Wellness benefits have become a mainstream offering for most large companies. Smoking cessation, nutrition and fitness, and health screenings have all been embraced by employers as a way of addressing health care costs and improving employee loyalty.

But as wellness programs become the norm, a new way of looking at wellness has emerged, and “nontraditional” programs are now seen by many employers as a way to get an edge on recruitment and retention efforts. The envelope is being pushed in many directions, but the good news is that an expansive view of wellness has paid off for employers, in attracting young workers, retaining older ones, and even in seeing a good return on investment.

Read: Top 10 reasons you should implement wellness

Paul Terry, chief science officer at StayWell, a Minneapolis-based company that provides wellness programs to employers, says a holistic approach to worker wellness and nontraditional offerings are hallmarks of successful companies.

“There is an emerging interest among employers to move from wellness to 'wellbeing,' which reflects their understanding that health improvement occurs best in environments where employees feel great about their work and their life in general,” Terry says. “Some of our more forward-looking clients are looking at the relationships between employee health, resiliency, satisfaction, and engagement with a growing appreciation for how each of these domains contribute to higher employee and company performance.”

On the rise

A survey from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans finds that these new wellness benefits are on the rise.

“What we're seeing is more organizations are turning to things that are not traditionally considered to be part of wellness,” says Julie Stich, IFEBP director of research. “Things that we're calling social and community initiatives, as well as personal and professional development initiatives.”

Stich says the nontraditional wellness offerings are becoming more popular with employers because the focus of wellness has shifted.

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

“But now the data shows that more organizations think the No. 1 reason is to improve their employee's wellbeing and engagement. And so that translates into some of these other offerings—it's not just physical health anymore, it's more all-around employee wellbeing.”

Stich says her group's study finds employers experimenting with benefits such as encouragement of using vacation time, tuition reimbursement and community charity drives.

The following are some of the top nontraditional benefits that employers are experimenting with.

1. Encouraging use of time off

The study found that employer initiatives to encourage employees to use all their earned time off or vacation time is the most popular of the nontraditional wellness benefits. Sixty-six percent of employers in the survey said they were offering such programs.

Read: Companies take new look at summer benefits

“So many employees leave some of their vacation days lying on the table,” Stich says. “I think more and more companies are recognizing that it's good to encourage employers to take that time, get refreshed and come back ready to work some more.”

2. Mental health coverage

Mental health coverage may not sound nontraditional: the IFEBP study showed that 80 percent of businesses surveyed offer employee assistance programs (which commonly provide mental health treatment services), and 62 percent offer mental health coverage as part of their medical benefits.

However, other mental health-related benefits are on the rise as well. In the survey, additional mental health offerings included critical incident/crisis response counseling (33 percent), stress management programs (24 percent) and mental health assessments as part of an HRA (21 percent).

3. Tuition reimbursement

Tuition reimbursement is very popular, especially with younger workers, many of whom face the possibility of crushing student debt, either from past educational costs or from training they may be considering. Nearly 63 percent of the businesses in the IFEBP survey report offering some form of tuition reimbursement.

A 2013 study by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 61 percent of employers offered undergraduate educational assistance, and 59 percent offered graduate-level education assistance. “As with career development benefits, educational assistance not only helps the employee but also benefits the employer by developing a more educated workforce,” the SHRM study said.

4. Community charity drives, community volunteering

According to the IFEBP survey, 57 percent of employers surveyed sponsor community charity drives. In addition, 46 percent of companies offer some type of community volunteering opportunity to employees.

The SHRM study had a similar finding, showing that 47 percent of the companies in its survey offered community volunteer opportunities.

“Community volunteer programs offer organizations an excellent opportunity to provide value-added benefits to the business, employees and community,” SHRM said. “These programs can be tailored to best suit the needs of the organization's mission, vision and business goals.”

5. On-site events/other celebrations

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

The SHRM study found similar offerings were popular, including company 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 to know one another outside of the job, which can lead to better working relationships at the office,” the report said.

6. Financial education

Another benefit that adds to peace of mind for employees is financial education. The SHRM study found about 25 percent of employers offer financial counseling, either one-on-one or via online services. The IFEBP survey found 29 percent of employers offering financial education.

Purchasing Power notes that in the aftermath of the last recession, many workers are still recovering from the hit their investments took during that time.

“While gains in the stock market and the economy have led some companies to believe their employees are also recovering financially, that's not the case,” the site said. “According to most research, many employees are still struggling financially and the associated stress is distracting them at work, impacting productivity. Non-traditional voluntary benefits that improve employee financial wellness will be sought after more and employers that offer it will see a higher employee participation rate.”

The payoff

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

“Employers are seeing a positive impact of wellness on things like productivity and employee engagement, so you don't have quite as much turnover,” she says. “Those are some positive aspects of wellness that employers haven't always considered or looked for.

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

Instant Insights /

Nontraditional offerings changing the wellness game

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