The word wellness has become a buzzword in today’s culture and organizations are seeking platforms that provide wellness opportunities for employees, but what does that mean to you exactly?

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), workplace programs are created to address the rising trends of chronic disease. The various programs addressed lifestyle-related issues that would educate employees about health, exercise, stress management and other wellness initiatives, with the desired outcome of decreasing many of the preventable, chronic diseases plaguing employees and organizations today. (1)

What has evolved is a new era— one where the organization must consider its employees’ health habits and happiness as a growing concern by providing innovative platforms to encourage employees to strive for better health and happiness. No two people are alike, however, so programs must have a variety of health, stress management, work-life balance and other issue areas that relate to its employees. Happy employees are more productive and can engage more with in the organization’s culture. At Axxess, we find this to be true.

At the core of our success is the diversity in which we define wellness, challenging our Axxess Wellness Team to provide a variety of avenues to achieve wellness for our diverse population of employees. On any given day, an Axxessian can make healthy decisions by choosing fruit and nuts from the assortment of snacks, walk the in-office track on the way to the next meeting, or workout on the lunch hour at our on-site gym. For employees seeking meditation and stress management, the wellness room provides the opportunity to break in the middle of the day and refresh.

To kick off our new wellness initiatives at Axxess, we recently hosted a smoothie social where employees could try different types of smoothies infused with a variety of fruits and vegetables. The initiative was a success because we came together as family to try something new and finished up the day happier and healthier.

At the end of the day, everyone defines and seeks wellness differently. An organization with many avenues to wellness will be one step ahead of the wellness curve in the journey to a happy and healthy workforce.

(1) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Wellness at Work