Corporate Wellness Programs Face Reality Check

The era of unlimited gym memberships and lavish wellness perks is ending. For years, companies have offered a suite of subsidized benefits—from mental health apps to premium fitness memberships—to attract and retain talent. But as economic uncertainty grows and healthcare costs soar, corporations are taking a hard look at what they're actually paying for.

Workplace wellness programs have exploded over the past decade, with businesses rolling out everything from office snacks to meditation sessions. The pandemic upped the ante further, as companies scrambled to support a hyper-stressed workforce. Now, the ground is shifting. Employers aren't eliminating wellness programs entirely, but they are cutting excessive, underutilized benefits and shifting toward more cost-effective, targeted solutions.

The message is clear: companies still want to support employee well-being, but they're no longer willing to waste money on perks that employees don't use or that don't deliver measurable results.

The financial reality is undeniable. Data from expense management platform Ramp Capital shows that companies using its system reduced wellness benefits from $1,366 per worker in 2023 to $1,103 in 2025—a 20% decline in just two years.

This cutback comes as companies face soaring costs for their primary healthcare expenditure: insurance. Annual family premiums for employer coverage increased by 6% to nearly $27,000 in 2025, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, and are expected to hit $30,000 this year. When forced to choose, employers are prioritizing essential medical coverage over optional wellness perks.

Employees are adapting to this new reality. As benefits shrink, workers are shifting toward budget-friendly alternatives. Usage of apps like ClassPass and Wellhub has increased, while many are moving from luxury gyms to more affordable options like Planet Fitness.

Benefits are being cut, and then as those benefits are being cut, people are spending at cheaper places on average.

For years, companies invested heavily in wellness programs without clear evidence of their effectiveness. Global spending on corporate wellness is estimated at nearly $95 billion worldwide this year, yet returns remain difficult to track and employee uptake is often limited.

Industry analyst Josh Bersin, CEO of The Josh Bersin Company, notes that despite massive investments, few companies can point to wellness programs as a key to success. "I don't know that anybody's told me that it's paid off," Bersin says. "I don't hear companies saying, 'Our well-being program has been our secret to success.' So it does not surprise me that this got really overbuilt and overhyped."

Employee engagement data supports this skepticism. A 2023 Deloitte survey found that 68% of workers don't use the full value of their company's well-being resources because programs are too "time-consuming, confusing, or cumbersome" to access. A separate 2025 survey revealed that fewer than one-third of employees access their company's digital wellness platform monthly.

Even more concerning: a 2024 Oxford University study found that most employer wellness offerings—well-being apps, relaxation classes, and financial coaching—generally didn't make workers better off. The only exception was providing opportunities to volunteer; resilience and stress management training actually had a negative impact.

Companies are now getting smarter about how they spend on wellness. Rather than top-down decisions driven by HR initiatives, businesses are adopting data-driven platforms that track what employees actually use.

Zachary Chertok, senior research manager for employee experience at IDC, explains that spending on physical and mental well-being is growing more strategic. "As wellness spend matures, companies are thinking more about individual use and engagement cases and how spend can be mapped to it," Chertok says.

New platforms collect data on what people are using and what they're ignoring, helping employers "connect the dots on what is actually having an impact and working." This allows companies to refine their offerings over time, dropping benefits that employees don't use and investing more in those they do.

For example, if an employee never downloads a mental health app, the platform can stop promoting it. If enough employees show the same pattern, the employer can drop the benefit entirely. This approach lets companies choose which options to include and exclude, creating a more personalized and cost-effective wellness strategy.

The value proposition of the company is very simple, they pay $2-$5 per employee per month, and that's it.

While companies focus on cost savings, employees face an awkward arrangement. For those who use the perks, benefits are a plus, but many workers feel their bosses are simply trying to slap a band-aid-sized app onto much larger problems of stress, burnout, and overwork.

A mindfulness workshop scheduled in the middle of the workday doesn't help an employee who's so overwhelmed they don't have 20 minutes for lunch. It also fosters animosity, as workers wonder who among the ranks actually has time for these programs.

The fundamental issue is that wellness benefits often don't address root causes. A financial health app does little if you're severely underpaid. A gym membership is useless if you're working 11-hour days. A stress management video doesn't help you figure out how to manage sky-high insurance premiums.

As Bersin notes, "I think most people would rather have it go into their medical benefits because that's the big cost." The reality is that while companies are trying to be more strategic about wellness spending, the underlying pressures of modern work remain unchanged.

The corporate wellness landscape is fundamentally changing. Companies are moving away from lavish, one-size-fits-all perks toward more targeted, data-driven benefits that employees actually use. This means your gym membership might shift from Equinox to Planet Fitness, and your mental health app might be replaced by a more cost-effective alternative.

For employees, this shift requires a realistic perspective. Wellness benefits are extras, not essentials. While it's nice to have access to subsidized fitness classes or meditation apps, these perks should never come at the expense of your salary, job security, or comprehensive healthcare coverage.

The future of corporate wellness is about smart, strategic spending that delivers measurable value. Companies will continue to support employee well-being, but they'll do so by investing in what works—not what looks impressive in a benefits package.

As one employee noted: "I can learn to run outside." Sometimes the most effective wellness solution is the simplest one.