Creating a successful Corporate Wellbeing Programme

 

Any great leader will tell you that great people are at the heart of any successful business.  They are the foundation upon which a business survives or thrives.  The average person will spend approximately 90,000 hours of their life working.  Today’s workforce faces more pressures than ever before.  Up to 40 per cent of the UK workforce’s sickness absence is due to mental ill health, with one in six working aged people experiencing mental ill health at any given time.

There is a solution to this and something employers can do to ensure their workforce are fit, happy and performing well – creating a successful Corporate Wellbeing Programme. We caught up with Joe Gaunt, Founder and CEO, hero – www.herowellbeing.com to discuss his views.

Why create an employee wellbeing programme?

Healthy and highly engaged employees are, on average, up to 30 days more productive and organisations promoting health and wellbeing are 3.5 times more likely to be creative and innovative

The provision of employee wellbeing services is vital for employee engagement and creating a positive working culture.   Wellness programmes should stem from a well thought out and measured strategy.  The programme should allow for a balance of company wide initiatives and personalisation, both in and out of work, and cover a broad spectrum of factors such as physical, mental, social and financial health.  Gone are the days of simply offering a free gym membership or a weekly box of fruit to staff.  A successful organisation will go on a journey with their teams, which will see education, information sharing, recognition and reward as part of the strategy.

Wellness isn’t one size fits all

Wellness shouldn’t be a universal solution. Every employee’s journey to a healthier lifestyle is unique, and it should be treated as such. For example, person A might love the gym. They might work out and keep fit regularly and as such talking to them about 10,000 steps a day or the importance of 30 minutes of physical activity five times a week will be futile and insignificant.  On the other hand, Person B might want to get more active but not sure how or where to start.  Some information, a webinar or content about walking, walking groups or simple at home exercises they can try will make all the difference.  Digital platforms can enable employers to create and host personalised experience for employees.  The technology can also be used to help connect employees with similar health and wellness interests as well as supporting and reward individual progress. Employers can expect to see higher participation rates with a more personalised approach to employee wellness.

Get your tech in order.

You might have heard or even help your own ‘wellness week’ where you might offer a healthy breakfast one day, free smoothies another and a yoga class on the third.  Did this make a significant impact on the health and happiness of your employees?  Maybe?  Do you really know?  The key to launching and managing a good and effective wellbeing initiative is ongoing measurement and evaluation – starting before you launch.  With the right platform, the person responsible for wellness within the company will be able to see at any given moment how the team / teams are engaging with the initiative, what’s popular, what’s getting engagement, what people like and don’t like. You can also look at different department, age, gender and even location specific data.  The dashboard we provide offers invaluable insight that senior managers can use to make informed and rational business decisions.

 

How to start your wellbeing programme

If you’re reading this and thinking you should look at this for your organisation, firstly – well done. This shows vision and insight on your behalf.   Launching a new wellbeing programme can involve a wellness week a good mix of company-wide initiatives as well as encouraging staff to find the support and resources they need to support them the most will produce the best results. The key takeaway is that the ability to personalise health and wellbeing is vital and this is where businesses and organisations which realise this will be the true winners.