HR leaders and office managers are basically superheroes during the holidays. Not only do you coordinate employee gifts and plan holiday parties, but you also make time for corporate wellness program planning and budgeting for the new year!
That’s time well spent because wellness programs can lead to happier, healthier employees who are more productive and more present. But how do you sort the must-have benefits from the trendy ones and zero in on what your team really needs to be happy and healthy?
One of the best strategies is learning from your peers—and The FruitGuys’ head of HR, Venita Devine, is a great person to start with.
The FruitGuys delivers fresh fruit and snacks to offices as an employee wellness perk and runs an internal employee wellness program. That combination gives Venita unique insight into what’s truly important to employees—at The FruitGuys and beyond.
“As a smaller women-led business, we’re trying to not only stay competitive with the market and other companies, but also be thoughtful about what people need,” Venita said.
Here’s a rundown of her insights, including wellness trends to watch, wellness program must-haves, and corporate wellness program planning tips.
Right now, Venita told us, the trendiest benefits are the ones that acknowledge employees are human beings with complex lives and needs. Here are a few of those benefits.
Five years on from the COVID-19 pandemic, employees are still looking for flexibility in where, when, and how they work. Hybrid schedules, flexible hours, and options to work remotely are still popular and will probably stay that way in 2026.
According to Mind Share Partners’ 2025 Mental Health at Work Report, 90% of workers are dealing with some kind of mental health challenge. That’s up from 76% in 2021! In response, more employers are offering mental health resources ranging from meditation and sleep app subscriptions to insurance coverage for therapy visits.
Employees are increasingly interested in niche benefits they can opt into that go beyond typical options like vision and dental.
“Last year, The FruitGuys offered some voluntary benefits like pet insurance and identity protection for the first time, and people are always asking for more options there,” Venita said.
About 20% of the US workforce is going through menopause. To help with the transition, employers are offering insurance coverage for hormone replacement therapy and related treatments, providing educational tools, and giving employees access to menopause specialists via telehealth appointments.
NPR reports that in 2025, 12.4% of Americans are taking GLP-1 agonist drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, up from 5.8% in early 2024. These drugs help people with type 2 diabetes manage their blood sugar, but they’re also popular for weight loss. One 2025 survey found that one in five firms with over 200 workers covers GLP-1 agonists for weight loss, and Venita expects that number to keep going up.
“There’s a big group of people in the workforce right now who have not only aging parents but also children,” Venita explained. “So for people going through that, having caregiver support can be key.”
Flexible hours, work-from-home options, and Flexible Spending Accounts can all help make it easier for employees to balance work and caregiving.
When it comes to choosing benefits and perks, the options are pretty much endless—but corporate wellness program planning doesn’t need to be complicated. Before jumping on the trends, Venita recommends starting with the basics.
These four basic benefits are a great foundation for your wellness program budget. Together, they’ll support your team’s mental, physical, and financial health.
Employees with insurance are almost twice as likely to get medical treatment if they’re sick, and affordable insurance can also help reduce financial stress.
“Earlier this year, we sent out a survey on benefits just to get a pulse on what’s important to people on our team,” Venita said. “The top three most important things were low deductibles and out-of-pocket costs, low monthly premiums, and prescription drug costs/coverage.”
Retirement support like pensions or 401(k)s help employees feel less financially stressed and more secure. In a Forbes Advisor survey, employees ranked “pension and retirement plans” third in their list of benefits they want from their employers, right after employer-covered healthcare and life insurance.
Studies have linked vacations to lower stress and reduced risk of illnesses like depression and heart disease. Employees come back from time away feeling more creative, productive, and motivated. In the Forbes Advisor survey of the benefits that matter most to employees, “mandatory paid time-off” ranked fourth. If you’re already offering as much paid time off as you can, scheduling microbreaks during the workday can make a wellness difference.
In a 2023 ezCater survey, 57% of employees called free or subsidized food their favorite “work perk,” and linked it to increased attendance, performance, productivity, and engagement. Just keeping a bowl of colorful fruit and a few wholesome snacks in the break room can help make your team happier and healthier.
The FruitGuys makes this easy with our office fruit and snack delivery service, and we deliver to employees’ homes, too. Everyone on our team gets a fruit box once a week as a wellness perk and to make their lives a little easier.
“I think the employee fruit box is such a valuable benefit because no matter where you live or what your access to local food looks like, you can count on those fruits and veggies to feed your family and help offset the high cost of groceries,” Venita said.
If you have affordable insurance, retirement support, paid time off, and free healthy food, you have the foundation of a solid wellness program that you can build on.
Venita has worked in HR for almost eight years, so she has a lot of experience with corporate wellness program planning. Here are a few of her tips to help you make your 2026 wellness plan a success.
Just because corporate wellness program planning is important doesn’t mean it needs to be stressful. If you use these tips, start with the basics, and consider the trends, you can check it off your list well before the new year!
Providing healthy food to your team is one of the most important things you can do for their health and happiness at work. And The FruitGuys makes it easy! We’ll deliver fresh fruit and wholesome snacks right to your office, and we switch up our curated mixes every week to keep things exciting.
You can even schedule recurring deliveries: just order once, and we’ll keep delivering the good stuff as often as you want, without any contracts or subscriptions. To get started, browse our fruit and snack options and choose your favorite mix!
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