Running a successful business isn’t just about attracting and hiring your industry’s top talent; it’s about ensuring that your employees, once hired, are bringing the best versions of themselves to work each day. From offering workers opportunities to improve their wellness, to ensuring their daily safety and enabling seamless remote work capabilities, there are dozens of ways that companies can enhance the overall employee experience.

Wellness

Providing employees with wellness benefits can help to keep them happy, healthy and physically and mentally ready for the job. On-site gyms can ensure that employees have access to an outlet where they can relieve stress and improve their fitness, while offering convenience and cost savings for the employees. In addition to helping employees’ thinking, learning and judgment skills, routine exercise is known to have preventative benefits, such as reducing the risk for heart disease and stroke.

Wearable devices, such as Fitbits or Apple Watches, can be great incentives for encouraging teams to stay active; sponsoring competitions and challenges can help to keep office morale high. Employers can also utilize an on-site nurse practitioner, which allows employees to see a medical professional sooner than if they had to take off work to get an appointment, ultimately putting people back on the road to recovery and limiting the time employees are absent from work (while also preserving their PTO time for other uses).

Safety

While wellness is important to employees, safety is paramount. It’s difficult for an employee to dedicate their full attention to work if they have concerns about their privacy and security. Providing workers with access-controlled environments guarantees that only an approved list of people and their guests are on the company’s premises. Ensuring that only select people have access to specific areas and documents provides peace of mind and reduces potential liability.

Just as wearables promote the wellness of workers, they can also foster safer workplaces. Employees in a warehouse or distribution center, for example, can be equipped with devices that notify them if they’re unknowingly in the pathway of a rapidly approaching forklift. Employers owe it to their workers to keep them safe, and technology has revolutionized the workplace by providing an ability to minimize risks and ensure the safety of all employees.

Work from Home

There are also other ways technology can ensure that employees are bringing their best selves to work each day, even if they’re not physically in the office. The prominence of working remotely is on the rise – and for good reason. Remote working can increase worker productivity, save on overhead costs and allow companies to select from a wider candidate pool.

However, without an intentional effort, it can be easy for remote employees to feel isolated. Fortunately, cloud-based programs such as Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business can virtually eliminate physical barriers, making employees feel more connected to one another. And just as on-site employees may use the company’s gym, telecommuters can still participate in virtual gyms or boot camps, fusing fitness with community.

An investment in one’s employees is one of the greatest investments an organization can make. To quote Richard Branson, CEO and founder of Virgin Group, “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” Support their wellness, protect their safety and foster an inclusive work environment, regardless of where each person sits, and you’ll create an environment in which each person will be ready to fully devote themselves to their work.