Going to the gym is about to get a lot more expensive. That's because the share of companies offering wellness programs dropped 13 percent this year. These programs -- which often include subsidized gym memberships, free fitness trackers, and bonuses for losing weight -- keep employees healthy, thereby cutting medical and insurance expenses. At least that's the theory.

In practice, many companies aren't seeing a return on their wellness investments. So they're ditching the programs. That's a mistake. Employers can save themselves millions through wellness programs. They just need to find ways to boost workers' low participation rates.

Via ki.com >

Your employees spend a minimum of 8 hours at work in the office space every day. That’s a big chunk of time – about a third of their lives, to be fair. In those eight hours they must be exceptionally motivated in order to prove the best possible results.

One thing you can do to maintain motivation and productivity is spruce up the office space. People’s work environment can impact their productivity, so you should do everything you can to create a space that your employees will want to return to everyday.

Via everydaypowerblog.com >

Flexible working has developed a reputation as something of a silver bullet. It is the perceived solution to almost any of the major workplace problems you care to mention, including the gender pay gap, work life balance, churn, property costs, staff engagement, personal autonomy, stress, physical wellbeing, productivity and – of course – as a way of meeting the needs of those alien beings we now call Millennials. There is some truth in all of this, as we have known for some time. There is no question that there are major problems with the way many people work and that flexible working, hand in hand with new tech, is a way of solving them to one degree or another. And yet, as one of the most interesting yet overlooked recent pieces of research into the effects of flexible working has made clear, the reason behind this may be more complex and fragile than we might suppose and has an antecedence in research that is now approaching its centenary.

Via workplaceinsight.net >

The portrait often drawn of Millennials is that of a generation which is keen to stand out from that of its elders, and which is difficult to pin down. They’re said to have difficulty accepting a hierarchical structure and no longer view their salary as the only motivating factor but instead are looking for a sense of accomplishment in their work. Yet as we reported recently, the behaviour and expectations of this younger generation has in fact stayed fairly constant. For them, the ideal company has attributes which are actually fairly similar to those cited by their more experienced colleagues. The result of the latest Edenred-Ipsos barometer into the under 30s suggests that for employers, the issue is not so much about dealing with this generation independently of the others, but rather globally rethinking leadership challenges in an environment which is increasingly digitalized, horizontal and multi-task oriented, taking into account individual countries’ cultural differences.

Via workplaceinsight.net >