An employee wellness program is only as effective as it is engaging. Getting employees to actually participate within your wellness program is the first step you’ll need to take towards fostering a healthier workplace atmosphere overall. Here are five ways that you can move towards employee engagement and a successful wellness program.
1. Create Reasonable Goals
Not everyone is going to be able to lose 20 pounds by summer, but everyone can take a walk for five minutes a day. Creating reasonable goals will encourage your employees and make them feel more confident and in charge of their health.
2. Get Your Management on Board
A wellness program that is supported by upper management will be more effective overall. A company’s culture is always driven by those on top. Upper management can also get excited about being a positive role model for their employees.
3. Create a Supportive Culture
Training for a marathon is going to be a lot harder with a bunch of unhealthy snacks cluttering up the break room. When you diet on your own, you need to remove all temptation. The same goes for an employee wellness program. Promoting health throughout the office is a good way to ensure that the system works.
4. Use Incentives Appropriately
While it may seem a little direct, bribery works. Creating rewards and prizes for those that commit to your wellness program is a fantastic way to get more employees involved. The prizes can be as simple as a plaque on the wall or as involved as a day of paid time off. Prizes don’t have to be expensive to make it fun.
5. Listen to Advice
Often, there may be a direct and simple reason why employees aren’t engaged in your existing wellness program. Listening to suggestions and even actively seeking them out can be the best way to discover the incentives that will work and the reasons why the existing system is faltering. Keeping an open mind about employee suggestions can often lead you down avenues you never considered.
When engaging employees in a wellness program it’s important to remember that the goal isn’t only health. A wellness program is also designed to get employees to work together and foster a sense of teamwork.
