Engage Health Group

Tag: corporate wellness

  • 12 reasons why corporate wellness programmes fail, according to industry insiders

    12 reasons why corporate wellness programmes fail, according to industry insiders

    Every employer wants a workplace full of happy and healthy people driving the business forward. So it’s no surprise that the corporate wellness market is thriving. According to Allied Market Research, the market is expected to be valued at $66.2 billion by 2027.

    And yet, despite businesses making significant investments, many are failing to provide the return-on-investment hoped for. So why is this?

    In this special blog post, we’ve compiled insights from leaders across the corporate wellness field to provide an authoritative round-up of the key reasons why corporate wellness programmes fail.

    For business-specific, one-to-one advice you can arrange a FREE call with one of our independent consultants using the contact form on the right.

    1. Overburdening a team member with responsibility 

    Dr. Aldana, CEO of Wellsteps warns against asking a full-time employee to take on the duty of running the programme. They already have enough to do!:

    “It may start off well, but eventually the lack of time and expertise to manage and administer a comprehensive wellness program becomes apparent. These programs usually fail because of neglect.”

    This clearly points towards the importance of app-based solutions which allow employees to largely manage things for themselves. Even so, there will always be an important element of human oversight – and there will need to be a team of advocates who will be on-hand to help.

    Action: Consider whether you’d be better off setting up a team of advocates as opposed to giving all the responsibility to one person. Alternatively, you can also consider outsourcing to an external consultant.

     

    2. Lack of leadership and goals

    It’s perhaps obvious but still worth emphasising. Any successful corporate wellbeing policy must be led from the top. This is a point made by J. Michael McNamara at Impact Health:

    “Wellness programs require strong leadership, clearly defined goals, and engagement-oriented communication designed to produce action and positive behavior change.”

    It’s worth reiterating the importance of goal-setting. There should be a tangible benefit that the programme is designed to achieve, related to:

    • Absentee rates
    • Employee satisfaction levels (tracked via surveys taken before the programmes implementation, after its implementation and regularly thereafter)
    • Employee retention
    • Perception of the business
    • Mental health – tracked via anonymously collected surveys

     

    Whatever result you wish to achieve, you need to seriously consider how it will be recorded. Results must be verifiable to ensure that value is being delivered.

    Action: Consider who will be leading the programme and be sure to set targets from the outset.

     

    3. Failure to update the programme

    A tendency to “launch it and leave it” is a common reason why corporate wellness programmes fail. David Sherman, Head of Wellbeing and Engagement at YuLife urged the importance of tracking performance and evolving the programme over time:

    “Regular assessment is key. You need to assess how your people are responding to your wellbeing programme. Are they aware of it? Are they utilising it? If you’re offering any benefits, look at take-up. Ask for reports. Seek out engagement stats.”

    This clearly ties into the importance of setting goals and tracking them, but it’s also about working out where improvements can be made. A key reason why corporate wellness programmes fail is simply a consequence of failing to evolve it over time in response to feedback and data.

    Action: Track performance regularly (every six months minimum) and address areas requiring improvement.

     

    4. Lack of incentives

    Wellbeing challenges are often a fun way of increasing participation in corporate wellness programmes. Earlier this year we arranged a step-count challenge against fellow employee benefits brokers, Hooray Health & Protection. When done well, they can be great fun – and add an extra element of camaraderie within a team. They can also inspire longer-term positive health changes.

    But they can go wrong if the incentives simply aren’t good enough. This point is taken up by the people at WellRight:

    “Say you have great sign-up numbers for wellness challenges, but employees continuously drop out before the challenges are complete. Or you can’t get enough participation in challenges to justify doing them. In either case, your program will ultimately lose support from senior leaders, and that’s the ballgame.”

    Action point: when setting a challenge, make sure the reward inspires participation. And if you can make it enjoyable, even better.

    Need help piecing together a corporate wellness programme that works? Contact our team of experts for a FREE consultation. Tel: +44(0)1273 20974419 or use the contact form on the right.

    5. Ignoring ‘social health’

    Shaon Shahnewaz, Head of Marketing at CircleCare raises the importance of cultivating “social health”. After all, we’re all social animals and therefore healthy social connections can have a major role to play in our mental wellbeing and, by extension, physical health too. In fact, even the WHO identified social health as important way back in 1948.

    “No matter which industry you work in or the background they are from social health is essential to ensure employee wellbeing, and yet only the “physical and mental well-being” aspect is covered by most corporate wellness programs.”

    In many ways this highlights how important simple activities such as post-Friday drink gatherings or team lunches can make to overall health.

