Increasingly, companies are interested and investing in starting a corporate wellness program. This is because healthier employees means a healthier company. Healthier employees are more productive, engaged and satisfied.
They also require less days off as a result of sickness and since they live longer, companies do not need to invest a lot resources in training new employees.
Below are steps to starting a corporate wellness program:
Gaining people’s support
One should seek the support of senior management, HR personnel, management and employees. This ensures that the well program being initiated succeeds.
Formation a wellness program committee
A committee should be formed composed of employees drawn from all levels of the organization. Their work is to initiate the wellness program and ensure its continued success.
Survey the employees on their interests
The committee members should then survey employees to determine the programs, activities and services they would be interested in. Seeking their input increases their engagement level and participation as their input was considered.
Determine employees’ lifestyles
This is done in two ways: directly and indirectly. The lifestyles of employees should be determined directly by asking them and indirectly by studying them at the workplace.
This ensures the information collected is accurate. Things to study to when one is determining their lifestyles include number of employees who smoke and the number of smoking breaks they take and how much they snack and on what.
This gives one a better grasp of what kind of wellness program will work best.
Launching the program
Once the activities, programs and services to be provided have been selected, the wellness program should be started. A great way of doing so is having a health fair with services like free cholesterol and blood pressure checks and sporting activities.
Weekly wellness events
The employee rewards programs should be offered for employees meeting health milestones such as losing weight or quitting smoking. Such rewards include pedometers and food steamers.
Rewarding participating employees
Events should be organized at least once a week such as walks, sports or free salads. In such events, the importance of healthy living should be reinforced.
Evaluation of the program
Constantly evaluate the program’s effectiveness. Parameters to evaluate include participants’ behavioral changes, participation levels, satisfaction levels of the participants and productivity levels. This helps in determining what is working and what is not as well as return on investment of the program.
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