Introduction

In today’s business environment, health of employees play an important role in order to improve the quality and efficiency of the organization and to achieve a competitive advantage in the national as well as international market. A healthy employee at workplace helps the company to maintain high productivity, it’s market position and also provides customer satisfaction by producing effective products and services. A wellness program in the organization also supports the employees to improve their mental and physical health. This supports the organization to achieve its organizational goals and objectives in a significant manner.

This paper discusses the psychological and physiological basis for a wellness program in the organization. In addition, this paper also discusses the approaches that are used by the employers to sponsor a wellness program. Moreover, this paper also develops the understanding about the advantages and disadvantages of wellness program for employees and employers. In the end, this paper describes the support of wellness program to develop effective organizational culture, strategic goals and performance management.

Psychological and Physiological Basis for Wellness Program

In an organization, in order to establish an effective and efficient wellness program for employees, the psychological basis is related to the mental position or stress of the employees. The psychological aspects of an employee are also related to the employees’ mindset in order to complete the work in the organization. This also includes the commitment of employees to the employer that create stress and provide a basis for wellness program (Burnham, 2009). On the other hand, the physiological basis is related to the physical health of the employee in the organization. For a wellness program of an organization, the physiological basis is also related to cholesterol testing, blood pressure screening and other health related problems (Gaines & Worrall, 2011).

Approaches to Employer

There are several approaches to an employer-sponsored wellness program. One of the approaches is related to the incentive based on participation. In order to increase the participation in the wellness program, the incentive helps the employer to attract employees towards the program and also helpful in increasing the health of employees within the organization. In this approach, employees are committed to changes such as lose weight, control their diabetes or stop smoking. In this approach, employer establishes the incentive structure according to the health and commitment of employees towards the health. After achieving the desired health, the employer provides several rewards to the employees. This approach also supports the employer to change the behavior of employees in the organization towards the work as well as organization (Duncan, 2008).

Another approach is related to the laws and regulation. Most of the employers also use laws, rules and regulations in their approach to attract employees towards the employer sponsored wellness program. These laws also help the employer to motivate employees to improve their health and well being within the organization. Through this, employees can also reduce their work stress and also improve the physical health. Laws bound the employees to take active participation in the wellness program that support the employer to increase the participation of employees in the program (Guidotti, Arnold & Lukcso, 2012).

In order to improve the physical condition of employees, employers can also use two approaches that motivate employees to improve their health in the organization. The two approaches such as fitness center discounts and on-site fitness centers membership and programs. These two approaches can also be helpful for the employer to maintain healthy weight, cholesterol and blood pressure level of employees in the organization. By providing fitness discounts and on-site fitness membership, employers can also change the behavior of employees towards the organization (Richard, Emener & Hutchison, 2009).

Advantage and Disadvantage to Employer and Employee

The advantages and disadvantages of wellness program for employees and employers are as follow:

Advantages and Disadvantages for Employee:

The major advantage of wellness program in organization for employees is related to the improving their health that directly affect their physical working strengths and mental abilities, which ultimate increases productivity and efficiency in the organization. Through the wellness program in organization employees can also develop their understanding about the fitness of their health. In this way, this also helps the employees to improve their health in significant way. The wellness program is also beneficial for the employees in order to remove disability. A well constructed wellness program also satisfies the needs and demands of employees related to the health and well being in the organization (Rothwell, 2012). There are also some disadvantages of implementing wellness program in organization. The disadvantage for employees is related to the wastage of time. It is identified that some time some employees does not need any health aid. One of the disadvantages related to the unnecessary salary deduction of employees. Most of the employers charge high health check up price from the employee salary. This creates disadvantages for the employees from wellness programs (Baer, 2006).

Advantages and Disadvantages for Employer:

The advantage of wellness program for employer is related to the improvement of employee performance and efficiency in the organization. The advantages are also related to the achieving low expenses in operational and manufacturing activities. Employers can also achieve the higher employee job satisfaction by providing wellness programs to the employees. Through wellness program in organization, employer also increase the retention rate that support in achieving competitive advantage in the market. On the hand, the disadvantage of wellness program in the organization for employer is related to the increases in costs. It is identified that because of the contribution in wellness programs, the cost of company increases that directly affects the profits of employer in the market (David, 2009).

 

Support of Well Structured Wellness Program

Organizational Culture:

A well structured wellness program supports the organization culture in significant way. Through the effective wellness program, employees are motivating to work efficiently in the organization that supports culture to improve within the organization. A well structure wellness program also helps the employees to maintain an effective relationship with the other employees of the organization that also supports the culture to improve within the organization (Richard, Emener & Hutchison, 2009).

Strategic Goals:

Through the well-structured wellness program, a company can also achieve its strategic goals. An effective wellness program provides the directions to the company that support in achieving goals and objectives in effective way. An organization’s basic goal is also related to provide safety and security of employees. Through the wellness program, employer provides effective facilities that motivate employees to achieve organization strategic goals in significant manner (Baer, 2006).

Performance Management:

It is identified that a well structured and well define wellness program helps the employees to manage their performance as well as support organization to improve the performance of employees in the market. Wellness program also supports the employees by providing compensation and rewards that helps the employees to increase their productivity and efficiency in the organization (Guidotti, Arnold & Lukcso, 2012). It directly helps the employees and organization to support performance management with minimum operating expenses.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that healthy and physical fit employees create lost of contribution in the development of the firm and also contribute in achieving competitive advantage for the organization. In order to establish an effective wellness program in the organization, manager needs to consider psychological and physiological basis. It helps the manager to make effective wellness program for the employee and management team. To attract more employees towards the program, employer should create rules, policies and laws. In this, employer can also make effective incentive programs for the employees.