The $60B industry you’ve never heard of: corporate wellness.
“Employee perks” grow up.
Yes, you’ve heard the term “corporate wellness” but did you know it’s an industry? A $60B industry projected to double in growth in the next 10 years?
Well, hello, corporate wellness.
What once used to be a term associated with “employee perks” like your discounted gym membership to Crunch Fitness or a free flu shot clinic at your workplace is now a massively growing industry that encapsulates so much more.
Yes, health, medical, and dental insurance are still wildly important to employees. Wildly. But so are flexible, democratized, and specialized healthcare services. So is financial wellness. So is mental health support. So are education and upskilling opportunities. So are nutrition and fitness programs. And so are work-life balance and caregiving solutions.
GOOGLE IT: Gen Z & Millennial workers expect their employer to care about their well-being.+
While today’s workforce is the most generationally diverse in history, with five generations in the workplace, Gen Z and Millennials now make up more than 55% of it. That percentage will grow significantly over the next 15 years. It’s important to step back and recognize that these are not more “needy” generations. For Gen Z in particular, this is a generation that were kids when the Great Recession hit and their grandparents 401Ks were wiped out. This is a generation that might not have had an in-person college graduation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, might have had their job offer rescinded, or might have started their first job out of college from their childhood bedroom. They’ve experienced different things than other generations at a very pivotal and formative time in their lives, and therefore, they expect different things too.
Employers are listening (hence the CAGR associated with this industry).
GOOD NEWS FOR EMPLOYERS: There’s a really positive ROI with corporate wellness.
“Employee health and productivity are inextricably linked.”
It’s not rocket science, if your employees are overly stressed - even if it’s about items outside of work - it’s going to impact their productivity. It’s going to impact their ability to land the next deal or hit that big hairy, audacious goal of yours. It’s therefore going to impact your team culture. It’s going to impact engagement. Stress (in all of its varieties) is a wrecking ball that only compounds and grows if it is not addressed.
When employers offer their employees strong corporate wellness offerings - they improve the well-being of the employee. The magic in doing that is they also positively impact their bottom line.
Smart investments in well-being platforms increase productivity and satisfaction and have significant implications to team culture. They can generate huge healthcare cost-savings and decrease sick days. They help attract the best talent to work at your organization and they help retain the best talent to continue to develop there.
That is an ROI.
BAD NEWS FOR EMPLOYERS: Awareness, understanding, & utilization of these benefits can be low.
According to Gartner’s 2021 Employee Value Proposition Benchmarketing Survey, 87% of employees have access to mental and emotional well-being offerings but only 23% of employees use them.
Just because you offer something doesn’t mean people really understand what it is, why they should care, what it means for them, and when they should use it. Go onto your work intranet; I bet your company offers some benefits you didn’t know about. Additionally, some of the best well-being initiatives offered today address issues that can have stigmas associated with them. Do I want to raise my hand that I am struggling with mental or financial health? Will this hurt my chances for promotion? Will I be seen as weak, as if I make bad choices?
That’s where leadership support and advocacy and, of course, good marketing comes in.
A leader’s voice matters. Full stop. It’s what makes them a leader. Advocating, normalizing, just talking about benefits being offered that improve employee well-being can drive incredible awareness and engagement and destigmatize someone from exploring more. In fact, you have your leader’s permission and encouragement to find out more.
For marketing, it’s all about meeting employees where they are - identifying the moments that matter most - and using simple, easy-to-understand messaging. These are the drivers that turn awareness into actual utilization, retention, and advocacy of these benefits.
Lumping all benefits all together and only highlighting during annual benefit enrollment season will never move the needle. While it might keep budgets down (due to low utilization of the benefits), that important productivity metric will also stay grounded until real organized support goes toward it.
The net net?
The corporate wellness industry is 1) a thing! 2) exploding with growth and 3) what the workforce is demanding. If increasing productivity is your company’s goal, then offering strong wellness benefits focused on employee well-being and driving utilization of these benefits are what’s needed to get you there.
If you’re interested in growing and scaling your marketing efforts for your benefit, Curated Growth Partners has the toolkits and playbooks to get you there. Let’s connect.
+https://www.deloitte.com/global/en/issues/work/content/genz-millennialsurvey.html
