3 Tips to Improve Your Wellness Program Results
Austin, TX: As we work with hundreds of organizations on their wellness programs, we feel that employee education and knowledge is still lacking.
You can have dozens of wellness meetings, talk about your point program all day long and put up wellness banners all around your office- but many employees still do not understand the basics behind proper nutrition, exercise, etc.
What can you do to improve this communication to your employees?
We suggest several steps to improve the wellness and fitness of your employees:
1) Have educational seminars, videos and presentations
Perhaps you can partner with a nearby fitness center or hospital for informative seminars, videos and other presentations in return for free advertising or discounts.
Can you bring in a psychologist to talk about smoking cessation ideas and tips?
Are there other professionals that you can bring in from the outside that can address your employees?
Be creative.
Keep it fun and interactive.
Reward employees for attending these “classes”.
2) Provide educational reports, articles, newsletters and information packets on fitness and wellness topics
Your employees cannot be expected to change their behaviors overnight. Most studies say it takes a minimum of 30 days of behavior modification before an old habit is broken and a new one can begin.
Make information available to your employees and encourage them to read.
An educated employee can be your best ally in helping themselves and other employees.
Make the printed material easy to find, easy to read and on subject.
If you don’t have the time, budget or personnel to do this by yourself, we have made printed info slide guides available on dozens of wellness topics-all which can be imprinted with your wellness theme and logo. Click here to see more details about these wellness guides.
3) Follow Up
Do not allow this information to be quickly forgotten.
Provide wellness reminders.
Have weekly quizzes (for prizes, of course) to ingrain these wellness and fitness ideas.
Give one on one attention to those employees that need a bit more “hand holding”, coddling or attention.
Encourage small meetings on particular topics or themes to gain employee participation. These meeting groups can be for Smoking Cessation, Jogging for Beginners, Low-Calorie Cookie, Stress Management, Introductory Yoga, etc. You will be amazed at the power of self-directed employee groups and peer pressure.
Try these three tips and see how your wellness programs can be more effective.
Here’s to a healthier workforce.