LAS VEGAS—Don’t even think about considering wellness programs as just aflash in the pan. New research from the Society for Human ResourceManagement finds that wellness programs are continuing to grow inprevalence in workplaces around the country.

The organization’s annual survey, released Monday during SHRM’sannual conference in Las Vegas, found a significant jump from 2014to 2015 in several different wellness benefits including health andlifestyle coaching, smoking cessation programs, and premiumdiscounts for getting an annual risk assessment. The most prevalentwellness benefits offered are wellness resources and information(80 percent of respondents) and wellness programs (70 percent).

Employers are increasingly turning to wellness programs tocombat rising health care costs, SHRMsaid. Some employers are putting their efforts into preventativeprograms that may reduce costs while shifting a greater burden ofcosts onto employees.

“Wellness benefits provide employers with a preventativeapproach that can reduce health care expenses for organizationsover the long haul,” said Evren Esen, director of SHRM’s surveyprograms. “Rising health care costs also remain a primary driverfor how other benefit costs are allocated, as employers are stillevaluating the impact of the Affordable Care Act.”

Overall, the survey of 463 HR professionals had some good newsfor employees: 35 percent of those employers said they increasedemployer-sponsored benefits in the last year. That number is upfrom the 28 percent who said so last year.

SHRM examined the prevalence of more than 300 benefits—from themost common, which include paid holidays (offered by 98 percent ofrespondents), dental insurance (96 percent), mental health coverageand professional memberships (both 91 percent) and 401(k) plans (90percent)—to less common benefits, including on-site massage therapy(11 percent) and prepared take-home meals (1 percent).

The report also showed five-year trend increases in thepercentage of organizations offering mental health coverage,contraception coverage, vision insurance, short-termdisability insurance, critical illness insurance,and coverage for laser-based vision surgery.

As for what workplace perks are on the decline, those includehealth benefits (SHRM noted declines in the percentage oforganizations offering health care premium flexible spendingaccounts over the last five years); some work travel perks(reimbursing people for personal calls while they're on businesstravel dropped to 37 percent, down from 51 percent in2011) and on-site stress reduction programs (down from 12percent in 2011).

Family friendly benefits also experienced a big dip whencompared to five years ago: bringing children into work in anemergency (22 percent, down steadily from 33 percent in2011), child care referral services (9 percent), and on-siteparenting seminars (1 percent).

And, maybe most interesting to note, SHRM also included some newbenefits in the survey’s mix this year: egg freezing for nonmedicalreasons (offered by 2 percent of respondents), paid surrogacy leave(5 percent), company-provided fitness bands/activitytrackers (13 percent), company-organized fitnesscompetitions (34 percent), and company-provided student loanrepayment (3 percent).

Also interesting to note from SHRM's survey:

Telecommuting on the rise. Three out of fiveorganizations offered some form of telecommuting: 56 percent ofrespondents reported that their organizations offered telecommutingon an ad-hoc basis, 36 percent part of the time, and 22 percent ona full-time basis.

Slow health care cost shift. Five-year trendsalso show a slow shift of health care costs to employees. Forexample, consumer-directed health plans such as health savings accounts haverisen by 8 percentage points, and employer contributions to HSAshave also increased by 10 percentage points.