How to Support your Employees’ Well-Being

The difference between a wellness program and well-being initiatives

Designing and implementing initiatives to support employee well-being may seem like a daunting project. Where should you start?  There are many things to consider when it comes to designing your wellness strategy. Before embarking on your journey, think holistically by transitioning away from wellness programs and into well-being initiatives.   

Traditionally, corporate wellness programs focused on physical health which included exercise, nutrition, and sleep. It centered around disease prevention and management, health risk assessments, and other efforts that targeted the high-risk individuals within organizations. Well-being initiatives are multi-dimensional and centers on the whole person – Gallup’s five elements of well-being: career, social, financial, physical,  and community  well-being.

Well-being initiatives focuses on helping employees thrive; whereas traditional programs  focused on one aspect of an employee’s health.   

Now that we have reframed our mindset to well-being initiatives, let us outline some high-level steps that you can take.

Get support from senior management.

Focus on how leaders can drive a healthy culture and the value on investment such as recruiting, retention, morale, engagement, absenteeism, etc.

Establish a well-being committee.

A well-being committee will bring in diverse ideas, allow for division of labor, and bring in “voices” from different departments in your organization.

Perform an associate needs and interest assessment.

This will help you design well-being initiatives that meets the needs of your associates whether they are in-office, remote or working in a hybrid environment.

Develop a strategy and operations plan. 

This plan should include articulating what the initiatives will achieve and how it will help associates and their families; establishing your budget; setting up your communications plan, and establishing SMART goals and success measures.

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