10 Common Myths in Corporate Wellness Programs in Bangalore
Key Takeaways
- Your wellness programs can be scaled to fit your budget.
- The holistic wellness programs include mental and financial health benefits along with the physical health perks.
- The actual ROI on your wellness programs comes in the form of increased employee retention rate, team productivity, and reduced absenteeism of employees.
- Insurance pays for sickness; wellness programs prevent it. You need both.
If you’re a CHRO or a business owner in Bangalore, you must have faced this scenario at least once (or maybe more than once). You’re seeing early warning signs of chaos, which could be in terms of high attrition rates or a series of conflicts in a particular team or different departments. At this time you realize we need to start using our wellness benefits before we hit a crisis.
To your surprise, you find out despite having a good corporate wellness program, it’s never been used. Or worse, the company had decided to not invest in it in the first place. It usually happens due to the lack of clarity on the corporate wellness programs. So, let’s understand the different myths that have become common in this field.
Myth 1: Wellness Programs Are Too Expensive for SMEs
This is one of the most common myths. If you’re looking at the elaborate gyms and cafeterias of MNCs and assuming that’s how you do wellness, it needs to be changed. In reality, most wellness programs are flexible and you can choose your perks according to your employees.
Myth 2: It’s Only About Physical Health and Gym Memberships
Physical health is just one part of it. Holistic wellness programs cover almost everything: financial stress, mental well-being, and social connectivity.
Myth 3: There Is No Real Return on Investment (ROI)
Employee wellness ROI is not particularly seen in the cash flow, but the increased retention rate of employees, their productivity, lower turnover times for projects, and their overall well-being.
Myth 4: Employees Won’t Use the Services Anyway
Low participation of employees is usually a symptom of poor communication or irrelevant offerings, not a lack of interest. Next time, when you schedule a wellness workshop, make sure to confirm the availability of your employees and their opinions about the liking of the activities.
Myth 5: Wellness Is Only for Tech Giants
In reality, SMEs need corporate wellness programs more than the tech giants like Google or Infosys. That’s because when you have a small team, the impact of one person being out sick or burning out is actually way more than when you have 9 different people for the same designation.
Myth 6: Health Insurance Covers Everything We Need
Health insurance is actually often reactive. It pays for treatment after someone gets sick. Wellness programs are proactive; they’re here to prevent people from getting sick in the first place. So, no. Your group health insurance might not be covering the wellness benefits.
Myth 7: It Takes Too Much Time Away from Work
Well, it might seem like that. But if your present employees are functioning at a low capacity due to stress, it’s far bigger productivity killer than your employees working with deep focus and getting things done with quality. All because they go for a 30-minute wellness session break on a weekly basis.
Myth 8: One Size Fits All
If you have a diversity of staff with a 22-year-old person working as an intern to a 55-year-old person as the director, you need specification in your wellness programs. It’s simple. A fresh graduate might be having financial stress, while a senior manager may have health concerns.
Myth 9: It’s Just a Short-Term Fix
Not really. Health is a habit, not an event. A one-off health camp might help identify a problem your employees might be facing, but it won’t fix it. For an actual ROI on your employee wellness program, you’d need a long-term commitment with continuous engagement, regular check-ins, and a culture that supports healthy choices year-round.
Myth 10: You Need a Huge HR Team to Run It
You can actually delegate this part without hiring a whole bunch of new HRs. Specialized wellness consultants or brokers can actually handle all the heavy lifting of vendor management, program design, and engagement tracking for you.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
1. How do we measure the success of a Corporate Wellness Program?
It depends on your goals. Generally, it includes participation rates, employee satisfaction surveys, reductions in absenteeism, and more.
2. Are wellness programs tax-deductible in India?
Different wellness programs come with different policies. It’s best to consult with your wellness program or tax advisor about this before proceeding.
3. How can we improve wellness participation rates?
Through good communication.