Employee wellness programs can have transformative effects on companies and their employees. By helping employees improve their physical, mental, and social wellbeing, wellness programs can boost productivity, reduce absenteeism, and slash healthcare spending — among many other benefits.
But, while employee wellness is a worthwhile investment that can potentially pay for itself many times over, like any business investment, it must be made strategically. Companies often put significant resources into employee wellness only to see their programs go underused and unappreciated.
How can you ensure success for your employee wellness program (according to the success metrics that matter to your company)?
The following five tips will help you maximize the value of your employee wellness investment.
Related: Get your Employee Wellness Program Toolkit here →
1. Adopt a Holistic View of Wellness
Eating right and exercising regularly are crucial for an employee’s wellbeing, but the modern conception of wellness encompasses so much more. The Global Wellness Institute defines wellness as “the active pursuit of activities, choices and lifestyles that lead to a state of holistic health.”
Wellness is a lifelong journey aimed at developing the habits an individual needs to not only avoid disease and injury but to thrive. Physical and mental health, relationships, finances, professional goals, and spirituality are all interconnected aspects of wellness.
Successful employee wellness programs aren’t just about tracking steps and counting calories. They target the whole employee with features designed to help employees live their best lives in and out of the workplace.
With stress and burnout on the rise globally, mental health-focused wellness offerings are particularly important. Financial wellness is also essential in today’s uncertain economic climate.
(Click here for 23 wellness tools to promote holistic wellbeing among your workforce in 2023.)
2. Secure Leadership Buy-In
A company-wide culture of wellness starts at the top. If your company leadership includes enthusiastic users of your wellness resources, your employees will be more likely to follow suit.
Top managers and executives can help drive success for the wellness program by participating in wellness challenges, cheering employees on, and modeling healthy habits. For example, if your wellness program encourages employees to unplug during evenings and weekends, managers can lead by example and not respond to emails during these periods.
(If you’re having difficulty selling leadership on the value of wellness, use these facts and figures to make the business case for employee wellness.)
3. Offer the Right Incentives
Achieving wellness goals requires commitment, hard work, and sometimes sacrifice. Wellness is a reward in itself, but incentives — even small ones — can give employees the motivation they need to keep striving when the going gets difficult.
A Rand Corporation study found that incentives are associated with higher participation rates in employee wellness programs by about 20 percentage points. Notably, the incentives do not need to be exceptionally high. According to the Rand study, rewards worth about $100 helped drive participation rates exceeding 50%.
Common wellness program incentives include health insurance discounts, gift cards, outings, and parties. Even t-shirts and other swag can be enticing. And don’t overlook the value of praise; a simple “Great job! Keep it up!” from a trusted colleague or admired manager can often be all the inspiration an employee needs.
4. Tailor Your Wellness Program to Your Employee Population
Wellness is not one-size-fits-all. The right mix of wellness offerings for your workplace team depends on several factors, such as age, current fitness levels, and range of interests. Your employees may not be ready to train for a half marathon but might be willing to take on a couch-to-5k challenge.
Another example: If your workplace mainly includes parents, an early-morning yoga class may not have high attendance. On the other hand, a video yoga tutorial, which can be accessed anytime from anywhere, might be just the thing for busy parents.
To better understand your team’s wellness interests and needs, take a poll or solicit ideas via email. A biometric screening event can help you establish a baseline for employee health and wellness and give you a sense of the common issues in your workplace, such as diabetes, obesity, smoking, or sleep disorders.
5. Execute a Year-Round Communications Strategy
As noted above, the quest for physical fitness, emotional balance, and a fulfilling life is an ongoing pursuit. Yet, companies often only mention their wellness programs when employees choose benefits during open enrollment or onboarding.
As the distractions and demands of their work and personal lives accumulate, employees might be hard-pressed to remember the wellness benefits their employers provide — even the wellness benefits that might help them manage their stress.
A year-round communications strategy can help keep wellness top-of-mind for your employees, with gentle reminders about your company’s wellness resources and how to use them.
One effective strategy is to tie your messaging to the challenges employees might face at different times of the year.
For example, during tax season in April, you can distribute an ebook with tax filing tips and an overview of your company’s financial wellness options (such as free financial consulting or a budgeting app). In the dead of winter, when people tend to be more sedentary, you can send out videos with ideas for easy indoor exercises and links to your company’s wellness platform.
Don’t rely solely on your monthly newsletter to spread the word about your wellness program. As with any employee communications campaign, a multi-channel strategy is the most effective way to reach the broadest possible group of employees.
Communication methods such as mass texting, digital postcards, microsites, and videos can break through the noise, ensuring your employees are aware of their wellness benefits when they most need them.
Also, make sure your employees have a way to communicate with you about the wellness program. Be receptive to feedback and be prepared to adapt your program to the changing circumstances of your employees’ lives.
If your wellness program remains stagnant, your employees may find little value in it and lose interest. After all, wellness is a journey.