Essay Example - Companies With Wellness Programs for Employees

Workplace wellness programs promote and improve the fitness and health of employees. Unlike in the past decade, many organizations now provide wellness programs to their workers. These programs help keep the employees present at work and their top level of productivity. This paper is an analysis of Google, Microsoft, and Asana’s wellness programs available for their employees.

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Google

Google LLC is a search engine company based in the United States. Also known as Alphabet Inc, Google has 118, 899 employees as of December 2019 (Thieroff, 2015). The company offers its employees with wellness programs by providing healthcare services such as physical therapy, chiropractic, physician, reduced health insurance premiums, and massage. There are also fitness classes, centers, subsidized gym memberships, and community bikes. There are professional development programs like cooking classes, guitar lessons, and degree programs, just to mention a few. The company has standing desks, which keeps the employees standing hence burning calories. Their kitchens are stocked with free healthy color-coded meals and snacks and are served in small plates to control their portions.

Some of the innovative ideas and solutions that Google has implemented are employing traditional ways of helping employees stay fit, for instance, with standing desks (Thieroff, 2015). The company also while providing a healthy diet, ensures that employees do not feel trapped in eating healthily. Therefore, they also provide unhealthy meals but are placed in opaque containers while the healthy meals are placed openly. The firm also educates the employees on the need to use the available programs to ensure their wellness. Google evaluates the effectiveness of the plans by measuring the productivity of the employees, checking their health status, and their state of mind. Positive feedback means that wellness programs are useful in their lives.

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is a multinational technology company based in Washington, America. The firm has 156 439 employees as of 31st March 2020 (Microsoft.com, 2020). It also offers wellness programs to its employees. Some of the programs include smoking cessation, fitness training, education, and weight management. The firm provides the employees with paid gym memberships, fitness programs like Zumba classes, basketball, baseball courts, volleyball, and running tracks. It also offers screening of diseases for employees with their spouses against diseases like diabetes, heart disease, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels. There are health care services like pharmacists, optometrists, and onsite clinics. Company healthcare workers also give family and personal counseling, elderly and child care, and stress management. The cafes are stocked with healthy diets whereby food is well-labeled to help employees identify healthy ones. Microsoft provides employees with dry cleaning and grocery delivery, mentorship programs, and social groups.

To implement its ideas and innovations, Microsoft ensures that the provided wellness centers are regularly checked and assessed to ensure that they are in a good place, and the constructions are in the most recent designs. The firm also engages the managers and employees in safety and health committees, whereby they plan for the required wellness operations (Microsoft.com, 2020). Microsoft involves professionals to assess the risk of the employees’ safety, control hazards, and continually improve the safety and health of the employees. To evaluate the wellness programs, Microsoft, just like Google, examines the health and productivity of the employees. Healthy, relaxed, and productive employees show that the programs are effective.

Asana

Asana is a website and a mobile application that helps teams manage, track, and organize their work. As of 2020, the company has at least 700 employees (Moskovitz, 2018). Similarly, the firm appreciates its employees with wellness programs such as napping rooms meant to help employees rest, destress, and recharge. Besides, the employees are offered paid time off to help them balance work and life. The software company also offers free gym and daily yoga. Their kitchen serves three healthy meals prepared with fresh organic and local produce. Mentorship programs are offered together with monthly workshops with various health themes.

Asana understands the importance of employee wellness hence implement their ideas and innovations in the following ways. First, the company ensures that all the time off is paid on time, the yoga and gym centers are in good shape with the necessary experts and that all meals are prepared and provided on time (Moskovitz, 2018). Naptime is set for all employees as well as time for other programs. Asana evaluates its programs by looking at the mental and physical health of the employees, their productivity, and their activeness in work. A well-rested mind is more productive, thus indicating the efficiency of the programs.

Conclusion

Google, Microsoft, and Asana are amongst the many companies that provide wellness programs to their employees. The programs cover healthcare services such as therapy and physician, fitness services like gym and yoga, and provision of free healthy meals. The companies also ensure that the mental health of employees is stable by providing naps and time off. They also make sure that their ideas and innovations are well-implemented by ensuring that the provided services are on time and well delivered. High productivity and healthy employees indicate the efficiency of employees.

References

Microsoft.com. (2020). Empowering our employees – Microsoft CSR. Microsoft. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/empowering-employees

Moskovitz, D. (2018, March 21). Work hard better: Leading your team to better results through. Wavelength by Asana. https://wavelength.asana.com/workstyle-live-life-well/

Thieroff, S. (2015, October 2). Wellness case study: Google. HealthyWorks. https://www.healthyworksofpa.com/wellness-case-study-google/