There are a lot of reasons why you would want to offer a wellness stipend for your employees. Whether you are motivated to influence a better lifestyle for your staff, looking to increase your company’s attractiveness in recruitment, or just looking to make the world a better place - wellness stipends are a great way for benefits and HR teams to make an impact with their authority!

According to Northwestern University, there are 8 types of well being that humans should prioritize. Here’s 8 different wellness stipend ideas based on these 8 dimensions of wellness.

Physical - Gym Membership Stipend

The goal of physical wellness is all about increasing the healthiness of our bodies. Our bodies are resilient, yet delicate things that deserve to be cared for and nurtured as our most important resource. How each person achieves that, however, is very unique to them!

By offering a gym stipend, your employees will be able to use the flexibility to find the fitness program that works best for them. Whether that is group classes like Orange Theory, a classic gym membership at LA Fitness, or an online Peloton subscription, your employees will be able to invest in their bodies in the way that makes the most sense for them.

Emotional - Mental Health Stipend

Our emotional wellbeing is more than just about achieving stability, it’s about acknowledging the different phases of emotions and working yourself through what it means to be human. We all experience pain, joy, and identity in different ways. A mental health stipend allows your employees to explore their minds in a way that makes sense to them.

There are great programs out there like Modern Health, whose mission is to make mental health a priority and strength for all. There’s also great therapists and specialists around the globe for specific problems that people may be working themselves through. A stipend lets your employees decide what’s best for them at any stage of life.

Social - Travel and Meet-up Stipend

If someone discovered the magic of in-person human connections in the 21st century, they would think it was the greatest discovery since fire. In the age of remote teams and distributed work, many companies have opted for in-person meetups instead of in-person offices.

By providing a stipend for travel and company meet-ups, you’ll encourage your teams to bond, foster relationships, and create a more enjoyable place to work. Plus, who doesn’t love to travel?

Intellectual - Continued Education Stipend

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.” Henry Ford.

No matter the levels of educational attainment of your workforce, there are always options for continuing one's education. Companies who encourage staff to get designations, new certificates, and other forms of continued education see increases in staff loyalty and staff performance to boot.

By offering a stipend, you leave the door open for what your employees might be interested in. Your next Chief Underwriting Officer might be in your Claims department right now. Try not to make too many rules when it comes to people seeking out education. While there are great programs like MasterClass or Degreed, people will gravitate towards what makes sense for them and their stage of their career.

Environmental - Work From Home Stipend

In a hybrid or WFH environment, a work from home stipend is essential in making sure employees are both prepared and comfortable in their work environment in a place you cannot control, their homes.

A stipend allows your staff to cover the gaps in what they have to what they need to be successful. Whether that is a new desk, good lighting for meetings, or an ergonomic chair, you let them decide what is most important for building a productive space for themselves at home.

For our folks who come into work everyday, we should be equally as cognisant of the environment we create for people as they come to work. Invest in equipment that improves posture, spaces that encourage collaboration, and benefits that make coming into the office not such a choir.

Spiritual - A Soul Stipend

The most uncommon, yet no less important than the rest, a soul stipend ensures that staff have the opportunity to experience their spirituality in the way that makes best sense for them. A soul stipend is all about time. Whether it's taking 30 minutes during the work day to pray or meditate, or making sure holy religious days like the Sabbath or Shabbat are able to be observed free from work, our connection to our spiritual selves is an important component of our holistic wellbeing.

Consider allocating some of your time-off policy to spiritual pursuits. Retreats can be life changing experiences, bringing individuals back to reality with a vitality like never before.

Vocational - A Passion Stipend

If everyone liked 100% of their jobs, they wouldn’t be considered jobs. The reality of work is that there are parts we are passionate about, and other parts not so much. Regardless, something keeps us in those roles that creates passion and pride in our workforce. A passion stipend invests in that feeling.

Allow the allocation of either time or resources to facilitate more passionate work. Whether that is sending people to conferences, allowing them to contribute to open-source projects in down time, offering a project for free to the community, or facilitating career progression. You should invest in what matters most to staff, based on what they are most passionate about.

Financial - Financial Wellness Stipend

Managing your finances at the different stages of life can be a daunting prospect. For our junior staff, they may be new to the world of paying for taxes, contributing to retirement, or ensuring what matters most to them.

There are great tools out there like Nudge Global, who encourage financial education to help facilitate a more financially literate workforce.

Interested in offering all of the above to your workforce, and letting them decide what makes sense for them? Contact us for a demo account, so you can see how easy it is to manage your employees' different types of wellness programs.