Positioning wellness solutions within employee benefit strategies

Positioning wellness solutions within employee benefit strategies

Article Type: Rewards From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 12, Issue 6

Short case studies and research papers that demonstrate best practice in rewards

The fact is that healthier people work harder, are happier, help others and are more efficient. Take Google, four times winner of Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” (Great Place to Work Institute, n.d.). Google does not just create jobs, it creates a culture, in which people are valued and appreciated every day.

Today a wide range of poor lifestyle behaviors, including poor nutrition, lack of sleep, stress and low levels of physical activity, are affecting employee wellbeing. Those unable to cope well and suffering from poor levels of physical activity and emotional wellbeing are more likely to suffer from higher levels of sickness and absenteeism, thus resulting in a reduction in effective performance at work.

Determine the needs of the employer and employee

It is important to determine the needs of the employer and employee, asking “what do employees need”, and “how do those needs fit with the goals of the employer?” It is essential to understand the mindsets, challenges and audience before laying the framework for its path.

A simple health risk assessment is a good way to identify problem areas. vielife, a provider of global health and wellness solutions, focuses its assessment around four key pillars of health that affect everyone: physical activity, nutrition, sleep and stress. From this data and using information about a particular employer, such as the type of work locations they have and communication preferences, it is possible to create custom-designed corporate wellness programs. These have proven to be beneficial and cost effective to the employer as well very beneficial for employees in the long run.

Create a wellness plan to suit

Based on survey data, employers can determine what elements will work within their existing culture to specifically target relevant health interventions. Is it a fitness solution that will motivate employees? Does focus need to be placed on weight management or eating healthier? Can stress within the workplace be managed more effectively? Would a sleep management and support program benefit the needs of employees within your company? Alternatively, would a combination of some or all of the above work better within the ethos of the company?

In vielife’s experience, a combination wellness program is the most popular solution, with additional elements to target specific areas. An engaging solution is crucial to a successful wellness strategy. The appointment of a Wellness Committee or Wellbeing Champions can be very effective – internal advocates of the scheme that help, encourage or engage with their colleagues to increase participation and promote the change of culture within the organization.

In order to help build a wellbeing plan suited to a company’s needs and one that engages the employees, Champions are able to work closely with the employees to ensure a great source of first-hand information about an individual’s requirements and what they intend to get out of the scheme. People help people, which is why Health and Wellbeing Champions are so important and internal support is recommended to help companies boost interest and get people excited about using health tools and making lifestyle changes.

Use a range of engagement tools

A culture of wellness does not happen without reinforcement. Every population is different so using a range of engagement tools to drive participation is integral. An effective launch campaign is crucial for success, spreading the initial message to drive maximum involvement and engagement through a variety of sources depending on the audience. Communication methods such as following can be used:

• Printed materials: posters, guides and leaflets.

• In-person, onsite events: nurse days and launch days.

• Peer to peer support: Wellbeing Champions.

• Online: online assessments, challenges and interactive tools.

• Email: scheduled reminders, informative articles and meal recipes.

Set health and wellbeing challenges

Company-wide challenges are an effective way to improve brand identity and unite a large, and possibly diverse, employee population. By tapping into peoples’ sense of competition, challenges are a great way to educate employees about health and wellbeing whilst helping them to actively incorporate healthy behaviors into their lifestyle and promote team building throughout a company. In a recent survey of vielife’s “You can be active” campaign, participants from a multinational FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) company provided some compelling feedback:

• 89 percent thought that challenges boosted morale in their department or within the company.

• 86 percent said that taking part in the challenge increased their daily level of activity.

• 99 percent of participants would be interested in taking part in a future challenge.

Offer wellness incentives

Rewarding employees for getting healthy and achieving results can encourage the type of change needed to get the program off the ground and encourage a real shift in employee culture. In the USA, nearly 90 percent of employers offer wellness incentives, or financial rewards or prizes to employees to work toward getting healthier, according to a recent survey from Fidelity Investments and the National Business Group on Health. That figure is up from 57 percent of companies in 2009.

Because changing behavior is difficult, it is wise to look at a variety of tools to help sustain new behaviors and drive long-term engagement and participation. This can be as simple as announcing group fitness walks, providing free healthy lunches and recognizing the employees who are focused on better health.

So – does it work?

In research conducted by vielife, employees participating in wellbeing programs improved their wellbeing scores by 70 percent more than those who did not participate (vielife and Right Management Workplace Wellness). This includes across the board improvements in nutrition, physical activity, sleep and dealing with stress.

One multi-national provider of flow equipment products, systems and services to worldwide oil, gas and process industries implemented an employee health and wellbeing program and has since recognized positive health and productivity improvements amongst its employees, which has in turn led to significant achievements for the business. As a result, the multi-national is opening the wellness solution to its employees worldwide, in over 30 countries, over a five year period (vielife case study).

If an employee health and wellbeing program is well thought out, designed properly and maximizes participation through employee engagement, then companies should expect good results. Creating a group culture to encourage health and wellbeing goes a long way to help employees feel cared for and, more importantly, valued.

References

Great Place to Work Institute (n.d.), Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For, available at: http://www.greatplacetowork.com/best-companies/100-best-companies-to-work-for vielife and Right Management Workplace Wellness, Building Resilience Produces Better Results: White Paper, available at: www.vielife.com/en-gb/white-paper-build-resilience vielife case study – Multi National, available at www.vielife.com/en-gb/news_and_events/case_studies_and_company_literature

About the author

Jessica Colling is product director at vielife. She has spent the past decade working in health promotion. At vielife she is responsible for new product development and extending the ways that people can engage with and improve their health and well-being. She has also worked as a health writer and freelance consultant for a number of organizations, including the European Dana Alliance for the Brain and The Coalition for Medical Progress. Jessica Colling can be contacted at: mailto:j.colling@vielife.com

Jessica Colling
Jessica Colling is Product Director at vielife, London, UK