Workplace wellness programs are big business, but they may not be as effective as employers hope

Workplace wellness has become a buzzy term in the last few years, and many companies have responded by beefing up what they offer their employees in this regard ― covering mental health therapies in benefits packages, setting up wellness spending accounts and bringing more services in-house. But are they working?

The evidence is pretty mixed. Some data has shown that wellness programs do succeed in improving employee health and lowering workplace healthcare costs. In one randomized example, where researchers randomly assigned staff members at a BJ’s Wholesale Club to a wellness program, the results were mixed.

“The only changes related to wellness programs involved workers’ paying somewhat more attention to staying in shape,” the researchers found.  “Health-care costs, underlying health measures and job-performance-related data were indistinguishable.”

“I am personally not convinced that lunchtime yoga and mason jars of trail mix are the antidote to our global epidemic of workplace stress and burnout,” writes Charlotte Lieberman. “I know from both sides that it’s easier for companies to promote sexy office perks, like happy hours and kombucha on tap, than the byzantine and bureaucratic world of behavioral healthcare.”

The problem, say some, is that they are often constructed as one-size-fits-all programs. They are often not very diverse, too, argue some.

Natasha Singh and Chantaie Allick formed the Toronto-based company Re-Work in 2022 to address this, offering what they say are more inclusive ― and impactful ― approaches to wellness programs. Implied in their approach is that more flexible, personally specific wellness approaches will be better able to achieve what many of the corporate-type programs nobly aspire to, but sometimes fall short of achieving.

“Culturally, we normalize and valorize burnout and stress and overwork, and my experience of those corporate wellness initiatives and offerings [is that they are] there to make it easier for you to work harder,” Allick told the Globe and Mail. “We’re trying to shift culture and the way people think about work and [their] relationship to work.”

A more holistic approach, focusing on wellness not as a discrete category for individuals but as a larger business fundamental, might pay dividends.

“A lot of folks will say, ‘My intention is never to make people feel uncomfortable. I’m trying to be a good employer,’ but they need to understand, from the bare minimum first, before they address that bigger problem,” said HR executive Faith Tull. “That’s where we need to spend time educating. ‘If you invest in this, the results will be less absenteeism…when you start talking the language, they’re going to hear you.”

Content written by Kieran Delamont for Worklife, a partnership between Ahria Consulting and London Inc. To view this content in newsletter form, click here.