Similarly, wellness programs are at the bottom of the list of priorities for companies, behind company discounts (19%) or mileage (29%) and a long way from life insurance (67%) and extra vacation days (57%), which occupy the first and second place of the benefits included in the remuneration package.
In turn, there are also differences in this aspect according to the size of the companies. Although in the case of companies with more than 50 employees, 18% have some type of physical and emotional well-being program in their compensation packages, companies with fewer than 50 employees do not have any program of these characteristics, according to reports the study prepared by Sodexo.
As for how employees perceive this reality, we are undoubtedly facing a paradigm shift, since the value that workers give to the care of their mental health increases as we get closer to the new generations. In fact, we find a greater presence of wellness programs in the remuneration packages of the new generations: 19% of millennials have it included compared to 8% of baby boomers.
Aware of the importance of satisfying the new needs of the younger generations in order to retain talent, 23% of companies in Spain do consider it important to offer wellness programs in the remuneration package to facilitate the care of the physical and emotional well-being of the employees. This percentage increases to 29% in companies with more than 50 employees.
In order to gradually increase these percentages of adherence to wellness policies, there are different actions that companies can take to take care of their employees. Companies can choose to implement a cross-cutting employee care strategy to guarantee their well-being, or have a corporate well-being platform such as Gympass that allows them to take care of physical well-being through gyms, online classes and trainers, and nutritional well-being, emotional and family and, from there, adopt practices such as flexibility, the promotion of additional free time whenever it is considered necessary and, of course, conciliation, essential to guarantee the mental health of workers and ensure that they are motivated.
“Mental health and well-being in a broad sense have become issues of great importance in recent years. It is a factor that employees value and, therefore, must be a point of focus in companies. After the years of health crisis, which have had a great effect on the physical and mental health of citizens, it is more important than ever that we take care of the well-being of employees with measures that allow them to ensure their health”, explains Miriam Martín, Sodexo Marketing Director.