    Action point: Could you improve morale across the business by strengthening a healthy social dynamic?

     

    6. Relying too much on incentives

    Incentives have long been used in corporate wellness programmes as a way of motivating people to take part. But the team at Sonic Boom Wellness have warned of the dangers of relying too heavily on them.

    “Incentives may draw some into a program and encourage those who would participate anyway to continue to engage. But incentives alone don’t typically create behavior improvement; people are engaging for all the wrong reasons.”

    The answer lies in ensuring employees fully understand the deeper benefits of adopting new habits or participating in challenges. Many wellbeing apps are very good at combining healthy activities with useful explainers.

    Action point: If you’re setting a wellbeing challenge, make sure you explain the health benefits it provides.

     

    7. Failure to address all areas of health and wellbeing

    We talk a lot about the three pillars of wellbeing: physical, mental and financial. Each is interconnected. Any wellbeing or employee benefits programme should ideally address each pillar. So often, the reason why corporate wellness programmes fail is because they focus too much on one area of wellbeing – usually physical.

    The team at Wellness 360 outline the problem as it exists today:

    “Despite the different wellness dimensions vital for holistic employee wellness, most of the time only physical health is emphasized upon. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the spotlight on many other employee wellness dimensions, and mental wellness is now prioritized equally as physical health.”

    It’s interesting to note how they’ve expanded the definition of wellbeing into other areas such as: social, occupational and cultural health.

    Action point: Ensure you wellness programme covers the three core pillars of wellbeing.

     

    8. A lack of convenience

    So often, convenience is king. The same is true with wellness programmes, as Zara Martirosyan from inKin Social Fitness explains:

    “In today’s busy, fast-paced society, convenience is the key to staying healthy. As part of your corporate wellness program, do you naturally make it easier for your employees to engage in health and wellness? For example, you might have an exercise room on the premises where your employees can get in their workout for the day during their lunch break.”

    Action point: It’s worth going over each element of your corporate wellness programme and considering whether it’s easy to access and action for employees.

     

    9. Not getting feedback

    Yes, it’s obvious but it still gets overlooked. Have you asked your staff what they want before you invest in the scheme? Have you been getting their feedback since its launch? Kaye Kennedy from MBS Wellness takes up the point:

    “Make sure you have a real time understanding of the needs of your employees. Employees are dynamic and ever-changing and your wellness program must also be… A survey is a good way to get valuable data and feedback. Furthermore, employees want very much to be heard. Let them tell you what matters most to them, what health issues they are facing and what they would like to learn more about.”

    Surveying employees is perhaps the most thing any company can do to ensure a corporate wellness plan is successful.

    Action point: Make sure you’re gathering feedback from employees – whether via surveys or one-to-one feedback.

     

    10. Lack of flexibility

    Closely related to the issue of convenience, another common reason why corporate wellness programmes fail is that they are simply too rigid. This encompasses different issues: ease-of-access, range of wellness activities on offer and adaptability to different employee preferences.

    Does it offer something for everyone? ClassPass addresses this very issue:

    “Health and wellness initiatives are extremely personal in nature and therefore, require flexibility to meet varying schedules, abilities and needs. While you can’t provide the perfect solution for every person, providing options and flexibility within the programs you do offer is possible and needed for maximum engagement.”

    Action point: Consider whether there is more you can do to make it flexible to the needs of each individual.

     

    11. Mismatch between wellness and organisational culture

    Does the programme preach one value while the organisation has a culture that runs contrary to it? Is there a mismatch? The people at BetterYou made this important point on their blog:

    “If an organization’s culture doesn’t match the employee wellness program goals, results are fleeting. Companies that offer wellness programs but continue to bring donuts to meetings, expect long work hours, or lack senior leadership buy-in should expect diminishing returns. Without shifting the organization to a culture that visibly and vigorously supports employee wellness, programs will fail.”

    Action point: While we wouldn’t want to discourage the occasional offer of donuts and pastries, it’s important that workplace culture supports the goals of the wellness programme.

     

    12. Alienation of employees

    What if your well-meaning health and wellbeing programme actually discriminated against certain employees? Rohma Abbas at Workable makes this very important point:

    “On the surface, these programs seem like win-wins, but crafting a workplace health and wellness program means defining health and wellness. When companies do that, they open the door to discriminatory health judgments. (For example, a tobacco cessation program will target smokers, and a FitBit competition can alienate non-walkers). These decisions can negatively affect employee engagement.”

    In many ways it’s inevitable that people will feel excluded by certain initiatives, which again highlights the importance of providing choice and flexibility within your wellbeing programme.

