Steps for communicating your employee wellness program

While implementing an employee wellness program is a great first step in helping your employees make better choices and improve their health and wellbeing, it is only a first step. One of the most important steps in making sure that your employee wellness program succeeds is making sure that you are communicating effectively with your employees. If your employees are unsure as to what you are offering or where they need to go to access the program, they will quickly lose interest and the entire employee wellness program will fade away. The bottom line is that in order to make your employee wellness program effective, you will need to communicate what your program is and most importantly communicate it well.

It is important to take a close look at how you are communicating to your employees. There are number of different ways that you can communicate with your employees. Some will work better then others. However, by carefully examining how you are currently communicating, you can get a better idea of just how well your program is being accepted and used, by your employees. Here are some steps for communicating your employee wellness program-

• Communicate often-If you are only sending out a monthly email, it may not be enough to get people motivated and interested in the program. You must have ongoing communication with your employees. This is the key to successfully creating an awareness of the employee wellness program, and then building an understanding of the program, and finally, influencing their behavior.


• Develop a communications strategy, for your employee wellness program-You will need to make sure that just like everything else in your company that you have a plan as to now you will communicate with your employees.


• Set up short and long term communication goals-Your communication goals should coincide with the goals of the employee wellness program. For example, if you want to increase participation in the program, then the ways you communicate with employees should reflect that.


• Understand your businesses culture-Every company has a culture and understanding it is the key to successfully communicating with your employees. You want to place the information that you want them to see, where they are most likely to see it. For example-If no one stops to read the bulletin boards then you should not depend on them to spread needed communications, or if everyone must log onto a computer every morning, then having a notice about an upcoming wellness event on the screen is a good place to be.


• Know your employees-The demographics of your employees will help to determine what kind of communication methods that you decide to use. You want to make sure that certain types of communication are not considered offensive or be considered discriminatory.


• Build a wellness brand-Just like your company has a brand, your wellness program can have one as well. This helps to communicate to the employees that this is a program that they can take seriously. Building a wellness brand can include having a name, logo, color scheme and/or an eye-catching message. Remember that however, you choose to brand your wellness program, the ultimate goal is to grab the employees' attention and get them involved.


• Offer incentives-No matter the type of media you use, nothing gets someone's attention, like knowing there is something in it for them. You will need to know and understand what will motivate your employees and then offer incentives that will be of value to them. Incentives can also help to communicate the importance of the employee wellness program. There is a wide variety of incentives that can be offered such as: reductions in health insurance premiums, money, gift cards etc.