According to a study by the University of South Florida, employees value fitness and health less

Employees who have direct contact with customers, such as cashiers or salespeople, are more likely to be motivated by perks such as free meals and excursions than by free health services or gym memberships. This was discovered by a team led by Dipayan Biswas from the University of South Florida (https://www.usf.edu/).

Company picnics are also popular

The researchers examined the effectiveness of five motivational offers paid for by the company: meals, social benefits, mindfulness offerings such as meditation rooms, and fitness and health services. It turned out that free meals and events such as happy hours or company picnics make a major contribution to motivating employees to provide better service.

Catering and social programs make employees feel more appreciated and strengthen their loyalty to their employer, according to Biswas. Motivated in this way, employees are more likely to care about the well-being of their company and repay the investment with better performance, higher service quality, and better customer care. Better service, in turn, leads to higher sales. Physical and health benefits such as gym memberships or flu vaccinations, on the other hand, have the least effect.

Offers cost $90 billion

“The recommendation for any company, large or small, is that if you offer wellness programs, those that promote nutrition and connectedness have the strongest impact on customer relationships.” The idea to study the impact of additional benefits for employees arose from the increasing availability of wellness programs. Until now, no one knew whether this investment was worthwhile and which programs were most effective. More than 90 percent of companies worldwide now offer these programs. Global spending is estimated to exceed $90 billion per year.