Building excitement

When it comes to a company’s wellness program, a key to keeping people interested is an ongoing program to generate excitement about both the program itself and the benefits it offers workers.

“It is key that management supports wellness initiatives by providing time and financial support as innovative and helpful programs are developed,” says Peggy Zanin, RN,
BSN, MS, the coordinator of Women’s Heart
Health Program at Akron General Medical
Center’s Heart & Vascular Center.

Smart Business spoke to Zanin about ways
a company can build excitement and maintain worker interest in its wellness programs.

What are wellness programs designed to do?

Workplace wellness programs are designed
to create a culture of health in the workplace.
They often offer incentives for employees
who adopt healthier lifestyles, such as discounts on group health premiums, and penalize those employees who do not. A healthier
work force lives longer and is happier, so
employee wellness programs are good ideas.
Ideally, programs are designed to help
employees make better lifestyle choices.

Is it better to have a designated ‘spirit leader’
or to have a top executive take on the cheerleader role?

The top executive does not have to be the
cheerleader. It may be vital that the top executive involves many champions to live and
share the wellness mantra. Again it really is
key that management supports wellness initiatives. They need to provide time and financial support.

What kinds of wellness events work best?

A pep rally is not always needed, but a
health message presented in different forums
to reach diverse employees should be offered
at least monthly. The events should take
many forms and are often easiest and most
beneficial when they are linked with national
events. Make events timely. Use national
health themes to generate interest and confirm the importance of message. Provide programs when people are available. Workers
have demanding schedules and family obligations so it is crucial to make the programs
enjoyable, convenient and affordable.

How do you get the message out?

Generating buzz takes a communications
strategy, successful tactics and a commitment from leadership. Nothing beats repetition. Consider e-mail blasts, fliers, posters
and giveaways to pique your employees’
interest. You may also want to develop a standard design template and color palette to
strengthen the branding of your program.
Sending the message that you care about
your employees’ well-being will help reinforce their healthy behavior.

How can you get your employees to be excited about wellness programs?

Creating a wellness committee to support
your new programs is critical to transforming
your company’s culture. A wellness committee can help empower your staff to be more
active and adopt positive behaviors that support a lifelong commitment to a healthy
lifestyle.

Recruit the fit and those challenged to live
a healthy lifestyle, smokers and nonsmokers, and a range of professionals, such as human
resources managers, employee health representatives and marketing experts. The more
diverse your core group is, the more likely
you are to create enthusiasm in all parts of
your workplace and the easier it will be to
spread the message about the program.

A wellness committee also can help you get
a handle on how these programs are being
accepted by the employees, gather information about what programs work and determine what kind of incentives would be most
popular.

How do incentives drive engagement?

It’s vital that employers offer no-cost or
low-cost incentives to incite employee
lifestyle changes. Some employers are providing subsidized on-site healthy lunch programs or discounted gym memberships. I’ve
seen very effective programs that pay
employees as little as $1 for each pound of
weight they lose. Like any incentive program,
the plan must be well communicated and
reinforced in order for it to work.

What health messages should employers
repeatedly share with their employees?

Companies want to focus on programs that
raise awareness and prevention for the leading causes of injury and death. As their
employees become healthier they will be
more productive and ultimately have less illness and disease. By engaging employees in
healthier lifestyle choices, it will lead them to
a better quality of life and they will be able to
give more to their job and others. Women
and men need to know their health risks and
proactive employers will design fun, innovative programs to help prevent these diseases.
Heart disease and stroke are the two leading
causes of death throughout the world. Many
women still believe breast cancer is their
major health concern.

Presentations, health screens, contests,
walks and continual messages are beneficial
and worthwhile to assist workers to be more
active, stop smoking and control waistlines,
blood pressure, diabetes and lipid levels.

PEGGY ZANIN, RN, BSN, MS, is the coordinator of the Women’s Heart Health Program at Akron General Medical Center’s Heart and
Vascular Center. Reach her at [email protected].