The Evolution of Workplace Wellness

Wellness in the workplace has shifted through the years to become more aligned with expectations and environments. Learn why the old way doesn’t work anymore.

I started my corporate wellness career back in 2010. In those days, programming efforts primarily revolved around offering lunch-and-learn seminars, walking challenges, on-site fitness classes, health fairs, etc. A wellness program was considered well-rounded if it touched on multiple facets of wellness such as physical, emotional, and financial but most of the programs required employees to “opt-in” and participate. These strategies worked at first but today’s work environment is much different.

The typical workday has become faster paced, includes constant connectivity, and demands increasingly heavier workloads, all of which have reduced people’s capacity to voluntarily participate in wellness programs. As a result, engagement is declining - not because wellness is any less important but the traditional model no longer aligns with today’s reality.

This has caused a shift from one-off wellness programming toward a more strategic, systems-based, holistic well-being approach, where wellness is not simply offered as optional add-ons, but integrated into the default conditions of the workplace. Examples of this include: culture shifts around meeting norms (e.g., shorter meetings, built-in breaks), environments that support focused work (e.g., quiet spaces), and layouts that encourage movement (e.g., well-lit stairwells). 

How has your organization kept up with the workplace wellness evolution?