How to design an effective employee wellness program

One of the best tools for helping your employees get healthier is to design and implement an employee wellness program. This type of program can be a highly effective process for giving your employees the tools and information they need to achieve a higher level of health. When your employees have achieved their health goals this means that they can become better and more productive workers for your business. However, it is not enough to simply put an employee wellness program into your company. You will need to take specific steps that will insure that your employee wellness program is effective. Failing to take these steps will just be a waste of time and money. Here is what you need to know about how to design an effective employee wellness program-

- Do your research-The first step when you are designing any type of employee wellness program is to find out what your employees will want and need from it. The Health Promotion team that runs the design and implementation of the employee wellness program should avoid the temptation to simply plug in ready made components or use someone else's already put together employee wellness program. You must be able to clearly determine what your employees will want from the employee wellness program before you set it up. If you fail to do this you will most likely end up with an employee wellness program that is not even close to fully utilized. You can do the research you need by doing health screenings and sending out surveys to your employees to find out what types of employee wellness program they would be willing to be a part of.
- Have a plan-Once you have the research that you need the next step is to formulate a plan. If you simply begin sending out programs and different components of your employee wellness program without a plan you will most likely not generate the response you want it to. Most employee wellness programs run by focusing on one component of the program for a specific amount of time and then beginning another one. Or you can run a couple of different programs concurrently. However you decide to run the employee wellness program really doesn't matter since what really matters is that you are organized about it. If your employee wellness program lacks planning and organization then the chances are high that it won't really be effective.
- Communicate your employee wellness program-The bottom line is that no matter how great your employee wellness program is if you don't communicate it effectively to your employees it won't really matter. The Health Promotions team will need to understand that their job is not done after the employee wellness program is put together but rather just beginning. The marketing and communicating of the employee wellness program is just as important as its design. The member of the Health Promotions team will need to determine the most effective ways to let the employees know what is happening. This can be through newsletters (either printed or online), voicemails, group meetings, bulletin boards, flyers, mailings sent to the employees' homes or a combination of these methods. The key is finding out what will reach the employees the best and then sending clear and easy to understand information about the employee wellness program. This is the best way to help it become effective.
- Follow up and be consistent-The final step in making sure that your employee wellness program is effective is to follow up on its progress and be consistent. Not only will this help the program itself but it will also show your employees that you are serious about helping them achieve better health.