    Action point: Be aware of how an initiative has the potential to exclude certain team members or make them feel targeted in some way. That doesn’t necessarily mean cancelling the initiative. It may just mean making sure people are not feeling discriminated against.

     

    Making corporate wellness work

    There’s a continuing debate about the success or otherwise of corporate wellbeing programmes – with commentators making blanket claims one way or the other. But ultimately it depends on how well they are planned and executed. Get it right, and you can achieve tangible results including lower staff sickness rates, improved satisfaction levels and greater team morale – and this all impacts on productivity.

    If you want advice on how to set-up or improve your wellness programme, speak to our team of independent advisors. Engage Health Group has expertise covering the whole corporate wellness and employee benefits market – we will advise you on strategy and deliver FREE quotes.

    Contact us at Engage Health Group Ltd or call +44 (0)1273 974419 for FREE no-obligation advice and support.

  • How to measure employee wellness in the workplace

    How to measure employee wellness in the workplace

    The success of any organisation lies in the happiness of staff and employee wellness, where companies promoting a culture of health and wellbeing will inevitably attract great employees and lead to productivity levels soaring.

    Employee wellness in the workplace getting more attention

    The importance of employee wellness in the workplace is gradually growing – with 44% of organisations now having a wellbeing strategy, an increase of 4% from 2019 (Health and Wellbeing at Work CIPD Report)! These statistics positively point towards a future where the business world is shifting the traditionally reactive response to employee health and wellbeing, to one which is preventive and addresses the source.

    Many different factors fall under employee wellness – stress management, mental health, fitness, nutrition, work/life balance, and even financial wellbeing – making setting up a successful employee wellness programme difficult! Not only this, each employees’ wellbeing, and ways of dealing with wellness, are individual and personal to that employee. Employee wellness in the workplace must be tailored and made relevant to each employee.

    So, what is employee wellness in the workplace? And how can organisations measure and tailor their employee wellness programmes to be the most effective for their needs?

    What is employee wellness in the workplace? 

    Employee wellness in the workplace should always be rooted in and built around the needs of the employee. The definition of employee wellness is broad and inconclusive, making it incredibly adaptable as health means something different in different contexts and for different people. It can range from focusing on the quality and safety of the physical work environment, to how employees feel about the work they are doing, to the general work climate and emotional connection between employees and their employers.

    A healthy, productive, and happy employee should feel like:

    • Their work is valuable and meaningful
    • They are healthy, happy, satisfied, and having fun
    • They identify with the company they work for
    • They have a strong work/life balance
    • They trust in their employer to support them

     

    Many employers are still approaching employee wellness from a reactive standpoint, only focusing on the health of their staff after medical and mental health concerns have been raised. To successfully integrate employee wellness into a workforce, employers instead must focus on the happiness of their staff – establishing a culture where staff are content and feel protected at work.

    Why does employee wellness need to be a priority? 

    Over recent years, employee wellness has become more and more needed, especially dealing with the fallout from the pandemic and facing possibilities of uncertain futures of lockdowns and isolation. In this climate, it is apparent that organisations need to demonstrate support for their employees, to establish programmes that target everyone in their workforce.

    YouGov research commissioned by Push and Solent Mind (2021) surveyed 1000 UK working adults addressing how much work-life impacted overall wellness. The key contributing factors among those who felt their work-life contributed to their worsened wellbeing:

    • 31% said too much change in the workplace
    • 30% said unclear communication
    • 27% said employees do not feel comfortable talking about mental wellbeing in the workplace/to their employers

     

    The YouGov research highlights just how influential employers can be over supporting the wellness of their staff, and how impactful making the workplace a positive space to be present in can be.

    Benefits of promoting employee wellness in the workplace

    The link between a healthy workforce and the success of an organisation are inherently tied together, producing many positive outcomes for both employer and employee. Listed below are some benefits of supporting employee wellness:

    • Improves morale and productivity
    • Increases employee recruitment and retention
    • Improves engagement
    • Reduces absenteeism and presenteeism
    • Reduces stress
    • Reduces costs

     

    (Top 5 Benefits of Corporate Wellness Programmes).

    For these benefits to come to light, organisations need to internalise employee wellness practices into the workforce, and constantly look for ways to improve and adapt strategies so to help as many employees as possible.

    How can employee wellness be measured in the workplace? 

    The most important part of implementing a successful employee wellness strategy is knowing how to understand what your employees want, how to measure its success, and being able to identify areas that need improvement.

    Establishing a fluid, moving approach to your employee wellness programme will ensure that your organisation is constantly working and adapting to specific employing needs – being preventive rather than reactive.

