Having trouble getting your employees to engage in your wellness program? Read these helpful tips
1-Introduce the wellness program to new employees as part of their new hire orientation and training. Your health promotion initiative should be viewed not as a program, but as the culture of the company.
2-Find out what motivates your employees with an assessment. Look for things other than cash, discounts and goods, but what makes them happiest in life that they want to be healthy for. It could be their family, friends, pets, career, boat, or even a hobby and use that as an intrinsic motivator.
3-Focus on total well-being, not just physical health. Physical, emotional, financial and social health are all key elements on the path to well-being.
4-Encourage employees to have a family doctor that is the center of their health care. Their doctor should have a picture of their whole medical history and treatments. Providers should see and know what their patience look like sick and well, so they have a point of reference.
5-Create a strong sustainable communications campaign. Repeat key messages and tie it all together so that benefits are related to programs available. Communications shouldn’t use scare tactics or statistics, but speak to employees and motivate them to desire to make health a priority.
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Wellness programs play an additional role in the health of your company – some wellness activities create the circumstance to identify individuals needing more immediate medical attention. Usually these people know they need to see a doctor but keep putting it off. Rather than remaining a ticking count down to an emergency event, leaving you one employee down – An outside party urging them to seek care may be the motivator that helps them get care to remain a healthy and productive member of your workforce. You provide benefits so your employees are healthy and productive. So engage your vendor partners to help you in that endeavor!
As a wellness vendor, I have been to many Health Fairs. I have found that marketing plays a big role in participation. Also, and probably the most important, is to get support from the higher-ups. If the employees see their bosses participating, they are more likely to join in. I don’t feel incentives are the way to go (and you need to be careful of the legalities of incentives towards a wellness program). Marketing, support, appointments, appointment reminders, and follow through will increase your numbers. It takes a little more organization initially, but once you have a successful Health Fair, your annual Health Fairs participation will usually increase. Any questions, feel free to contact me.