Employers and employees are searching for ways to keep these costs under control and as manageable as possible as health care costs continue to rise. For the majority of companies, employee engagement in health and well-being programs is a challenging objective. Breaking down the process into individual steps can help employers with their efforts to be more successful.
In addition to getting on-site staff to engage in wellness programs, it has become increasingly difficult to secure participation as the workforce expands beyond the four walls of a company. There are two basic options when you design business wellness programs: use an external vendor or develop your program internally. There are several steps you need to take to have a successful program, irrespective of the option you choose:
Managerial Support:
Support at all management levels is essential to the wellness program’s success. To gain support from management, notify managers early on about the initiative and motivate them to participate. Regularly communicate to both the company and employees the objectives of the program and the anticipated benefits.
In the creation and management of organizational health programs, human resource practitioners can and should play a key role. To achieve strategic goals, they are also responsible for lobbying for the creation of such initiatives.
Incentives To Employees:
Business wellness services vary in size and sophistication – some companies host wellness events on-site, such as biometric screenings, dietary training, and coordinated walks by the company. Others introduce month-long plans that control different wellness behaviors in order to help workers achieve individual goals.
Although bonuses can be a good option to motivate workers who work in the workplace to participate, it can be much more difficult to involve those who work remotely. One of the greatest obstacles for employers when attempting to involve remote workers in a wellness program is finding an incentive package – apart from providing direct cash or physical rewards – that can appeal to all remote employees.
When it is related to incentives for involvement and achieving targets, commitment is most frequently increased. By offering rewards such as gym membership rates, cash, gift cards, or points redeemable for prizes, many employers that provide wellness programs improve participation.
Create Action Items:
In order to be successful, every level and corner of the company needs to have a voice in the construction and/or maintenance of the strategic plan. For example, one of the C-Suite objectives could be to set a benchmark and increase the participation of participants by 20 percent from one year to the next. That is a fair objective.
Your team members will have suggestions about how to do this by adding their feedback on the types of activity tasks to be introduced, communication techniques, how to include participants from various levels of fitness, etc. All of these elements serve as subordinate targets of a 20 percent increase to the master and must be clearly identified and put on a timetable for action by responsible parties.
Educate The Employees:
Many wellness services focused on employees have an educational aspect or can incorporate one. Employers need to continually improve the advantages of a balanced lifestyle in order to inspire workers to become and stay healthy.
At a fraction of the cost of conventional programs, online solutions can also provide the same details. Employers may easily upload the content once on the Internet and distribute it immediately to their whole workforce instead of handing out paper materials and mailing them to remote workers.
Hold Wellness Meetings:
At least on a quarterly basis, the wellness committee should meet. When preparing or implementing events or services, the committee can meet more frequently during peak times. The meeting frequency may depend on the priorities of the committee.
Make committee membership a one or two-year commitment in order to revitalize the health committee, so that new ideas and constituents are included on a rotating basis. The committee should develop a management contact system so that successes can be reported.
However, there are a lot of myths out there about health services. In the end, the newest wearable or a new seller is not really required. Jobs spend more hours waking up at work than anywhere else. It makes sense, therefore, that changing an organization’s environment or culture will help the process of change in individual behavior. To optimize engagement and outcomes, when developing a wellness initiative, consider including workers in the process.
Employers need to be innovative to circumvent these problems. If they can not come up with one wellness plan that can appeal to all, based on what they know about each individual employee, they can customize it.
