5 Key Factors To Consider When Developing A Corporate Wellness Committee

Spring is here! This month we'll focus on creating a cohesive wellness committee. Here are five key steps to help you build a wellness committee that will succeed:

1. It's critical to have more than one person involved in your worksite wellness efforts. The reason for this is simple. If that individual has other responsibilities, or if they take a medical leave or they simply burn out from all of the responsibility, what happens to your wellness efforts? The answer? Nothing. This is why having a diverse group is so important--many hands mean light work, the efforts are collective, and different perspectives allow for more creativity and depth.

2. When thinking about who will serve on this committee, think about who might be the right people to champion wellness. Who are the "go getters" within your organization? Who has good rapport with your employees? Who may have a general interest in health and wellness? I'd even challenge you to consider a naysayer's perspective as well.

3. When choosing a wellness champion, you definitely want to consider an effective leadership style, which will keep everyone on track and your tasks moving forward.

4. When gauging the right number of people to have on your committee, you can't have too few or too many. A good place to start is somewhere in the neighborhood of eight to ten committee members and go from there.

5. Once the committee is organized, it's best they follow a formal agenda, have regular meetings and take minutes during the meeting. This way, the committee members know what to expect, they'll have written documentation of what was accomplished, they'll know what the next steps will be and who will be responsible for them.

In a nutshell, creating a cohesive wellness committee is integral to the success of your health and wellness initiatives. This is the core group that will assess, develop, implement and evaluate all things wellness for your company. It's all about having the right people in the right seats. Do you know who those people are in your organization?