wellbeing right in 2025:

• Offer flexible work modes and schedules.
• Make sure your benefits actually benefit your employees.
• Recognize mental health and burnout as real risks, and address them.
• Customize wellness solutions—one-size-fits-all programs are out; individualized health coaching is in!
• Recognize the reality of today’s work-life integration; without balance, burnout follows.

By prioritizing employees’ input, individual goals and needs, and a holistic understanding of health, you can craft a comprehensive wellness program that honors the diverse needs of your team.