Want to help your employees feel good while at work? Wellness is the new gym.
Introduction
When it comes to workplace wellness, the old adage “a little bit of something is better than nothing at all” doesn’t apply. Successful programs are tailored to fit your organization’s industry, size and budget. In addition to adding health insurance premiums and other expenses into your business budget, it can also be difficult for small companies without a dedicated HR department or resources like a corporate gym or onsite medical clinic to implement meaningful programs that support the wellbeing of their employees. However, there are plenty of low-cost (and even no cost) ways that you can get started today if you want to promote more active lifestyles in your workplace:
Invest in technology that supports wellness
Investing in technology that supports wellness is a great way to get started. Technology can help you track and measure your employees’ health, provide them with information and support, connect your employees with each other and provide them access to wellness programs. It can also help you get started by providing the right tools for managers who want to promote workplace wellness.
Digital coaching is one type of technology that can help managers implement workplace wellness programs effectively. Digital coaching helps managers find out where stressors are coming from, what their goals are, how they can reach those goals and what they need along the way as they make changes towards optimal health at work.
Collaborate to create the best program for your company (and employees)
Workplace wellness programs are meant to be solutions that work for the company and its employees. With this in mind, it’s important to involve employees from the beginning of your program design process.
Employee input is vital for a successful workplace wellness program. Employees should be involved in the design and implementation of their own program, including:
- The selection of providers who can deliver on your wellness goals
- The evaluation of the program after implementation (for example, measuring if it achieved its desired outcomes)
- Communicating with participants about what they will receive as part of their benefit package
Leverage data and analytics to track progress and keep employees engaged
In order to make the most out of your wellness initiatives, you’ll want to be able to use data. This includes tracking employee engagement and participation so that you can see exactly how much they’re engaging with these programs.
You also want to monitor where your company is spending money and time on various aspects of workplace wellness, since this will help you understand where your budget needs to go in order for the program as a whole to be successful.
Finally, it’s important for businesses track their progress over time so that they can pinpoint areas of improvement or areas that need more attention from the start.
Emphasize flexibility, individuality and choice in programs.
Flexibility, individuality and choice are important to employees.
Flexibility in the workplace can be more than just adjusting a schedule to accommodate an employee’s personal needs. It can mean providing options for when, where and how work gets done that gives you the ability to balance your personal life with your professional life.
Individuality is also important — especially in a society where everyone is so quick to compare themselves with others (especially on social media). By providing opportunities for employees who want to take advantage of learning new skills or trying something new at work, you’re letting them feel like they’re not alone in their journey towards success.
Choice is another key component for promoting wellness within your organization. While some companies allow their employees’ input into programs like flextime or telecommuting options, others prefer one-size-fits-all policies that may not always work well for everyone who works there. You need all three pieces working together if you want an effective wellness program: flexibility and individuality give people choices about what they do while at work; choice gives them control over their time off as well!
Communicate, communicate, communicate.
You can help promote workplace wellness by communicating the importance of this initiative to your employees. It’s important to explain how a healthy lifestyle correlates with productivity and revenue, without painting an unrealistic picture.
- Communicate the importance of workplace wellness. Firstly and most importantly, you should communicate why workplace wellness is important. This will help build support for your program and get people excited about participating in it!
- Communicate how it will benefit them personally (and their families). Explain how working out regularly, eating well-balanced meals daily, getting enough sleep at night etc all contribute towards an overall happiness level which increases performance at work and helps them feel less stressed during those stressful moments that come up in every job (like when someone who was supposed to do something didn’t get it done or if there’s not enough time left before deadline). You’ll find many studies have shown this correlation between work performance based on health factors such as having more energy/feeling less stressed/etc., so let’s use science as our guide here!
A successful workplace wellness program must be tailored to fit your organization’s industry, size and budget.
Understand the importance of tailoring your workplace wellness program to fit your organization.
While there are many great programs that can help support you in achieving a healthy lifestyle, it is important to remember that each workplace is different and will have its own unique needs. Additionally, organizations in different industries face different challenges when it comes to implementing wellness initiatives and may require more or less from their strategies depending on the size and budget of their company.
For example, if you work for a large corporation with many employees spread all over the globe (and therefore relatively low employee engagement rates), it may be useful for you to implement an online portal where people can log their workouts or track their food intake just by clicking on buttons in an app or website — this way they don’t have to worry about keeping track themselves!
Conclusion
Creating a workplace wellness program that fits your organization is the first step to achieving better health and productivity. By taking these five steps, you can create a program that works for your company’s culture and budget.
