Employers’ wellness programs aren’t working well.
The pandemic spotlighted employers’ need to pay more attention to workers’ mental, emotional, financial, and social well-being. Many implemented programs to help employees manage their mental and physical health, time, and money. But, studies show the programs fall far short of employees’ needs and expectations.
Only 24% of workers strongly agree that their employer cares about their overall well-being, Gallup said in a study released earlier this month. That’s down from 49% in May of 2020. Gallup identified five pillars of well-being: career, social, physical, financial, and community. At most, 15% of employees strongly believed their employer supported any one element.
Meanwhile, 41% of employees are dissatisfied with their employers’ well-being initiatives, while another 33% are indifferent, a WTW survey released in September found. Only a quarter of respondents would recommend their employer’s well-being initiatives and resources to friends and family. The study also revealed a significant disconnect between what programs employers plan to focus on over the next three years and what workers want. For example, 59% of employees want a focus on financial well-being, though only 22% of employers cite that as a priority.
Ben Wigert, director of research and strategy at Gallup, said that as employers promised to improve their well-being initiatives, workers’ expectations rose, so “superficial investments in well-being by your employer aren’t cutting it now.” He added, “It’s actually frustrating employees even more right now. It’s starting to erode trust, because you’re saying that you’re going to work on their biggest issue, but you’re doing it in a very superficial way, or at least you’re doing it in a way that’s not in tune with what your employees need.”
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Wigert added that some of employees’ desires—such as better work-life balance, a meaningful job, and flexibility—can’t be satisfied by a wellness initiative and would require more fundamental changes in how work is done. “A lot of it comes down to how [employees] experience work and how they are managed on a daily basis,” Wigert said.
That doesn’t mean that employers shouldn’t offer such programs, Wigert said. However, he thinks employers can better select their initiatives and communicate about them more thoughtfully.
That’s not always easy, said Regina Ihrke, a managing director at WTW. She says the cost of programs has increased, preventing employers from adding new initiatives. “As an employer, you’re trying to solve for all of these different needs and voices. You have so much budget… I think that’s why we always see a large percentage that will say, “Well, that’s not really what I'm looking for,” Ihrke said.
Ihrke agreed that benefits communication needs to improve. “I think most employees, a large majority of employees, have no idea that there are well-being programs out there,” Ihrke said. However, she said some employers highlight their programs during onboarding and then remind employees about them throughout the year. For example, she said it would make sense to remind an employee about financial wellness benefits when they get a raise.
There is some good news about wellness benefits: An Employee Benefit Research Institute report found that 60% of workers rated their employers’ efforts to improve their financial well-being as anywhere from excellent to good. Nearly 70% gave the same rating to employers’ efforts on physical health, while 64% gave that rating to initiatives on emotional well-being and mental health.