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Make it Personal To Your Business

When it comes to implementing successful wellness initiatives in the office, a one size fits all approach can have limited appeal. When you consider that one of the key elements for individuals looking to make changes with their health and wellbeing – whether it be shaking up their exercise routine, cutting out smoking, reducing alcohol intake or making changes to their diet – is timing, it’s clear that, in order to get the best results with your initiatives, you need to be strategic.

Use a Wide Range of Timely Initiatives

It can be difficult to persuade people into living a healthier lifestyle but where you can be proactive is putting in place the resources staff will need when they make the decision to tackle their wellbeing and performance for themselves. So rather than a one size fits all approach, successful wellbeing programmes should be made up of a range of initiatives that include something for everyone when the time is right. Establishing what this range of initiatives should be for your business may sound like an expensive and time consuming process but it needn’t be and, ultimately, you’ll get more dramatic results and a greater return on investment for both the time and money you spend on wellbeing by ensuring that initiatives are relevant, engagement is strong and results are quick and long-lasting for all those who take part.

Do Your Research First

When it comes to researching what will work best for each organisation, there are a few tried and tested methods. Staff surveys and questionnaires, both electronic and hard copy, are an effective way to find out what people think of your current wellbeing offering and how they might like to see it evolve in the future but be specific with your questions. Avoid asking, ‘would you like to see health screenings / yoga classes / a walking club’ and so on, and instead ask if people would actually make use of such initiatives. Asked if they ‘would like’, most people will answer positively. Whether they actually make use of the initiatives is a different matter and you need to know what will really prove popular sooner rather than later. Don’t limit your questions to asking about what you think would be effective initiatives but ask open questions about what people would like to see. You may think there’s no likelihood of many people signing up to nutrition workshops, lifestyle coaching or dancing classes but if the right number of people express interest and would commit to attending these sessions on a regular basis and get value from doing so, these initiatives are worth investing in.

Alternative but Effective Approaches to Gathering Information

Don’t just rely on more formal routes for information gathering, you also need to ask people their opinions in a less structured way. Meetings and focus groups will return a wealth of research information but you also need to know the underlying moods and opinions when people are in a less formal setting. For this you need key allies around the business – those who know the people in the know and who will give you the inside track on what wellbeing initiatives the majority of staff would like to see and would make use of. You can also try suggestion boxes, which can be either email suggestions or even an old fashioned sealed box if people would like their opinions and requests to remain anonymous.

Run a Pilot

Once you have some idea of the true picture of what staff would find beneficial, it’s a good idea to run pilot schemes before rolling out initiatives across the board. Company wide initiatives may fall a bit flat if they aren’t communicated properly or staff view the initiatives as something they feel obliged to get involved in. It’s far better to test initiatives on a small scale, refine them and ensure they deliver results. That way word will spread and you’ll have a workforce queuing up to get involved rather than running in the opposite direction to avoid what they see as an impulsive blanket company directive. If you’re thinking about pilot schemes to test the water, health assessments, taster consultations, health fairs and group presentations targeted at a key audience are great ways to raise awareness of issues and provide useful information that staff can benefit from immediately while at the same time providing a forum to gather information on what staff concerns are with health and wellbeing and where they feel they need assistance.

Focus on Those That Will Have the Biggest Impact

By discovering precisely what staff consider to be their wellbeing challenges, you can focus your attention on initiatives that will help them most effectively. From this information you can prioritise a variety of wellbeing ideas into what will have the biggest impact and then devise an ongoing plan for rolling out successive programmes as each one becomes established. Over time you’ll end up with a range of key initiatives all of which are successful and well subscribed.

Don’t Ignore Your Findings

A final word, whatever methods you choose to gather input on wellbeing from your colleagues, make sure you use the information. Staff who are never consulted can be grumpy. Those who are consulted and then ignored, as they may choose to see it, can be an even more challenging prospect when it comes to getting buy-in to your initiatives in the long run.

About Author: Jeff Archer is Director of The Tonic, a corporate wellness company specialising in helping people achieve optimum energy and performance, every day.