Employee Health and Wellness: Benefits, Programs and Stipends That Work

Employee health and wellness is the physical, mental, financial and social health of your people, and the support an employer gives to protect it. The employers that get it right cover the basics first (insurance, preventive care and mental health support), then add flexible options such as a health and wellness stipend so each person can choose what helps them most.

A typical workday carries more than tasks and deadlines. It also carries stress, mental exhaustion and the risk of burnout, and an employment contract quietly asks for physical, emotional and mental energy as well as time. This guide explains what employee health and wellness covers, which employee wellness benefits matter most, how to run a health and wellness stipend, wellness stipend ideas by category and a scorecard you can use to audit your current offer.

What employee health and wellness means

Employee health and wellness is the state of an employee's body, mind, finances and relationships, plus the policies, benefits and culture an employer uses to support them. True wellbeing is not limited to an annual health check or an occasional fitness challenge. It means making it easier for employees to look after their health every day, in ways that matter to them.

Most employers now think about employee health and wellness across five connected dimensions. The table shows what each covers and the kind of employer support that helps.

Why employee health and wellness matters for business

Employees today want more than a paycheck. They look for employers who care about their overall wellbeing, and the data shows why that care pays off.

MetLife's 2026 U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study found that only 44% of employees feel holistically healthy, yet those who do are 25% more productive and loyal and take 10% fewer sick days. Employers in the same study expect about $2.30 back for every $1 they invest in employee health. Gallup's State of the Global Workplace puts the share of employees who are thriving at just 34%, and the World Health Organization estimates that depression and anxiety cost about 12 billion working days a year.

Health costs keep rising too. The KFF 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey puts average annual premiums at $9,325 for single coverage and $26,993 for family coverage, up 5% and 6% from 2024. Companies that invest in health and wellness well tend to see five returns:

• Higher morale: Showing employees that the organization cares about their health changes the mood on the floor. People get into their groove when they feel mentally and physically well.
• Lower health risks: Whether the goal is lower cholesterol, better sleep or simply getting fit, support that people actually use reduces health risks over time.
• Better value for money: One-size-fits-all perks often go unused. When employees choose what they need, wellness spend is far more likely to pay off.
• Lower healthcare costs: A monthly talk on healthy eating will not move claims. A comprehensive approach that combines prevention, early care and mental health support can.
• Higher productivity: Fatigued employees cannot give their best, however much they want to. You cannot set a bedtime for your people, but you can give them the support that keeps them in good shape.

Employee wellness benefits that make the biggest difference

The seven benefit areas below cover the needs employees raise most often, starting with mental health and preventive care because they protect everything else. Use them as a menu: most employers fund the first three for everyone and offer the rest through a flexible budget.

1. Mental health support and an employee assistance program

Work and life pressures leave many people mentally depleted and overwhelmed, and mental health problems are one of the biggest drags on productivity. An employee assistance program (EAP) gives employees confidential help with work and life challenges, from a discreet hotline where they can talk through what is bothering them to short-term counseling and sessions on managing workplace stress.

Offer mental health support with no strings attached and make it easy to reach without going through a manager. For a fuller set of strategies, read this guide to mental health in the workplace and these ways to prevent burnout.

2. Preventive care, check-ups and diagnostics

A doctor's visit often comes with lab tests, and those costs add up. Subsidized or cashless medical tests, annual health check-ups and bundled savings on consultations, pharmacy and procedures remove a common reason people delay care. Preventive screening also catches problems early, when they are cheaper and easier to treat.

3. Online doctor consultations and medication savings

Many people hesitate to visit a clinic for something minor, and a quick teleconsultation is often enough for a first screening. Teleconsults, pharmacy delivery and discounts on prescribed and over-the-counter medicines make routine care faster and cheaper, especially for remote and shift workers.

4. Fitness and gym memberships

Gym and health club memberships remain one of the most requested wellness perks. The CDC recommends that adults get 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity a week plus at least 2 days of muscle-strengthening activity, so access to a gym, classes or home equipment helps people hit that target. Team fitness challenges add a social reason to keep going.

5. Nutrition and healthy eating

From keeping the pantry stocked with fiber-rich, protein-packed snacks to offering nutrition consultations, healthy meal subscriptions and dietitian sessions, nutrition support works both in the office and at home. Whether employees are going plant-based, cutting sugar or simply trying to eat better, tailored options help them stay on track. Protein and health supplements are a popular choice for people who train regularly.

6. Rest, recovery and self-care

Self-care services such as massages, spa therapies and salon sessions are among the places employees most like to spend wellness money. Investing in rest and recovery helps reduce stress and burnout, and it brings renewed energy and gratitude back to work. Paid time off that people actually take matters just as much.

7. Women's and men's health

Women's health needs, such as menstrual health, fertility, maternity and menopause care, come with real costs, and many employers now add leave policies and dedicated support. Men's health is often overlooked, so preventive screening, specialist consultations and mental health outreach aimed at men close an important gap.

