Keeping your employees happy and healthy is vital to your success. It boosts their job satisfaction and can help you attract new talent to your company. It also reduces the price you pay for group health insurance, decreases absenteeism, and provides a welcome interruption to the daily grind.

Your employee wellness program is a cost of doing business, consuming financial and human resources. But this slice of overhead is more investment than spending, if you do it wisely.

You want to give employees what they need to thrive without blowing the budget. Here are three cost-effective ways to give your company’s wellness program an upgrade without breaking the bank.

1. Add a Multifaceted Discount Program

Employee discounts are probably not the first idea that comes to mind when upgrading your wellness program. But they are a great way to improve the personal lives of your employees. That, in turn, makes them more productive on the job.

Not all the options out there are equal. A comprehensive employee discount program will go far beyond those gym deals and Disneyland discounts. Some even allow you to provide benefits that complement your group health insurance plan and your 401k.

Look for a corporate discount program that provides deals to places where employees actually spend their money. Destinations, hotels, and other travel discounts should have universal appeal. And there should be a mix of discounts employees can use locally or to get away.

Programs should also provide useful voluntary benefits like insurance for pets and identity theft protection. And to expand their peace of mind, offer options that can increase financial security. For example, your company can offer affordable life and disability, long-term care, and critical illness insurance.

Corporate discount programs are budget-friendly for your company as well. You pay little to take advantage of those lucrative deals. What you’re doing is opening the door to them for your employees, and that’s good for them and for you.

2. Encourage Employee Talent Sharing

When you look at your employees, you probably see them in the roles they fill at work. But they have lives beyond the workplace that make them so much more than that. Why not let them share their experiences, expertise, and interests with other employees? You just need to provide them with time and space to make it happen.

Yoga is a great way to help employees lower stress, relax, and meditate. If you have employees who have mastered it, encourage them to lead their co-workers during regular sessions. Maybe you have some dedicated runners who can organize daily jogs and help the uninitiated increase their distance.

Less active but just as important is financial fitness. If your CFO has some strong financial counseling skills, share it. If not, hire a certified financial planner to offer programming that will help your employees. They’ll benefit whether they’re just starting out or preparing for retirement, and they’ll be grateful for the advice.

Give employees time to talk to their coworkers about the interests they pursue when they’re off the clock. Perhaps they can talk about where they volunteer and why. Maybe they take art classes, build furniture, or read voraciously in their free time. It’s a little like adult show-and-tell, but just as delightful as it is for kids.

Enthusiasm is typically contagious. By adding this feature to your wellness program, you’re encouraging employees to share their experiential wealth. Plus, it’s a strong statement about a company’s commitment to valuing them beyond their jobs.

3. Institute a Wellness Challenge

Everyone likes a little friendly competition. Although you may see a lot of competition for promotions, raises, and bonuses, you see little unrelated to the job. You can help your employees reach their wellness goals by instituting a wellness challenge.

Keep in mind that you might already have a lot of the tools you need for this one. What you’ll need to add is a little formality and record-keeping. To make it more fun, offer rewards for those who rise to the occasion.

Maybe your company has a smoking cessation program in place. Add the challenge of seeing who can kick the habit by a certain deadline. If hydration is more of a challenge in your office, give employees reusable water cups. You can see who can increase their intake and decrease their reliance on single-use plastics. And because most have some piece of technology that counts steps, see who can record the most in a defined period.

Weight loss and developing healthy habits are always smart goals for a variety of reasons. Help employees by forming teams to see which one can lose the most total weight or reduce their collective BMI. Provide incentives by highlighting recognition months to encourage mammograms and other annual wellness screenings or participation in “dry November.”

Your employees are your company. By challenging them, you’re challenging your brand to be a better, happier, and healthier place to work. Everybody’s a winner with that attitude.

Get an Upgrade

Employee wellness programs can all look the same. That makes them very ho-hum for the people you want to participate in them.

To make yours stand out, give it an upgrade. Get creative and you can do it on a shoestring budget. Your investment and your employees will pay off.