When eight out of 10 large employers offer wellness programming as a benefit to employees, it is clear that these employers value wellness. According to the National Business Group on Health, they each spend about $3.6 million annually on wellness programs. What is less clear is whether employees value them. Surveys continue to report that a disconnect exists between the programs and employees. Simply put, utilization has, in most cases, never lived up to the expectations. But a recent study suggests that perhaps the problem lies with how the wellness transaction occurs. Typically, wellness vendors offer programs with various components and employers, often driven by budget concerns, will select from among them. Maybe the better way would be for employees to make the choice. At least that's one conclusion that could be drawn from Future Workplace Wellness Study, a collaboration between survey partners Future Workplace, an executive development firm, and technology company View. Some 1,600 corporate employees were asked to share their opinions on what makes a workplace attractive, or unattractive, from an overall health standpoint. For wellness programmers, the results may be worth noting. The surprise was that healthy food choices and access to fitness facilities — often viewed as important features of any wellness program — slunk in near the bottom of the list. "The research shows that employer health and wellness efforts fall short despite company investments in on-site gyms, ergonomics and healthy food choices," says Jeanne Meister, founding partner, Future Workplace. "It's the invisible factors such as air quality and access to natural light that are often overlooked yet provide the greatest influence on workplace wellness, employee productivity and the overall quality of the employee experience." The study found that employees expect the workplace to be customized for comfort. In other words, the wellness elements most valued as those basics in which people all share at work: air, temperature, drinking water, lighting. The wellness options that people must go to — the healthy food choices, the gym, the smoking cessation/weight maintenance classes — just aren't as important. These and other results of the survey that defied traditional thinking about wellness programs led the researchers to create the following list of "5 guidelines to take action on workplace wellness." They are, according to the report:

1. Adapt an employee-centric view of workplace wellness. Survey your workforce to understand the factors most important to them when it comes to workplace wellness.
2. Build a holistic workplace wellness plan. Real estate and HR need to work together to create a shared vision and strategy for workplace wellness.
3. Re-examine your workplace wellness investments. Focus less on opt-in perks like an on-site-gyms and more on areas that affect every employee, like the workstation.
4. Build personalization into your workplace wellness strategy. Employees expect the ability to personalize their workplace environment to best suit their physical and emotional needs at work.
5. Monitor the connection between workplace wellness and employee satisfaction. Adapt a continuous improvement mindset as it relates to creating a workplace environment that mirrors an employee's best consumer experience.

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