Helpful Tips to Implement an Employee Wellness Program


In the modern, digital world, wellness is much more than just having a kale salad for lunch, encouraging membership to the local gym, or offering free health classes. If you own a business, you must look at your entire workforce and your workplace culture to fully understand how your company can support your employees and invest in a practical and holistic approach to your worker’s well-being.

Creating an effective employee wellness program is something that takes time. Your workers spend a lot of their day at work. If you correlate a wellness plan with specific wellness goals with a work/life balance, productivity will increase, which results in increased income and profits.

It is important to note that your wellness program cannot be one-off. While reading a Le-Vel Thrive ReviewOpens in a new tab. and encouraging employees to take the right supplements is great, you have to create an ongoing plan that grows and evolves as your company and employees do.

Some tips to help you create a wellness plan for your employeesOpens in a new tab. can be found below.

 

Put an Emphasis on the Entire Person

An employee wellness program should include a combination of interconnected elements that will impact a person’s ability to lead a healthy and fulfilled life. The healthy habits developed should touch on health, professional, social, emotional, spiritual, physical, and intellectual parts of a person.

Remember, most people will wind up spending a third of their life (or more) at work. During this time, they are in the perfect position for the business to take action and put purposeful and useful wellness ideas into action. However, to do this effectively, you must first get a clear idea of your worker’s concerns, needs, and interests.

There are some companies that have gone as far as to implement “nap rooms,” which gives their employees somewhere to rest and recharge. Other companies provide unlimited time off – paid – to support employees and help them bring more harmony into their life. Other ideas include an in-house chef or culinary team, free memberships to the local gym, and daily yoga sessions. You can even implement a mentor program that offers executive coachingOpens in a new tab. or monthly workshops focused on various health-themed topics.
 

Deliver on Your Promises

Your primary focus should be that the wellness solution you implement for your employees delivers on the promises you have made. You need to be transparent when it comes to your objective, regardless of if it is attracting or retaining top talent, improving the company cultureOpens in a new tab., or improved employee engagement. You should clearly communicate your “why,” when you invest in a wellness solution and how it can support all the aspects of your worker’s well-being.
 

Design a One-Stop-Shop

Having a central location for all employee wellness strategies and solutions can increase engagement, encourage employee use, and create ripples (of good) throughout the entire company.

You have to explore a platform that your workers can navigate easily. This provides information and data that will help you get a picture of what is going on in real-time. When you ask the right questions about how often employees come back to the platform, and for how long, and what they find most appealing about the process, you can see how people use the program and its impact on the business and individuals.
 

Bring Your People Together

Before you create a complete wellness program, you should conduct something called a needs assessment. This may be done through a facilitated discussion or a survey. The goal is to get to know your employee’s main wellness goals and the challenges they face. When you ask for your employee’s opinions, host roundtables, and gather as much data as you can, it will create a sense of involvement for your team.

When you involve everyone on your team in the creation and implementation of the wellness program, they are going to feel a sense of ownership, which will inspire them to participate. You can have your team managers or leaders present the program in ways that ensure it is alluring, accessible, and relevant. Creating an inclusive program is essential to ensure participation and to provide support for people who are engaged with the problem.
 

Ensure Company Leaders are “All In”

If your goal is to create a culture of wellness, your employees need to see the executive members of the business participating in the program. The leadership messaging should be clear regarding what it is about, the purpose behind the wellness program, and it should share a story that shows what wellness means to the business as a whole.

Your employees should see that wellness is being made into part of the culture. The efforts should feel authentic because employees will not follow or engage in an activity that they do not believe the company cares about.

If your business leaders are encouraging their team to take part, it can be quite beneficial. However, it may be just as harmful to employee engagement if the managers do not discourage employees outright. A manager can make or break the way employees will engage with any program – including wellness programs.
 

Attitude Counts

A workplace manager needs to be authentic when having conversations when engaging with employees about wellness. Identifying specific wellness committees and champions in the workplace to serve as the voices for the program and promote wellness at a grassroots level is much more effective than a human resources department trying to push employees’ agenda.

A smart starting point is to create a committee to focus on wellness in the business. When you engage your employees and find out their individual wellness goals, promote workouts, and other mindful activities that will strengthen the mind and body, you can make it a huge part of your day to day conversations. The participation of your senior leadership will help to increase staff engagement. This ensures that well-being becomes an integral part of the employee experience where everyone can grow and learn.
 

Create a Communication Plan

If you want to create an effective wellness plan, you need to communicate everything. This includes what to do, how to do it, and anything else. Workers are going to demand concise information regarding options, benefits, cost, and coverage. Also, most workers prefer things that are targeted and personalized to the specific needs they have, and that help support a work/life balance.
 

Creating an Effective Wellness Plan for Your Employees

When it is time for you to create an effective wellness plan for your workers, there are many factors to consider. Keep the tips and information found above in mind, which will help you create a plan that will be appealing to your workers and encourage a superior level of engagement for your workers and management teams.

If you are ready to get started, you can always start small. This will ensure your employees know about the plan and that they are willing to take part in it. Remember, the right wellness plan will be beneficial for your workers and for your business, which makes it a smart investment for you to make. Being informed and knowing what to do to create a quality wellness plan is something that will pay off and ensure your workers use the plan and what it offers.

Steve Todd

Steve Todd, founder of Open Sourced Workplace and is a recognized thought leader in workplace strategy and the future of work. With a passion for work from anywhere, Steve has successfully implemented transformative strategies that enhance productivity and employee satisfaction. Through Open Sourced Workplace, he fosters collaboration among HR, facilities management, technology, and real estate professionals, providing valuable insights and resources. As a speaker and contributor to various publications, Steve remains dedicated to staying at the forefront of workplace innovation, helping organizations thrive in today's dynamic work environment.

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