    Listed below are easy and simple ways employers can measure employee wellness in the workplace:-

    Employee Surveys: 

    • employee feedback/ratings e.g., productivity levels against happiness levels, sick days, overtime, fluctuation rates
    • gives regular updates of how employees are feeling/reacting
    • insights into specific issues e.g., stress, anxiety, bullying behaviour

    HR Data: 

    • number and frequency of absences (however, mental health absence is often reported as a physical illness by employees, so cannot rely solely on data)
    • quantity rates of work
    • staff retention

    Culture of Openness:

    • managers to set up regular one-to-one meetings – personal check-ins
    • Mental Health First Aid training
    • Promote an environment where it is normal to talk about wellness – managers can set the example here by opening to colleagues about themselves

    Management Information: 

    • Demographics on age, gender, cultures – tracking trends
    • Provides an understanding of the challenges different employees may face

    Spotting Risk Areas: 

    • Track changes in feedback
    • Recognise themes in data and employee responses

     Ask “Why Wellness?”:

    • Help establish what it is employers want to achieve
    • Provides a point which employers can measure success against
    • E.g., “Is there an increase in absenteeism?” “Is there a problem with employee stress?”

     

    Each of these measures will ensure that employers can tailor to whatever employees want and need, using wellness and incentive programmes to set up a workplace culture that prioritises community and the support of its staff.

    Different approaches to employee wellness

    Determining how to measure employee wellness in the workplace goes together with deciding which approach you will take in your strategy. Every company is different – some will only need a simple approach of setting up one-to-ones, whilst other organisations will go fully in with a vast and comprehensive wellness plan.

    Either way can work! But no matter how many programmes and workshops you include, if they are not centred around prioritising the health of employees, your plan will not be successful.

    Below are a few ideas and products, from the Engage website, and the aspects of wellness they tackle:

    Stress Management: 

    • Meditation
    • Pension Services

    Mental Health: 

    • Educational Workshops including stress, mental resilience, and nutrition
    • Mental Health days off
    • Mental Health First Aid training
    • Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, 24/7 counselling services under Health Cash Plan/ Employee Assistance Programmes

    Fitness: 

    • Basic Health Screening
    • Full Health Screening
    • Gym flex
    • Fitness classes
    • Step Count benefits

    Work/Life Balance: 

    • Employee Benefits Platform
    • Benefit Promotion – remote and on-site
    • Flexible working options
    • Wellbeing Days
    • One-to-One meetings for regular updates on both work and personal events

    Hosting an Employee Wellness Week: 

    • Instant boost in engagement
    • Use the momentum of the event to distribute key health and wellbeing information
    • Combination of different talks, workshops, activities, skills, and experience sharing

     

    These are just a few ideas that keep employee wellness in the workplace at the forefront of conversation and products that help employees feel comfortable and looked after.

    At Engage Health Group, we recognise that every customer has different needs, and we will work closely to make sure every product, tool, and insurance strategy complement each other and ensure far-reaching and positive results throughout your workforce!

    (6 Reasons Why Businesses Offer Top Employee Health Screening to Top Staff).

    The impact of covid over employee wellness in the workplace

    Employee wellness in the workplace should always be a priority, but the presence of the pandemic still hanging over us has pushed it even more into the foreground. Covid has meant increased importance on providing health and wellbeing support for employees. 54% of people working from home would like their employer to introduce mental wellness days, with another 54% of homeworkers saying their employer should address needing to be present and online (Canada Life Research, January 2021).

    Covid has taught us many things, one being that we are now much clearer on what’s important to us, prioritising wellbeing over other goals such as career advancement that used to dominate work culture. Organisations are becoming much more person-led – valuing their employees and providing support – and these are the companies that will be successful in the aftermath of the pandemic.

    3 pillars of employee wellbeing

    No matter the size or depth of your employee wellness plan in the workplace, if the strategies are centred around employee needs, they can only help your business to succeed. Implementing a full and detailed employee wellness plan will target the 3 Pillars of Wellbeing – physical, mental, and financial – ensuring that employees are getting focused support in any aspect of life they need.

    At Engage, we follow the same procedure of focussing on these 3 Pillars of Wellbeing through a people-centred benefit design, creating a benefits strategy that is adaptable to any type of work culture and employees. Find out what else can be involved in employee wellness here.

    Contact us at Engage, where we give free no-obligation advice and support. Whether you need advice on the health of your employees or simply want to improve general employee wellness to boost the morale of your company, we at Engage will help simplify any employee benefits need.