Increasing Productivity & Wellness Through Employee Wellness Program
If you ask a common man what it takes to build a business empire, they will most probably say a ground-breaking business idea and a whole lot of investment! But torch bearing business leaders know better. If you look through what most have to say about their human resource, it is this: employees are one of the most significant assets in a company. Much similar to what Alexander Gourlay, Co-Chief Operating Officer for Walgreens, Inc., has to say:
“We are embedding health and well-being at the heart of our business strategy because our people are our greatest asset, and we recognize that a healthy, happy, and committed workforce is vital to our business success.”
You generate the idea, and your employees help you bring it to life. And therefore, without a healthy and happy workforce, your business cannot reach its goals.
One way to keep your employees satisfied is to keep them in good physical and mental shape. In many jurisdictions, providing employee insurance policies is mandatory for businesses. However, at times, companies also offer wellness programs to their employees to keep them healthy.
What is an Employee Wellness Program?
Apart from issuing insurance policies, businesses now also provide employee wellness programs. These often focus on a particular health concern, such as weight-loss or meditation to reduce work stress. Also, these programs can either be on-going or a one-off project.
Some common examples of employee wellness programs include smoking cessation programs, on-site fitness centers, wellness challenges, yoga classes, etc.
Employee wellness programs have one significant advantage, and that is to keep employee insurance costs under control. Naturally, when your employees fall sick more than often, they use up their medical benefits, which means higher business costs.
Moreover, such programs have become a fad, with many companies using it as a tool to showcase how they value employees and their well-being.
And this is why businesses are now quite keen on offering employee wellness programs to keep the workers fit and healthy.
6 Steps to Create an Effective Employee Wellness Program:
Now that we know what an employee wellness program is and why a business may want one, let us look further. Here we list the steps how a company can successfully create an effective employee wellness program.
1. Analyze the Interests
The goal of your wellness program should not be whims and fancies. Just because yoga is trendy doesn’t mean it will work for your company too. The goal needs to cater to your employee’s substantial wellness needs and how receptive they will be to the program.
And to know this, you need first to conduct assessments. This way, you can create plans that fit better with both you and your employees. For example, maybe the workers will love having a healthy snack counter built instead of a yoga program.
2. Build a Committee
Let’s face it; humans are just naturally less inclined towards healthier life choices! Even though your employees may love the idea of healthy snacking, actually motivating them to eat healthy food can be the real deal-breaker.
And this is where a wellness committee comes to the rescue. This team’s sole aim is to encourage workers to adopt the benefits offered by the wellness program. They help build the support needed to make the wellness program a success.
A wellness committee also focuses on developing a culture of healthiness in the company. You can hire a few individuals with a degree in healthcare management to build a wellness committee. Such individuals would be an ideal resource to take up this job as they possess the right knowledge and expertise.
3. Pen Down the Objectives
Your employee wellness program should have structured targets. For example, the number of employees you expect to quit smoking at the end of the year through your smoking cessation program.
Having well-defined goals helps you to evaluate the success of your wellness program. It also helps provide you with a plan to work on since long-term goals can further be broken down into smaller, short-term objectives.
4. Decide on a Budget
Of course, you will need money to function a wellness program. The management will have to fund the plan to make it work. And for this, you need first to develop a budget. Once it gets approved, you can kick start the program.
But what should you include in the budget? A wellness program will most probably need some rigorous marketing, a detailed program design, and few incentives to convince employees to work towards being healthy.
You can also assess whether your employees would be interested in paying for a part of the program, such as a minimal gym membership fee. It can help reduce the costs and make the program affordable for the management.
5. Choose Program Incentives or Rewards
It is often difficult for people to assess the benefits of incorporating a healthy habit since they are usually not easily quantifiable and stretch over the years.
However, giving out material rewards or incentives is a great way to motivate people to adopt healthy habits. Likewise, encourage them to join your employee wellness programs, by giving them rewards such as achievement gifts or monetary incentives.
6. Create the Program
Now that you have done all the preliminary stuff, it is time for the main thing: creating the wellness program. Considering all the factors, you should list down the options you have available.
Such as if your employees face higher levels of stress and anxiety, consider creating stress reduction programs. This step also involves deciding on the structure and the components of the program.
At the end of it, you should have a clearly-built and executable plan to implement and initiate the program.
Moreover, do not forget to create promotional material for your campaign. You will have to communicate your wellness program to the employees, and compelling marketing is the only convincing way to get your message across.
Conclusion
The workforce in a company forms a significant part of the entire business structure. Without a satisfied and content workforce, a business can rarely achieve its goals.
Most businesspersons advise on investing in hiring and retaining loyal employees in the long run since they are an asset to the company.
And one way to keep your workers happy is to keep them healthy! Wellness programs help an organization achieve this.
If you are looking forward to creating an employee wellness program in your company, the step-by-step guide above will surely make it feel like a breeze!