Should you implement a company wellness program? Is it worth the planning, time and investment?
The answer is a resounding “yes” – because it’s both the right thing and the smart thing to do.
Healthy employees result in a healthy business.
To cite one example, Johnson & Johnson employees are given incentives to complete a wellness profile, which enables them to better understand how lifestyle factors affect their health status. They also are supported as they partake in related programs such as Weight Watchers. As a result, the company realized an annual cost savings of nearly $600 per employee and disability rates 20 percent lower than average.
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The worksite is a great place to promote individual and family health.
You have all your employees in one place, providing an excellent opportunity to encourage healthy behaviors. You also can reach out to remote employees and workers’ families.
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It connects your company to the community.
Having a wellness strategy helps to strongly position your organization. Achieve this by supporting and participating in walks, runs and similar events, and collaborating with nonprofits and local health coalitions.
How to Get Started
As you design your wellness program, take an evidence-based approach based on the premise of fully integrating your wellness commitment into all aspects of your business strategy.
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Offer leadership support.
It starts at the top. Continued success relies on ongoing support at all levels of the organization. Your wellness program cannot be a “flavor of the month.” It should be embedded into your core mission and values – and senior leadership sets the tone.
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Build a wellness culture
Create a workplace way of life that integrates wellness into every aspect of business processes and practice. This means supporting every employee’s career, emotional, financial, physical and social well-being. Offer flexible scheduling. Give people latitude in decision making. Help them set reasonable goals. Establish a wellness-oriented environment; for instance, offer healthy foods and nutritional content information in your cafeteria and encourage the use of stairs versus elevators.
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Form a wellness committee.
A workplace health promotion program cannot be implemented simply by workers being given a management directive. It will work only when employees own it and understand how both they and the company benefit from it. Make them your wellness champions. Give them a meaningful voice and a realistic budget of both dollars and time.
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Communicate effectively.
Get clear messages out to your workforce about wellness initiatives and how to get involved. Make sure communication is frequent, varied in content, multi-channeled, and tailored to target audiences. Continue to focus on the “what’s in it for me” message.
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Measure the right things.
Evaluation is critical for maintaining your successful wellness program. Develop a process at the onset, so you have a useful baseline that can be monitored over time. Measure both your return on investment and value of the investment. Your ROI is generally the more tangible benefits, such as decreases in medical costs or absenteeism. VOI calculation allows you to capture such critical factors as talent attraction and retention and heightened customer loyalty.
The talent and workforce management team at PrideStaff Modesto can partner with you to establish an industry-leading corporate wellness program. Contact us today to learn more.
