Employee wellness programs have become a trending buzz in the past few years. And the recent COVID-19 pandemic has made many employers realize the significance of a good workplace wellness program. Employers have come to terms with the fact that employee health is directly proportional to their performance, workplace wellness, and overall organizational productivity. And so, they are now ready to go the extra mile to offer the best-suited employee benefits.
The corporate wellness market is booming with many vendors who are providing different kinds of employee wellness programs, focusing on making positive behavioral changes to achieve holistic wellness. However, the success of a wellness program depends on employee engagement rates and its impact on employee health.
Health and wellness initiatives are usually considered as boring and unexciting, and so many employees do not participate in it. The key to drive participation is to plan the right employee engagement strategies.
Here are a few essential pointers to help you design an engaging, entertaining, and successful right corporate wellness program –
1 . Fun and Entertaining – Use eye-catching themes, alluring content, interesting polls, and simple, but fun wellness challenges to draw attention. Set rewards on completing the challenges to ensure more employee engagement. When the challenges are fun and entertaining, employees are bound to participate and enjoy it. And with excitement around, your workplace wellness programs will never run out of employee engagement.
Know more about how to make your wellness challenges fun and entertaining
2. Setting Actionable Wellness Goals – A well-designed corporate wellness program sets realistic, actionable wellness goals for the employees that are in line with their wellness requirements and interests. On the contrary, demanding goals that may require more effort could have the users brush away from participating. Also, make sure that the wellness challenges and goals, meet the wellness needs, and appeal to the employees. For example, 3-reps of 30 squats each may seem easy for a young person, while a 50-year old may find it difficult, and not participate in the challenge.
3. Socialize For Workplace Wellness – A positive culture of health in the workplace can be created only when the workforce is healthy and happy. And this can be achieved only when there is positive coordination and communication between the employees. Build better social connections and stronger teams at the workplace by setting group activities like healthy pot lunch, team challenges, and group discussions. These techniques not only promote healthy workplace culture, but also foster a sense of team spirit among the employees.
4. Time and Acknowledgement – Time is an important resource, which, when leveraged, can drive employee performance and workplace wellness. Employers can offer flexible working hours as a part of the employee benefits plan, allowing them enough time to cater to their personal and out-of-work responsibilities.
Another corner associated with time and employee wellness is – employers giving their time and attention to the employees. When employers interact with their workforce regularly and acknowledge their efforts, it builds trust and shows the management cares for its employees. This goes a long way in boosting employee engagement and reducing turnover rates.
5. Transparency – Like employer attention, being transparent and fair at the workplace build employee trust and is the key to employee wellness. Be it the company policies, wellness program plans, rewards and incentives, employee benefits, or anything that is concerned directly with the employees – make sure it is all out there, clear and transparent to your workforce.
So, if you wish to design a successful employee wellness program that has high employee engagement rates, make sure you implement these five golden fundamentals to it.