The 2020 pandemic has transformed people, the job market, routine, and other aspects of personal and professional life. Therefore, in the coming year, companies sought out new ways to improve professionals’ and employees’ well-being and quality of life.

So now is the time for companies to review their priorities and rethink their strategies based on corporate health trends. Find out more below, where we compare the corporate health between the U.S and Europe.

What is Wellness?

The word well-being is the state of good physical disposition; satisfaction of physical and spiritual needs. Other ways to define well-being include the following:

• A pleasant feeling of security, comfort, and tranquility.
• Comfortable material condition, with enough possessions for the convenience of life; material comfort and prosperity.
• Well-being relates to physical and mental health, stable financial conditions, and good interpersonal interactions.  

What is Corporate Health?

Corporate health or well-being at work should be one of the organization’s priorities. Companies need to carry out actions to promote employees’ physical, mental, financial, and social well-being inside and outside the company. Corporate well-being is one of the H.R. indices to measure employees’ quality of life and well-being.

Good corporate well-being results in tremendous benefits to the company. Some of these benefits include increased profits and productivity of professionals who are satisfied with the institution.

Difference Between Corporate Health in the U.S Vs. Europe

Glassdoor has published a report in which a comparison between European countries and the United States is established regarding the benefits or facilities companies offer workers. As a result, it can be detected – not far from expected – that North Americans are not very competitive in taking care of employees.

The study, conducted jointly with Llewellyn Consulting’s London headquarters, takes a tour of the employment benefits offered at the U.S. level compared to the 14 European countries analyzed.

According to a portal survey, it was found that 79% of U.S. employees would prefer other benefits apart from a salary increase, such as health insurance, paid vacation days, or a retirement plan. In this sense, European countries have a tremendous competitive advantage that favors talent retention in companies.

Let’s analyze some differences.

Maternity Leave

Parental leave policies are very different at the European and U.S. level. In all countries of the European Union, maternity leave is at least 14 weeks paid, although this remuneration differs in each country.

However, in the U.S., leave is stipulated under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which determines the right to 12 weeks of unpaid leave.

Paid Vacation Benefits

In Europe, a minimum of four weeks of annual vacation has been set, or what are the same, 20 days, and this does not include local or national holidays. Certain European countries are more generous than others. Among them are, for example, Sweden, France, and Denmark. In this line, the number of paid holidays is greater in Spain (14), Austria (13) and Italy (12), compared to Switzerland (4) or the United Kingdom (8).

Vacations in the United States are achieved after 6 months of work, and each company is in charge of granting workers the number of days since, at the national level, it is not mandatory to provide them. However, some states set a minimum number of days companies must offer their employees. According to a published report, the average number of vacations Americans take is 10 days per year.

Paid Sick Days

In Europe, a regulation requires companies to provide paid sick days. In this sense, the Netherlands is the most generous since employees can take up to 104 weeks (2 years) of absence, receiving 70% of their salary.

The U.S. does not have regulations as such, but each company’s responsibility is to provide a few days of sick leave to the worker. Therefore, it is not mandatory at the national level. However, some states require a 3-6 day toast for possible illness.

How To Improve Your Employee Well-Being In 2022?

Forbes magazine cited the 5 biggest trends in the workplace for 2022, one of which is the importance of including health and wellness strategies in Human Resource planning. 

To help H.R. professionals, we’ll show you what can be done to improve employee well-being in the coming year. See below:

• An incentive for physical activities (physical well-being)
• Support for therapy (mental well-being)
• Financial assistance to improve the financial well-being
• Hybrid system (social welfare)
• Care with food (physical well-being)
• Offer flexibility (mental well-being)
• Offering financial benefits to improve the financial well-being
• Commemorative events (social welfare)

Final Thoughts

Now is the time to put into practice the actions that contribute to workers’ physical, mental, financial, and social well-being. If you have not yet carried out any corporate well-being action, you need to be concerned and act as soon as possible for the good of your employees and the institution’s success.

Review some trending ways to improve corporate wellness and the statistics.