Read More

6 Ways to Improve Your Wellness Plan for 2018

A Fresh Approach To Workplace Wellbeing

The New Year is a great opportunity to re-imagine your employee wellness approach with renewed energy. As your employees develop personal wellness resolutions, seize the opportunity to breathe new life into your organization’s wellness strategy.

Simply said, worksite wellness programs and regulations have become increasingly complicated and frustrating for many employers. We’re here to make it easier for you.

Below, you’ll find a list of fresh approaches that can expand the scope of your employee wellbeing program, while simultaneously simplifying your offerings. Creative wellness strategies can engage and excite employees, enhancing the overall health and productivity of your employee population and have an impact on your bottom line. Genius!

1. Be Courageous

“We’ve never done it that way,” has been the downfall of many new wellness initiatives. Tradition and fear can be the reason that new ideas never come to fruition. Don’t be afraid to try a new program such as mindfulness, financial wellbeing or hosting a healthy cooking demo. New technology involving existing platforms such as fitness trackers, apps and web-based education can add genuine excitement to “old” (but essential) topics for your employees.

2. Leverage Resources

Wellbeing programs for your employees don’t have to be costly. On the contrary, consider the return on wellbeing (ROW) versus return on investment (ROI) or bottom line. Increased productivity from engaged, healthier, less stressed employees can result in more bang for your buck than many other budget line items. A membership to WELCOA, carrier based health education seminars, broker and benefit vendor resources, and even your own employee talent pool can yield inexpensive and impactful programming.

3. Simplify

Behavior and cultural changes take time. Consider quarterly wellbeing initiatives instead of monthly topics. Trying to do too much too soon can add stress and often doesn’t provide the lead time necessary to produce quality, well-communicated initiatives. Develop a calendar of the quarterly programs and share them well in advance so that employees can plan to participate.

4. Back to Basics

Having a goal to build awareness and provide education by route of the employee wellbeing program, may be more effective than many of the complicated wellness initiatives out there. Awareness is the supportive foundation that can initiate and motivate both organizations and individuals to change. If your wellness “team” is a few (or just one) members strong, this tactic can help you remain focused on quality over quantity.

5. Commit

Commitment from senior leadership is the most critical and effective tool in any worksite wellbeing program. Middle management will respond to and support cultural changes and initiatives only if the baton is passed down from the top.

6. Personalize

Allow individuals to participate where they live (this is typically where most people are comfortable starting) and design worksite initiatives to support this. There’s a behavioral framework called the Occupational Profile of Health which focuses on “doing, being, belonging, and becoming” as measurements of healthy engagement. Use these as guiding principles, allowing employees to set their own health goals. Ask yourself the following questions:

  • Are we helping employees to “do” differently?
  • Can we “be” healthier?
  • How do we encourage support and “belonging”?
  • What do we do to assist employees in “becoming” confident in their ability to change?

When you have a game plan, you’re more likely to pull off a successful employee wellness program and your company and its employees will reap the benefits. Reach out to our team at OneDigital to start building a key narrative surrounding the business case for employee health and wellbeing initiatives.

Share

Top