PROVIDENCE – Nearly 2 in 3 companies will have workers back in the office at least part of the time this year, according to a new study from Fidelity Investments Inc. and the Business Group on Health.
About half of those employers expect to have workers reporting to the office at least three days per week – marking a return to traditional workplace environment for the first time in two years according to the Employer-Sponsored Health and Well-Being Survey published on Thursday.
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And with the impending return to the office, employers are putting new emphasis on how to keep workers happy, with more than eight in 10 naming employee well-being as a top focus.
The annual survey studies how companies are supporting workers’ mental and physical health and general work satisfaction.
Job satisfaction ranks among the top priorities of employers this year, up more than 15 percentage points compared with the prior year. That’s no surprise to Ellen Kelsay, president and CEO of Business Group on Health.
“As people return to work in this new landscape, employers will be flexible and empathetic in supporting them as much as possible,” Kelsay said in a statement. “Every C-suite executive now fully realizes the correlation of their workforce’s health and well-being to the overall success of their business.”
Other areas where companies are focusing their return-to-office strategies include programs for employee mental health, named by nine in 10 employers; physical health; and work-life balance, according to the survey.
And the largest of companies are putting more money behind these plans. The average budget for workplace well-being programs among companies with 20,000 or more employers increased by $500,000 over the prior year, to $11 million total. While overall spending was down among mid-size companies, spending per employee rose 60% among businesses with 5,000 or fewer workers, according to the survey.
And employers are also sweetening the deal with incentives tied to participating in workplace wellness programs. The average maximum incentive increased 22% over 2021 to $823. Paying workers to get the COVID-19 vaccine was one such incentive with increasing popularity, used by nearly one in four companies surveyed, with some offering $1,000 per worker to get the shot.
The survey reflects responses from 166 “jumbo,” large and mid-sized companies who are members of the Business Group on Health and Fidelity clients.
Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Lavin@PBN.com. Follow her on Twitter at @NancyKLavin.
