SPICE Up Corporate Wellness: A New Framework for Employee Health
Corporations are facing a rapidly evolving landscape—especially when it comes to employee wellness. This can be seen in companies shifting their views on benefits, with a greater emphasis placed on supporting well-being. Employees now expect perks that go beyond traditional healthcare, including comprehensive mental health services, flexible work arrangements, and development opportunities.1
In line with these changing priorities, companies are increasing their offerings to better meet employee needs and expectations, despite predictions that health benefit costs per employee will rise. For example, Mercer’s 2024 Survey on Health and Benefit Strategies revealed that two-thirds of large employers are focused on enhancing their health and well-being benefits.2 This trend is further underscored by the American College of Sports Medicine's (ACSM) ranking of fitness trends for 2024, where worksite health promotion was placed at second.3 This growing focus on employee wellness emphasizes the crucial role corporations play in fostering a thriving and productive workforce.
Still not sure what all the fuss is about when it comes to employee wellness? Perhaps a more economical point of view might be more convincing. The financial implications of neglecting physical wellness are detrimental, with WHO projecting a cost burden of $300 billion due to physical inactivity by 2030.4 This once again points to the pivotal role of workplace wellness programs, especially in addressing physical inactivity, bolstering productivity, and even supporting mental health (which all turn out to have significant cost implications).
Here at The Decision Lab, our approach to fostering social impact through improving decisions is guided by SPICE: Socially conscious, Pragmatic, Inventive, Catalytic, and Evidence-based. This framework isn't just a collection of principles; it's a comprehensive approach we apply to help organizations solve real-world challenges with a scientific approach, always ensuring that evidence is the basis for everything. In this article, we’ll review how our SPICE model can help foster corporate wellness plans for a stronger, more resourceful, and more engaged workforce.
References
1. Routt, D. (2022, July 1). Shifting priorities: Rethinking employee benefits. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2022/07/01/shifting-priorities-rethinking-employee-benefits/?sh=1ca26025222a
2. Umland, B. (n.d.). Planning for 2024: Employers will enhance benefits, avoid cost-shifting. https://www.mercer.com/en-us/insights/us-health-news/survey-post-1/
3. Newsome, A. M., Reed, R., Sansone, J., Batrakoulis, A., McAvoy, C., & W. Parrott, M. (2024, January). 2024 ACSM Worldwide Fitness Trends: Future Directions of the Health and Fitness Industry. ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal, 28(1), 14–26. https://doi.org/10.1249/fit.0000000000000933
4. Global status report on physical activity 2022. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2022. License: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.
5. Stanford Medicine. (n.d.). MyHeart Counts. Retrieved from https://med.stanford.edu/myheartcounts.html
6. United Nations Environment Programme. (2018). Plogging: The eco-friendly workout trend that’s sweeping the globe. UNEP. https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/plogging-eco-friendly-workout-trend-thats-sweeping-globe
7. Raghavan, R., Panicker, V. V., & Emmatty, F. J. (2020, July 3). Posture based Assessment of Plogging Activity. 2020 International Conference on System, Computation, Automation and Networking (ICSCAN). https://doi.org/10.1109/icscan49426.2020.9262447
8. Kim, J., Kim, S., & Chung, J. (2023). Examining the relationship between pro-environmental attitudes, self-determination, and sustained intention in eco-friendly sports participation: A study on plogging participants. Sustainability, 15(15), 11806. https://doi.org/10.3390/su151511806
9. Naveed Ahmad, Zia Ullah, Hyungseo Bobby Ryu, Antonio Ariza-Montes & Heesup Han (2023) From Corporate Social Responsibility to Employee Well-Being: Navigating the Pathway to Sustainable Healthcare, Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 1079-1095, DOI: 10.2147/PRBM.S398586
10. Cavallini, M., Callaghan, M., Premo, C., Scott, J., & Dyck, D. (2020). Lack of time is the consistent barrier to physical activity and exercise in 18 to 64 year-old males and females from both South Carolina and Southern Ontario. Journal of Physical Activity Research, 5(2), 100-106. https://doi.org/10.12691/jpar-5-2-6
11. Gardner, B., Lally, P., & Wardle, J. (2012). Making health habitual: the psychology of 'habit-formation' and general practice. The British journal of general practice: The journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 62(605), 664–666. https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp12X659466
12. Holzgreve F, Fraeulin L, Haenel J, et al. (2021). Office work and stretch training (OST) study: effects on the prevalence of musculoskeletal diseases and gender differences: a non-randomised control study. BMJ Open 2021;11:e044453. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-044453
13. Grégoire, S., & Lachance, L. (2014). Evaluation of a brief mindfulness-based intervention to reduce psychological distress in the workplace. Mindfulness, 6, DOI: 10.1007/s12671-014-0328-9.
About the Author
Mariel Guevara
Mariel Guevara is a Junior Research Analyst at The Decision Lab. She is currently pursuing her MA degree in Developmental Psychology at Ateneo de Manila University. She has held several research positions in the past spanning different technology-mediated interventions tackling issues such as substance use prevention, mental health promotion, and civic engagement. She is especially passionate about making mental health services more accessible in the Philippines. In her free time she enjoys playing video games, going on nature walks, and playing sports.
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