Are Workplace Wellness Programs Effective?
For an organization to measure their wellness program’s effectiveness, they first have to define success. Every workforce is unique and their needs and wants must be understood to optimize engagement and influence actual lifestyle change. It’s challenging to build new, healthier habits, but you can anticipate better results when the program is designed based on employee interests.
Organizations may know investing in employee well-being is the right thing to do, but are workplace wellness programs effective? Much of a program’s ongoing success is determined by the planning and implementation stages. This article discusses common mistakes that can be detrimental to a program’s effectiveness, as well as some key ingredients for a successful employee wellness program.
Do Wellness Programs Work?
In this post:
1. Why Corporate Wellness Programs Fail
a. Not Utilizing a Comprehensive Approach
2. Key Ingredients for a Successful Wellness Program
Why Corporate Wellness Programs Fail
Knowing what to avoid is an integral component of proactively implementing a wellness program. Like any change, introducing wellness initiatives to a workforce population requires thoughtful strategy.
Lack of Leadership Support
Wellness culture begins at the top. If leadership isn’t invested in the success of a wellness program, it likely will fail.
At the baseline, it’s imperative to eliminate any perception that participating in wellness initiatives detracts from productivity. For example, a leader must acknowledge that the benefits an employee experiences from a 15-minute stretch class outweigh the consequences of the lack of work completed in that time frame.
A fully supportive leadership team gets involved. They develop and vocalize what they consider to be a successful wellness program, and they include all layers of leadership. From the executive level to middle management and direct supervisors, leadership directly influences workplace culture by communicating wellness offerings and better yet — participating themselves.
Wellness programs constantly evolve, so even if it’s initially effective, it can grow stagnant over the years if leadership loses interest. Leaders that don’t collaborate with their workforce to design their program, check out after its implementation, or cease consistent communication hinder their investment in wellness.
Not Utilizing a Comprehensive Approach
It’s possible an inexperienced wellness program manager or coordinator is too concerned with a client’s ROI and loses sight of the bigger picture. This leads to employing ineffectual initiatives that don’t impact changing health behavior. For instance, while health screenings are important, simply coordinating an annual health screening doesn’t educate employees or provide initiatives for improving the results.
Hosting one-off events and expecting lasting impacts contributes to the stereotype of wellness programs being ineffective.
A comprehensive approach to wellness addresses the eight pillars of well-being (physical, social, emotional, nutritional, financial, spiritual, intellectual, and environmental) to support the whole employee rather than focusing solely on diet or exercise. Not utilizing a comprehensive approach also leads to a lack of variety and availability in wellness offerings, negatively affecting the program’s engagement rate.
Not Evaluating Resources
One of the first factors to consider when investing in an employee wellness program is the resources you have available and the resources you need to acquire. Your budget impacts the initiatives the program entails and the incentives you’re going to leverage. It’s essential to know how much of the program will be internally financed, and how much will be provided through a health plan. Material incentives like money, workout equipment, or trophies can be effective, but they must not eclipse the intrinsic benefits of wellness to maintain a program with lasting success.
Another resource to consider is the person or people needed to execute the wellness program. While it can be cost-efficient to utilize an existing position’s bandwidth, it will most likely hinder the program’s potential. Factoring in a wellness vendor or coordinator into the budget ahead of time avoids overwhelming an employee of the administrative burden that comes with a thriving wellness program.
Key Ingredients for a Successful Wellness Program
It can seem challenging to launch a successful wellness program, but there are resources available such as hiring a corporate wellness coordinator, what employees want in a wellness program, or even how-to implement a corporate wellness program to make it more manageable.
Authentic Culture
A wellness program can’t operate at capacity if it’s not integral to the fabric of the organization. More than an amenity, wellness programs are a vital business strategy that requires ongoing commitment and involvement of leadership. Leaders and managers should be aligned in the company’s mission and vision and actively influence everyday workplace culture.
Appointing wellness champions or teams supports these initiatives with consistent communication and collaboration supporting wellness with the rest of the workforce.
Variety & Availability
Create an operating plan based on employee needs and interests. Wellness offerings should include educational and interactive webinars, classes, or demonstrations with comprehensive topics like healthy cooking, financial planning, fitness, and personal development. Discover trending workplace fitness and wellness initiatives for 2023 here.
In addition to having a variety of class times offered based on employee needs and interests, the ability to adjust to a hybrid or remote workforce with virtual options will also increase employee engagement and the overall effectiveness of the program.
Policies
Put health-promoting policies in place to support the wellness program. For example, stock vending machines, kitchens, or cafeterias with nutritious options, or designate a specific time and space for wellness initiatives. Policies also extend to setting employees up with ergonomic workstations and environmental safety practices such as an injury and illness prevention program.
When leadership fosters an environment that creates opportunities for wellness, employees can work towards their goals together as they form strong relationships, are more energized at work, and are more inclined to develop others.
Ongoing Engagement Strategy
Invest time in the strategy and implementation of ongoing engagement. This includes marketing aspects of the program such as how it connects with personal well-being goals or how easy it is to sign up or participate. For consistency and routine-building, weekly programming is best for ongoing engagement.
Another way to maintain a positive engagement rate is to continuously collect data and employee feedback to evolve the wellness strategy as needed.
Leveraging a Vendor to Help Optimize Employee Engagement
Whether you have an existing wellness program that’s plateaued or you’re ready to launch a thriving one, Strive serves as an objective consultant with 15 years of industry experience building wellness cultures. Our engagement strategies and easily accessible programming is designed to create memorable wellness experiences for your workforce.
Our fully-burdened pricing model includes administrative support, strategic marketing materials, and monthly engagement data to evaluate whether a wellness program is being celebrated, or whether it needs some iteration.
Strive has an abundance of classes, workshops, and webinars to sustain a comprehensive wellness program. Need a reminder? Learn about the 7 components of a comprehensive wellness program. Book a discovery call to explore more options with Strive.
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