How to build a wellness benefit that works

It’s common sense (and backed by research) that if you’re sick or stressed-out, you can’t be your best self at work. That’s the promise of corporate wellness benefits: healthier workplaces create outcomes like higher productivity, lower health insurance spending, and stronger employee retention.

But administering these programs properly is crucial. If getting wellness spend approved is a hassle, employees won’t even bother. Yet without enough oversight, they can devolve into a free-for-all with almost zero spending restrictions. My favorite example? Someone at Ramp tried to classify Netflix as a wellness expense—come on!

At Ramp, we’ve received a lot of interest about how we built our wellness benefit to deliver ROI without the headaches. So today, we’re breaking it down!

The basic idea? Clarity, communication, and reduced administrative overhead. That lets people reap the benefits of a healthier work life, while preventing out-of-policy spend before it happens.

Get clear on what “wellness” means to you

Before you do anything else, define what "wellness" means at your company. The answer will depend on your employees’ needs, your organizational culture, and what other benefits are already offered.

Is your benefit purely for physical wellness like gym memberships, fitness attire, and classes? Or do you include mental, spiritual, or even financial wellness, such as therapy or financial planning?

The most popular wellness merchants among Ramp employees

Record these definitions in clear, easily accessible policies. At Ramp, we use an internal document with clear examples of what’s in-policy and what’s not.

An excerpt of Ramp’s internal wellness policy document

The right spend management tool can streamline things even further. For example, with Ramp Cards employers can easily set Merchant and Category restrictions to proactively control wellness spending.

Frame wellness as an organization-wide priority, not a reward to be earned

At Ramp, a $900 annual wellness benefit is issued to every single employee from day one. We structure the benefit as $300 quarterly, or $75 a month, to encourage employees to invest in their wellness consistently throughout the year.

We don’t see wellness benefits as a way to reward seniority or high performance. Plenty of research backs up the connection between well-being and productivity, so everyone should invest in their health in order to do their best work.

Reduce overhead work for admin and finance teams

The whole point of a wellness program is to make employees healthier and happier — not create additional stress for the people trying to use and administer it.

If employees need to save receipts, submit memos, and deal with approvals for every purchase, they might not even use their wellness benefit. And of course, constantly vetting and reconciling wellness spend creates more work for admin and finance teams who’d rather be focused on strategy and mission-critical activities.

With Ramp, wellness transactions can be auto-approved from Ramp Cards, and purchases can be automatically booked as Employee Fringe Benefits into your accounting tool of choice.

The right tool makes your wellness benefit effortless

Ramp’s Spend Management tools make it easier to control, track, and oversee wellness benefits, WFH stipends, business travel costs and more.

Ramp replaces multiple corporate finance tools, so employers handle corporate cards, accounts payable, expense management and more from one from one centralized place. There’s less accounting busywork, no worries or confusion about permitted merchants, and reduced out-of-policy spend — saving everyone money and time.

Try Ramp free today and make wellness spending simple