Popular Employer Wellness Programs Offered in Canada

Before the recession, in 2008 the primary motivation for Canada’s top employers to offer employee healthy and wellness programs in Canada was to increase employee satisfaction and productivity more so then driving down health related costs (reported by Medisys Health Group based on a survey of Canada’s top 100 employers). At that time these employers expected less than half of their employees to participate and most did not track the effectiveness of their wellness initiatives. Today employers are a little more interested in the bottom line of keeping or driving down costs, but they still appear to be interested in providing employees with health and wellness initiatives for the sake of their employees and company culture.

75% of Employers Offer Wellness Programs for Employee Morale

The economy today is not the same as it was back in 2008, yet it has not seemed to take a significant bite out of employers desire to offer wellness initiatives. According to 2011 National Wellness Survey 91% of employers surveyed reported offering wellness initiatives to their employees. When asked about the impact of the economy on their programs 65% indicated the economy had no impact and 30% reported it had somewhat of a negative impact.

According to the research the top reasons why companies in Canada offer Wellness programs included Organizational Culture (53%)

When asked what motivated them to offer Wellness programs they responded further to Improve Employee Morale (75%), Enhance Organizational Culture (70%) and lower short and long term disability costs (55%).

Top Wellness Initiatives In Canada

A list of the top 9 Wellness Initiatives plus 4 additional ones offered by employers across Canada

A list of the top 5 based on regional reporting

C-Suite Involvement Makes a Difference in Success

An interesting finding to keep in mind as you roll out your health and wellness initiatives, when initiatives were spearhead by C-level executives programs achieved 75% participation (93% when corporate HR leadership lead the initiative). Without C-level participation the numbers dropped to 37% and below.

The full wellness survey listed additional initiatives you can review – select the link below for more information.