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Selecting Appropriate Corporate Wellness Initiatives

By 25/11/2010November 21st, 2018No Comments

The corporate wellness initiatives executives choose to employ can make or break the success of a health program. Best practice programs are never ‘one size fits all’ and a tailored approach with appropriate initiatives that suit individual company needs is necessary to meaningfully improve the wellbeing of employees, and in turn the productivity of the business.

Select Corporate Wellness Initiatives That Maximise Participation

There are a few key factors to keep in mind when selecting initiatives. First of all, we need to remember that employee participation is critical to the outcome of a program so it’s important to choose appealing initiatives that draw in high levels of participation. Find out what sort of wellness activities employees are keen to take part in and provide a range of initiatives to suit differing levels of fitness and readiness to change. Initiatives should be fun, inclusive and non-intimidating, and include incentives to further drive participation.

Select Corporate Wellness Initiatives That are Tailored to Suit Company Needs

Secondly, for positive outcomes from a corporate welfare program the wellness initiatives we choose need to match the employees’ specific health needs. To put it in business terms, the wellness initiatives must be data-driven. This means that before even beginning to think about initiatives, it’s always necessary to find out what the prevailing health problems are. The answers can be found via a range of data collection exercises such as Health Risk Assessment (HRA) aggregate reports, employee focus groups, absenteeism/injury statistics and biometric results from health screenings.

Some companies may find sun protection and injury prevention to be especially crucial. A company where employees are mostly sedentary may need to address adequate physical exercise, and if employees work in close quarters then education into the prevention and spreading of winter illness may be important. Develop a corporate wellness mission statement that clearly sets out the goals and objectives of the health program and ensure every initiative chosen flows from company needs.

Of course many health risk prevention strategies are interrelated and some cross over will occur. For instance physical activity based corporate wellness initiatives can be used to address not only obesity but also injury risk and stress.

Evaluate Corporate Wellness Initiatives on an Ongoing Basis

Remember that the best programs regularly evaluate and update their initiatives to suit their health promotion needs. Systematically assessing and adapting initiatives help to keep the program fresh, interesting and on track in terms of organisational goals.

Make sure you take the opportunity to get regular feedback from employees and make improvements to wellness initiatives accordingly. This will increase program uptake, check that relevant health risks are being properly addressed and ensure return on investment is maximised.

For more information on Corporate Wellness Initiatives, contact Healthworks on 1300 90 10 90 (International: IDD 61-2-9954-1888)  or contact us.

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