10 Tips for Introducing Wellness in the Workplace
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- Collect feedback. Survey your people. Knowing what your staff is interested in and most likely to pursue will help assure your time, money, and effort is well spent.
- Be open-minded. What you think your wellness program will entail and how it actually comes together, based on input from your team, may be two different things. Be okay with that.
- Establish goals. Put some thought into why you are creating a wellness program and what you hope the outcomes will be. Document those goals so that over time, you can reflect on the impact of your program on your business and your team.
- Diversity the offerings. One person may need a program that is focused on physical activity. Someone else may need stress management tools. Another person may be looking for guidance on how to manage finances. Recognize that different people need different things and aim to offer something for everyone.
- Make building the program part of the fun. Encourage staff to participate as your new wellness program is being built, or as an existing wellness program is growing and expanding. Consider creating a wellness committee, whose charter is to plan and build, or expand wellness opportunities for your team.
- Identify a champion to lead the effort. Find a person from within who is truly passionate about wellness, and ask them to take the lead, with your support.
- Be an active participant yourself. Staff is more likely to participate if leaders are engaged and participating too. Buy-in starts at the top, and your new or growing wellness program is no exception.
- Be aware of the program logistics, and work around them. If a walking group forms and invites staff to lace up their sneakers and take a stroll on Thursdays at noon, note it. Don’t schedule an important meeting at that time, which would prevent staff from participating.
- Track results. Put systems in place to understand the impact of your wellness program over time. Take a look back at the goals you originally established and note where change is evident.
- Celebrate! Be proud of the fact that you are making workplace wellness a priority. Your commitment says a lot about who you are as a person as well as a leader.
You’ve decided the introduction of a new workplace wellness program is on the horizon. Now what? Here are 10 tips for your consideration, centered around building and sustaining a program that will make a positive difference for your business.