Wellness benefits have become a mainstreamoffering for most large companies. Smoking cessation, nutrition, fitnessand health screenings all have been embraced by employers as away to address health care costs and improve employee loyalty.

But as wellness programs become the norm, a new way of lookingat wellness has emerged, and “nontraditional” wellness programs arenow seen by many employers as a way to get an edge on recruitmentand retention efforts. The envelope is being pushed in manydirections, but the good news is that an expansive view of wellnesshas paid off for employers, in attracting young workers, retainingolder ones, and even in seeing a good return on investment.

Paul Terry, chief science officer at StayWell, a Minneapolis-based companythat provides wellness programs to employers, says a holisticapproach to worker wellness and nontraditional offerings arehallmarks of successful companies.

"There is an emerging interest among employers to move fromwellness to “well-being,” which reflects their understanding thathealth improvement occurs best in environments where employees feelgreat about their work and their life in general,” Terrysays. “Some of our more forward-looking clients are looking atthe relationships between employee health, resiliency, satisfactionand engagement with a growing appreciation for how each of thesedomains contribute to higher employee and company performance.”

On the rise

A new survey from the International Foundation of EmployeeBenefit Plans finds that these nontraditional wellness benefits are onthe rise.

“What we’re seeing is more organizations are turning to thingsthat are not traditionally considered to be part of wellness,” saysJulie Stich, IFEBP director of research. “Things that we’re callingsocial and community initiatives, as well as personal andprofessional development initiatives.”

Stich says the nontraditional wellness offerings are becomingmore popular with employers because the focus of wellness hasshifted.

“The genesis of wellness programs came about to really hold downhealth care costs, which were escalating,” Stich says.

“But now the data shows that more organizations think the No. 1reason is to improve their employee’s wellbeing and engagement. Andso that translates into some of these other offerings — it’s notjust physical health anymore, it’smore all-around employee wellbeing.”

Stich says her group’s study finds that employersare experimenting with benefits such as encouragement of usingvacation time, tuition reimbursement, community charity drives.

Here are some of the top nontraditional benefits that employersare experimenting with.>>

Encouraging use of time off

The study found that employer initiatives to encourage employeesto use all their earned time off or vacation time is the mostpopular of the nontraditional wellness benefits. Sixty-six percentof employers in the survey said they were offering suchprograms.

“So many employees leave some of their vacation days laying on the table,” saidStich. “I think more and more companies are recognizing that it’sgood to encourage employers to take that time, get refreshed, andcome back ready to work some more.“

Mental health coverage

Mental health coverage may not soundnontraditional: the IFEBP study showed that 80 percent ofbusinesses surveyed offer employee assistance programs (whichcommonly provide mental health treatment services), and 62 percentoffer mental health coverage as part of their medical benefits.

Read: Workers fear disclosing a mental health condition

However, other mental health-related benefits are on the rise aswell. In the survey, additional mental health offerings includedcritical incident/crisis response counseling (32.8 percent), stressmanagement programs (23.6 percent) and mental health assessments aspart of an HRA (21.1 percent).

Tuition reimbursement

Tuition reimbursement is very popular, especially with youngerworkers, many of whom face the possibility of crushing studentdebt, either from past educational costs or from training they maybe considering. Nearly 63 percent of the businesses in the IFEBPsurvey report offering some form of tuition reimbursement.

A 2013 study by the Society for Human Resource Management foundthat 61 percent of employers offered undergraduate educationalassistance, and 59 percent offered graduate-level educationassistance.

“As with career development benefits, educational assistance notonly helps the employee but also benefits the employer bydeveloping a more educated workforce,” the SHRM study said.

Community charity drives, communityvolunteering

According to the IFEBP survey, 57 percent of employers surveyedsponsor community charity drives. In addition, 46 percent ofcompanies offer some type of community volunteering opportunity toemployees.

The SHRM study had a similar finding, showing that 47 percent ofthe companies in its survey offered community volunteeropportunities. “Community volunteer programs offer organizations anexcellent opportunity to provide value-added benefits to thebusiness, employees and community. These programs can be tailoredto best suit the needs of the organization’s mission, vision andbusiness goals,” the study said.

On-site events/other celebrations

IFEBP finds that just over 50 percent of employers offer thisstress-reducing and community-building option, while noting thatmany employers have offered similar events long before anyoneconsidered the wellness aspect of an office party.

The SHRM study found similar offerings were popular, includingcompany picnics (55 percent), discount ticket services (35 percent)and company-purchased tickets to outside events (26 percent).“Social gatherings provide the opportunity for employees to get toknow one another outside of the job, which can lead to betterworking relationships at the office,” the report said.

Financial education

Another benefit that adds to peace of mind for employees isfinancial education. The SHRM study found about 25 percent ofemployers offer financial counseling, either one-on-one or viaonline services. The IFEBP survey found 29 percent of employersoffering financial education.

Read: Employees drive demand for financial wellness

Purchasing Power notes that in the aftermath of the lastrecession, many workers are still recovering from the hit theirinvestments took during that time. “While gains in the stock marketand the economy have led some companies to believe their employeesare also recovering financially, that’s not the case,” the sitesays. “According to most research, many employees are stillstruggling financially and the associated stress is distractingthem at work, impacting productivity. Non-traditional voluntarybenefits that improve employee financial wellness will be sought bemore employers offer and will see a higher employee participationrate.”

The payoff of nontraditional wellnessbenefits

In the past, Stich and others say, employers closely watchedreturn on investment numbers to judge whether their wellnessefforts were a success. That mindset might be changing, though.

“Employers are seeing a positive impact of wellness on thingslike productivity and employee engagement, so you don’t have quiteas much turnover,” she says. “Those are some positive aspects ofwellness that employers haven’t always considered or lookedfor.

“We do see that wellness is evolving now, with employers lookingat the employee holistically; as a whole person.”