5 Questions to Ask When Implementing Your Workplace Wellness Program

September 27, 2017

These days, employers today understand the value of creating a healthy work environment to form the best culture they can for their employees. Workplace wellness is defined as “…any workplace health promotion activity or organizational policy designed to support healthy behavior in the workplace and to improve health outcomes while at work.” And who doesn’t want that? The concept of wellness is easy to embrace – create a culture that gives employees the opportunity to engage in health and wellness activities such as access to nutritious eating, exercise, stress-reduction time, etc.

Today, the prevalence of workplace wellness programs is widespread. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2016 Employer Health Benefits Survey, 83% of large firms (200+ employees) offer a wellness program. If you want to ensure that your workplace wellness program is successful, it’s important to start out by asking the following questions to help create a customized initiative that demonstrates to employees that you are a partner with them and help set them up for success along the way.

What are the goals of the program?

Before implementation, it’s important to think about your company’s overall goals. Is it to decrease sick days? Improve productivity? Do you have individual employee wellness goals you want to hit? Think about how you will measure these over time and how you measure success. Define your specific goals prior to starting out so everything is clear from the start.

Will my employees USE the benefit?

There are a variety of different programs you COULD implement, but it’s important to understand whether your employees will actually use them. For example, smoking cessation programs are wonderful, but you need to know whether you have current smokers on your team roster who WANT to quit. Surveys are a useful tool to understand the interests of your team and to garner feedback on which programs will be most used.

How will it improve company culture?

You want your program to make a significant difference to your team. In general, do you see these efforts helping make your crew healthier, happier and living an overall better life? You need to look at the bigger picture alongside the smaller, everyday changes. Great workplace wellness programs make a big difference on how employees think about you as an employer – do they think you are caring, generous and kind?

Will it have a positive impact on our bottom line?

Workplace wellness programs have become increasingly popular, because it’s been found that any investment companies put into these programs directly impacts productivity, performance and ultimately improves your company’s bottom line. You need to determine how you will measure the ROI to understand the impact on your bottom line. It would be a waste if the program runs successfully for a few years but you weren’t able to measure the impact to justify your investment. The more you can prove the ROI, the greater the budget you can get for more useful wellness programs and continue to grow these programs.

Is the program sustainable?

Do you see this program lasting one year or ten years? You want to make sure that the wellness program is simple, easy for employees to follow, and take advantage of. You don’t want it to be difficult for them to partake or for you to implement throughout the years. To create a successful workplace wellness program, you need to ensure that your vision is sustainable over time.

Once you’ve answered these questions, now the fun begins…..pulling together some of the best workplace wellness benefits and perks for your employees. Here at Berkshire Natural, we love helping Boston-area and New England businesses improve the health of their employees through our healthy snack delivery service right to your office or workplace. Check out our list of top 10 Workplace Wellness Perks on the blog and as always, feel free to contact us directly to chat about how we can help accomplish your goals and help create a healthy business atmosphere.

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