3 Reasons Wellness Benefits Make Return to Office Easier

The buzz about return to office (RTO) is fading, but there are still plenty of companies quietly planning to bring their employees back to work in person. In September 2024, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy asked his team to be back at work five days a week starting in January 2025—and he’s not alone. 

According to a recent ResumeTemplates survey of more than 1,500 US business leaders, 21% of companies are hoping to bring more employees back into the office in late 2024 and 2025. 

If your employer is one of them, you know that keeping your team happy through this transition can be tricky. There’s no silver bullet for a smooth return to the office, but there are steps you can take to make things easier—like implementing return to office wellness benefits for employees.

Here are three reasons why enhancing your wellness program is a winning strategy. 

1. Employees value their benefits—in some cases even more than a pay bump. 

Some employees would rather look for new opportunities than return to the office, but increasing their benefits (instead of or in addition to bumping their pay) could help change that calculation. A recent Reward Gateway/Edenred survey of 1,000 employees, managers, and executives found that in many cases, employees value benefits even more than a 10% raise. 

More than half of the employees surveyed said they would prefer better insurance, financial, and time off benefits to a pay bump, and 36% said they would take increased health and wellness-related benefits over a raise. 

If you’re already offering top-notch insurance, financial perks, and PTO—or if those things are out of your budget—adding return to office wellness benefits for employees could be a smart step for RTO retention. Consider perks like gym memberships, health coaching, and/or free healthy snacks throughout the office.

2. Return to office wellness benefits show that you care. 

For one in three employees, the return-to-office transition negatively impacts their mental health. It can be stressful to rework their daily routines, factoring in things like commute times and childcare. Providing thoughtful wellness benefits during that tough time can show your team that you care about their mental and physical wellbeing. 

Think about ways the back-to-office transition could make your employees’ days more stressful. Will they struggle to fit a workout in without access to their home gym? Offering memberships for a gym near the office could help. Will long commutes lead them to rush out the door and skip breakfast or spend extra to buy it on the go? Adding fresh fruit and healthy snacks like oatmeal or clean-ingredient protein bars to your break room could reduce that stress.

If you’re not sure which wellness perks would be meaningful to your team, send out an employee survey to find out. They’d probably love to share their preferences. 

3. Wellness benefits create opportunities for connection.

A 2023 Buffer survey of 3,000 remote workers found that nearly 45% of them struggled with collaborating, communicating, and/or feeling connected to their coworkers. Getting back to the office can help solve those problems, and celebrating that fact can keep your team’s spirits up.

To underscore this in-person perk, try leaning on wellness benefits like group fitness classes, fruit and snack tastings, in-office farmers markets, and other employee engagement events. Not only will they help you promote healthy habits, they’ll highlight one of the best parts of the in-office experience and potentially make RTO more appealing. 

For more RTO tips, check out our list of return to office best practices for happy employees and our rundown of healthy back-to-work snacks. The more thoughtful you are about your company’s RTO policy, the happier (and healthier) your employees will be in 2025.