Employee wellness programs have their greatest success when they create healthier working conditions each day, rather than providing occasional employee perks. Organizations that value employee well-being reduce burnout, provide an environment to promote both physical and mental health, and develop sustainable systems to enable workers to perform at optimal levels. This article provides a comprehensive outline of developing wellness within organizational culture through leaders’ behaviors, established policies, and supportive work environments.
The ultimate goal of creating wellness is to increase employee’s overall energy, decrease absenteeism, promote job retention, and enhance performance, all without making wellness another pressure point or blame factor.
1. Develop Wellness Programs Based Upon Actual Workplace Health Risks
Developing a wellness program begins with determining which factors contribute to harm to an individual’s health while at work. Common workplace health hazards include: excessive workload, ergonomic deficiencies, poorly defined priorities, and lack of psychological safety.
The key workplace factors to evaluate:
- Work hours and overtime schedule, meeting load
- Stress hot spots based upon role and/or team
- Physical stressors (standing, lifting, repetitive motions)
- Availability of break times and recovery time
The purpose of a wellness program is to address the actual health risks inherent to the work environment; therefore, the program should be designed around the specific needs of the organization and its employees, not a generic template.
2. Create Policies That Promote Healthy Work Habits
Organizational policies greatly influence employee behavior much more so than postings or signs. Clearly defined organizational policies can assist employees in protecting their health and well-being without fear.
Policy changes with high impact on employee behavior:
- Defined reasonable response times for employees
- Protection of break times and meal times
- Training managers in workload planning to prevent excessive employee workloads
- Flexibility in scheduling where feasible
The objective of implementing policies that promote healthy work habits is to minimize the barriers in employees’ daily work activities, not add additional burdens.
3. Provide Accessible Tools to Assist Employees to Maintain Their Well-Being
Tools provided by a wellness program must be accessible, private, and relevant to the employees. Employees will be more likely to participate in the wellness program if the program respects the diverse needs of employees and does not provide opportunities for judgment of employees.
Examples of useful employee wellness tools:
- Accessibility to ergonomic assistance, i.e., ergonomic workstation assessments and recommendations
- Access to professional counseling services or mental health support
- Fitness/movement options available to accommodate varying employee abilities
- Educational sessions regarding health that focus on promoting healthy habits, not guilt
A wellness program that supports employees in maintaining their health and well-being should foster feelings of support, not pressure from performance expectations.
4. Track the Program’s Outcome and Refine the Program
Like any business function, the effectiveness of a wellness program should be measured. Tracking the wellness program should maintain the privacy of employees and track trends.
Examples of useful measures to evaluate the wellness program’s outcome:
- Trends in employee absences and turnover
- Employee engagement survey results
- Signals indicating increased burnout (workload, clarity of role)
- Rates of participation in wellness program resources
Regular evaluation of the wellness program will allow organizational leaders to refine the program, eliminate ineffective elements, and continuously improve the overall effectiveness of the program.
Conclusion
Creating a healthy organization involves developing and implementing systems that provide protection and support to employees while also enabling them to achieve optimal performance. A successful wellness program focuses on the real workplace health risks, establishes policies that support healthy work habits, offers practical tools to support employees in achieving their health goals, and evaluates the outcome of the program over time.
When organizational leaders consider wellness to be part of the operational design of the organization, employees experience greater energy and stability, and the organization experiences greater resilience. Therefore, this is the way that wellness will become a sustained competitive advantage – operationalized, measured, and embedded in the day-to-day work of the organization.