Workplace health and wellness programs that work

Benefits are only half of the picture. Workplace health and wellness programs work when they also fix the conditions that make people unwell, such as unrealistic workloads, poor management and a culture where nobody takes leave.

A 2024 Oxford study of over 46,000 UK workers found that individual-level offerings such as apps and resilience classes showed little benefit on their own, while volunteering did. The lesson is not to drop wellness benefits but to combine them with better work design, manager support and flexibility, then measure what people use. The employee wellbeing programs guide walks through building a program step by step, and the employee wellness trends post covers what employers are adding next.

Health and wellness stipend: what it is and how it works

A health and wellness stipend is a fixed amount of money an employer gives employees to spend on their own health and wellbeing, such as a gym membership, a yoga class, a meditation app or a nutrition plan. Because the money goes into employees' hands, it is one of the most flexible ways to show that the organization cares about employee health and wellness.

Employers usually pay the stipend on a regular cycle:

• Monthly: Best for recurring costs such as gym fees and app subscriptions.
• Quarterly: A good balance between flexibility and admin effort.
• Semi-annual or annual: Suits larger one-off purchases such as fitness equipment or a health retreat.

In the US, a cash wellness stipend is generally taxable wages. IRS Publication 15-B states that any fringe benefit is taxable unless the law excludes it, and cash, gift cards and athletic club memberships cannot be treated as tax-free de minimis benefits. Employers can gross up the stipend to cover the tax or let employees bear it. Rules differ by country, so check local guidance and see this explainer on non-taxable employee benefits.

How to set up a health and wellness stipend employees actually use

Sneaker money and a gym pass sound like a good start, but not every employee wants the same thing. The key to participation is choice, so the six steps below start with what employees want and end with how you measure use.

1. Ask employees what they need: Run a short pulse survey on wellness priorities by age, location and work pattern. A 26-year-old may want a gym pass while a 42-year-old wants childcare or a physiotherapist.
2. Set the amount and cycle: Pick a per-employee amount you can sustain and a cycle that fits the spend (monthly for subscriptions, annual for equipment). Decide whether unused balances roll over or expire.
3. Define eligible categories: List what counts, such as fitness, mental health, nutrition, preventive care and self-care, and what does not. Clear rules prevent awkward claim disputes later.
4. Decide how money is spent: Choose between reimbursement against receipts, a preloaded card or a catalog where employees redeem directly. Catalogs and cards remove the paperwork that kills participation.
5. Handle tax and compliance: Agree with payroll how the stipend is reported and whether you gross it up. Write the policy down and share it with employees.
6. Launch, nudge and measure: Announce the stipend on the channels employees already use, remind people before balances expire and track utilization by team and location every quarter.

Wellness stipend ideas by category

A good stipend offers enough variety that everyone finds something useful. These wellness stipend ideas cover the categories employees use most.

Employee health and wellness scorecard

Use this scorecard to audit your current offer in under 15 minutes. Score each row 0 (missing), 1 (partly in place) or 2 (fully in place); 16 or more out of 20 is strong, 10 to 15 means clear gaps, and below 10 means start with the first four rows.

How Empuls supports employee health and wellness

Health benefits spread across insurers, gym partners, apps and reimbursement forms are hard for employees to find and hard for HR to measure. Empuls brings them into one platform, so employees see every wellness option in one place and HR can see what people use.

• Health and wellness in one place: Empuls Wellness connects employees to 500+ curated partners across fitness, outpatient care, mental health and diagnostics, with mood check-ins, pulse surveys and fitness data feeding one wellness score.
• Wellness wallets by cohort: The corporate wellness program offers five wallets (outpatient care, dental and vision, mental health, elder, child and pet care, and teleconsults) that you configure per cohort, cashless at partners and tax-treated per jurisdiction.
• Fitness challenges: Fitness challenges sync with Apple Health, Google Fit and major wearables, run stepathons and streaks and pay out rewards automatically when goals are hit.
• Flexible stipends: Lifestyle accounts turn a wellness stipend into a recurring budget across 12 out-of-the-box categories, spent by card, partner marketplace or credit, with caps and rollover rules you set.
• Protection and financial wellness: Insurance and protection layers top-ups, outpatient cover and small-ticket insurance onto group policies, while financial wellness adds earned wage access and other lending through partners.

The Mood-o-Meter daily check-in and wellbeing reports on the employee wellbeing solution show trends by team and location, so you can spot stress early and prove which parts of your health and wellness offer are working.

Building employee health and wellness that lasts

Employee health and wellness is not a luxury. It is the base for a resilient, productive workforce. Start with the essentials of insurance, preventive care and mental health support, fix the work conditions that wear people down and then add a health and wellness stipend so every employee can choose what helps them most.

Use the scorecard to find your gaps, close the lowest-scoring rows first and measure utilization every quarter. When people feel healthy and supported, they invest their energy, loyalty and creativity back into the work.