Whether employees consider their companies to be genuinely caring about their wellness is key to boosting worker health and productivity, according to new research from the Global Wellness Institute (GWI).

At an event yesterday in Manhattan, New York, the GWI released two new pieces of research on the global wellness industry, which is estimated to be worth US$3.4tn (€3.1tn, £2.4tn).

The first, The Future of Wellness at Work, looks at unwellness in the global workforce and forecasts how work and workplace wellness concepts will change dramatically in the future.

The paper explores the challenges of improving worker health when 52 per cent of the world’s 3.4bn workers are overweight/obese and only 9 per cent have access to some form of wellness programme at work. The report estimates that the cost of unwell workers represents 10-15 per cent of global economic output.

It posits that workplaces of the future will primarily require qualities not replicable by machines (collaboration, creativity, empathy, constant learning, etc.) – qualities demand the highest level of mental and physical wellness – and explores how companies can work to foster greater engagement with workplace wellness schemes.

The second research paper, Unlocking the Power of Company Caring, gauges how employees feel about many aspects of their work culture and wellness programmes. The paper concludes that the pivotal factor in the success of workplace wellness initiatives is whether an employee identifies their company as “caring about their health/wellness” – when they did, their overall health, stress levels and job engagement improved significantly.

The report goes on to analyse what constitutes “company caring” and how this differs among employees from the Millennial, Gen X and Baby Boomer generations.

“The findings surprised us: we saw significant, diverse and positive implications when a company is perceived to “care” about an employee’s personal wellness, and extremely negative outcomes when it was perceived as a “non-caring” company,” said Global Wellness Institute chair and CEO Susie Ellis.

“And we found that caring companies tackle not just ‘tangibles’ like healthy food and workspaces, they address emotional, relational, organisational, intellectual and financial ‘wellness’ at work (whether it’s giving workers more work flexibility or encouraging socialising and friendships).”

To access the 80-page The Future of Wellness at Work report click here.

And to download the Unlocking the Power of Company Caring white paper, click here.

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