Fitness Center Discount is What Employees Want

According to a recent Principal Financial Well-Being Index, the top wellness benefit that workers would like to receive is a fitness center discount. However, this discount is not the top benefit offered by employers.

The index, surveying American workers at growing businesses with 10 to 1,000 workers, noted that in addition to a fitness center discount, other wellness benefits that workers would like to receive include on-site preventative screenings, access to wellness experts such as nutritionists, and onsite fitness facilities. The actual top wellness benefits offered by employers included online wellness information, educational tools or resources, fitness center discounts, and printed wellness information.

A finding of the survey conducted by Harris Interactive for global investment management company Principal Financial Group showed that Americans work harder, are more productive and miss fewer days of work if they participate in wellness benefit programs. Of the workers surveyed, 41 percent agreed that having a wellness program inspired them to work harder and perform better at work.

"Americans' increasing sense of personal responsibility for their physical well-being leads to workers showing up to work and staying productive while there," Lee Dukes, president of Principal Wellness Company, a subsidiary of the Principal Financial Group, said in a release about the report. "Employers who embrace a culture of wellness in their workplaces can benefit in return with not only costs-savings but healthier and more engaged employees."

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