Develop an employee well-being program

To set the stage for a successful employee well-being program, you’ll need support from management. This will help you secure the resources and backing necessary to create real change. Here are some tips to help you get your management team on board:

• Inform managers about your program early on and encourage them to participate.
• Align your well-being value proposition with your company’s mission statement.
• Regularly communicate the goals of the program and the anticipated benefits to both the company and to employees.
• Encourage managers to provide well-being updates during meetings to help build momentum.

Resources

• Benefits of a Workplace Well-being program
• Sample announcement letter

A well-being committee can help plan, promote, and implement your program. The committee establishes continuity, builds momentum, and has broad ownership of the program. When choosing your committee members, think about who will be helpful to the program and who the program will affect. Committee members should be enthusiastic, eager to talk about healthy behaviors, and not afraid to encourage participation. Consider interviewing employees and offering an incentive to selected members.

Resource

• Well-being Champion Application

Research and planning are critical to a program’s success. Here are some important tasks to focus on:

• Ask employees for input on their health interests and needs.
• Assess your company’s environment and culture.
• Review outcomes from previous wellness initiatives.
• Set goals and determine the steps required to reach them.
• Seek support from outside sources to minimize implementation time.
• Develop a budget for prizes and incentives.

Resources

• Well-being Employee Survey
• Workplace Assessment Survey
• Sample Employee Interest Survey

Do policies need to change to create a more health-centric working environment whether that setting is in the office or at home? The types of programs you offer will help maintain employee interest, cover a wide range of topics, and involve a wide range of people.

A comprehensive, successful well-being program can take up to three months to plan. You can use our templates as a jumping-off point to design your own plan based on your company’s size, needs, and interests. You can also visit our Learn page to find toolkits and resources to help with your annual planning efforts.

Resources

• Carefully crafting your organization’s wellness plan
• Sample Well-being operating plan

Make a formal announcement when you kick off the program. Allow plenty of time to promote scheduled events and activities. Flyers, banners, posters, email announcements, and newsletters are all good ways to spread the word.

Resources

• Planning a Health Fair brochure
• Achieve Well-being@Work with Independence poster template

Begin working on policies that focus on data from Step 3. They could include a tobacco-free workplace policy, healthy meeting policy, the addition of walking paths, stretch breaks, relaxation rooms, or whatever you identified as top needs. All of this will help create a supportive work environment both in the office or at home.

After each event or program, evaluate the outcome so you’ll know exactly what you achieved. You might find that some programs were so successful they’re worth re-running throughout the year. Some may prove to be too complicated or won’t have the results you expected.  This information will help you refine your plan, so you  can be sure to use your time and money effectively.

Resources

• Determine what you will evaluate
• Communicating your evaluation results
• The Fundamentals of Evaluation