Employees who participate in their corporate wellness programs are more satisfied with their jobs. Your challenge is how to motivate them to engage with your wellness program.
How to engage employees in wellness programs
Here are three critical factors for engaging your employees with wellness:
1. Keep wellness programs simple to drive more engagement
A study of workplace wellness programs by the US Department of Labor found that employees are more inclined to participate in wellness activities that are convenient and easily accessible for all employees. It’s not a huge surprise: employees are more likely to register for wellness programs when it’s easy for them. But high registrations aren’t enough. To keep employees engaged, the entire onboarding experience needs to be straightforward.
That’s why Grokker Innovation Labs designed a new way to engage employees with wellness. Our 7-minute quiz gives employees immediate clarity on where they need help and how to get started. We know behavior change doesn’t happen unless we keep it simple.
[Read more: Employee Engagement And Work Life Balance]
Our new employee engagement tool launches in early 2018, but you can get a sneak peek now! Click on the image below to take our assessment for yourself.
2. Drive engagement by enabling employees to define their wellness priorities
Employees are much more likely to engage when given the opportunity to define their own wellness priorities. Shoehorning employees into one prescriptive program that may not address their own goals is a surefire way to ensure plummeting engagement numbers. And one-size-fits-all well-being solutions won’t create the kind of engagement required to realize ROI and meet business goals.
After a brief assessment, our new wellness tool generates personalized program recommendations and lifestyle changes to kick off employees’ individualized plans. By asking basic questions around the four essential areas for health -- nutrition, activity, stress, and sleep -- we’re able to provide a framework for employees to work on their health with the freedom to choose the programs, challenges, and experts that reflect their personal health and wellness priorities.
3. Evaluate your employee wellness programs for engagement
Our new, personalized wellness assessment isn’t just for newbies. Employees’ needs and goals evolve throughout the year, so their wellness program should evolve with them. Employees can monitor their overall wellness score and get fresh recommendations by retaking the quiz on a quarterly basis.
More Tips For Bringing Wellness into the Workplace
After you've evaluated your employee wellness programs for engagement, you'll want to determine what else you can do to bring a culture of wellness to the workplace. Here are some ideas to get started:
- Promote company physical activity through challenges
- Offer rewards for healthy behavior
- Introduce initiatives to improve hydration
- Encourage nutrition and healthy eating
- Help employees build work-from-home environments that promote mindfulness and productivity
- Offer flexible work hours for diverse families
- Consider "Siestas" or mental health breaks throughout the day
Final Thoughts: How to Engage Employees in Wellness Programs
Employers should also be approaching corporate wellness programs with a continuous quality improvement attitude. Take a page from our Grokker Impact Surveys and consistently solicit feedback from staff with the goal of improving future wellness programming.
Have you taken our quiz yet? What do you think about your score? Let me know in the comments!
