7 Steps: to building a successful employee wellness programme

“I know I need to invest in employee wellness, but I don’t know where to start - can you help me?"

This is a question I get asked on a daily basis. It is a big question, and one that can have a huge impact on the success of your wellness programme. 

I have broken it down into 7 simple steps. 

1. Get buy-in from your senior management team

Getting senior management to buy-in to the programme is essential for success. The senior team needs to be bought into employees taking time out of their already busy days to engage in the programme. 

You will also need their support, as it is likely you will need to ask them for a new budget to fund the programme.

Building a strong business case to support this is your first step. 

The Business case

For your programme to work, you need to demonstrate that creating a work environment where employees have a bit more flexibility around their schedules to participate in activities that look after their physical and mental health will result in a more engaged, more productive, and ultimately higher performing workforce.

There is vast amounts of research that prove an investment in a well-thought out wellness programme is not just a nice to have but a business strategy for many of the world’s top companies. 

A Deloitte study from 2020 states employers investing in well thought out programmes average a return an average ROI of ￡5 for every ￡1 spent on their programme. Some companies see returns of up to 11:1 - the characteristics of programmes that deliver higher returns are:

• The programme offers large scale cultural change with organisation wide initiatives.
• The initiatives are focused on prevention, designed to build employee resilience.
• They use technology to support those most at risk.

The priorities of senior management teams will vary from business to business, however most will be concerned with how your programme can impact bottom line; you will need to show how your programme is going to either make the business money, or save the business money. 

You will need to link the metrics of your programme to financials. See below for some examples. 

“Healthy employees = reduced absenteeism/presenteeism”. Absenteeism and presenteeism due to mental health alone, costs the average employer ￡1,716 per year per employee. High absenteeism & presenteeism results in huge losses in productivity, additional stress on other team members, and quite often big increases in medical insurance premiums; thus increasing the cost of an unhealthy workforce. 

“Improved office culture = increased retention & employer brand”. A well balanced employee wellness programme will also help create a more engaging and happy workforce. According to a survey by Benify that surveyed over 20,000 employees and HR leaders from 100 companies; wellness benefits are the most valued benefit an employer can provide for its employees (after additional holiday and flexible working). Creating an environment where your employees love working, can engage with their colleagues, and actualise their potential will ensure you retain your best people, and continue to attract top talent to your company. 

“Employees engaged in improving physical & mental health = more productive, higher performing employees.” Additionally, employees who look after their physical and mental health typically have more energy & focus; are more productive, and typically outperform their less healthy counterparts. Low productivity due to presenteeism alone costs the private sector ￡23.4bn per year. Deloitte.

2. Elect Wellness Champions 

This is a really important part. You need to understand what your employees want and need. 

My suggestion is elect wellness champions from different parts of the business, and select an overall Wellness Co-ordinator or leader to bring it all together. Your other option is to hire a wellness partner to manage this process for you.

3. Survey & Interview

Run a company wide survey to ask your employees what they would like to see on the wellness programme. Give them some options, include initiatives from all pillars of wellness 

• Physical health (onsite fitness classes, PT, mobility workshops, health assessments)
• Mental health (mindfulness workshops, meditation sessions, talks/seminars, 1-on-1 therapy, EAP’s)
• Nutrition (individualised coaching sessions, workshops/seminars, cooking lessons)
• Stress management (workshops/seminars, mindfulness sessions)
• Personal growth (workshops/seminars) 
• Financial health 

Conduct short interviews with key stakeholders and wellness champions from different parts of the business. Understand what the wellness needs of your employees are, and align them to the key objectives of the business. 

Tip: Stakeholders involved in the process should have an understanding of what the core objectives of the business are, as you are going to have to connect the dots and demonstrate how your programme is going to help the business achieve its goals. 

4. Develop a Plan 

Think about, and decide on your programme objectives.

Understand what business outcomes you are looking for, and the metrics you are looking to drive. 

Some examples of programme objectives 

• Improve workplace productivity 
• Improve employee retention 
• Improve employer brand
• Improve office culture  
• Reduce absenteeism 
• Reduce health care costs 

Once you know what your objectives are, the cornerstones of a well-rounded wellness programme typically fall into the below categories. 

• Exercise 
• Mental health 
• Nutrition 
• Sleep management 
• Stress management 
• Personal growth & development 
• Financial health 

There are hundreds of initiatives you can design around each of these key pillars. 

Think about the things you can do daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly. Daily initiatives may be as simple as having standing meetings, or providing a quiet room in the office for mediation. Weekly initiatives may include onsite fitness classes, yoga, or company paid PT sessions. Monthly/quarterly initiatives could include nutrition clinics/workshops, and/or personal growth workshops, as well as monthly challenges for employees to participate in.

Tip: The more frequent you can make the initiatives on your programme the more likely you are to create sustainable changes in the behaviour of your employees. For example events/activities that you can host weekly are more likely to have a lasting impact than initiatives that you host once a quarter.

5. Communicate the programme

Every programme needs a ‘Kick off’. You need to create awareness amongst your employees around what your programme is offering. Create a fuss around this - creating 'talked about' events is a great way to do this. Give employees a chance to try out programme initiatives, and come and ask any questions around what the programme is offering. 

Once the programme has started, regular communication around what is happening, when, and how to get involved needs to happen. You need to make this communication fun, and attention grabbing. Get your wellness team (or provider) to help you generate some energy around this. 

If you have a wellness app or portal which makes it easy for employees to find out what is happening in the programme, and when; this is also really useful. Otherwise, a weekly wellness newsletter is a great option. 

6. Cultivate a supportive environment for employees to participate 

For your programme to be a success, you need to create an environment where employees feel they can get involved in the programme without feeling guilty for leaving their desk to participate. 

Getting your senior leaders and managers to take an active part in the programme is by far the best way to drive participation in the programme. The more visible their participation, the larger the impact. (Iain Anderson, Chairman of Cicero - shares his experience).

7. Evaluate, Celebrate, Iterate

The final step. Evaluate your programme every 3-6 months - track the key metrics, celebrate the wins, understand where improvements can be made, and iterate. 

This is key to programme evolution, and can be done by just tracking a few key metrics. 

Absolute Mind Body is a corporate wellness company, we help organisations create healthy, high performing work environments. Contact me if you would like some help building, managing, or delivering your wellness programme. 

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