It's Time to STOP Doing Random Acts of Wellness!

Does your company have a workplace wellness program? I’m curious to know what you think of yours.

Is it valuable to you? Is it promoted within the company? Do many employees participate? Are senior leaders closely involved? Is it part of your organizational culture? Do you even care whether your company provides such programs?

Over the years, clients have shared many versions of what their companies are providing to employees. Some options are pretty darn good, while others are almost non-existent.

Stats show that almost 80% of organizations have a “wellness program”. I wholeheartedly disagree!

What 95% of these organizations actually have are “Random Acts of Wellness” (RAW).

RAW are individual programs, perks, and information made available to employees on an opt-in basis. Employees must usually seek out the programs and resources and be proactive to engage with them.

The important thing to understand is that these random programs and services do NOT constitute a wellness program!

The missing ingredient is a unifying strategic plan that is aligned with the company values, culture, and organizational goals.

It may sound complicated, but it’s actually quite simple...companies just fail to invest the time and resources needed to create one. Yet, it’s one of the most valuable investments any organization can make.

This is at the heart of why so few companies fail to see a significant impact on employee health, happiness, and performance at work. It’s also the key reason why workplace wellness will continue being relegated to the “grudgingly necessary cost” category on the CFO’s P&L statement.

The reality is that properly implemented workplace wellness plans produce a return of $3 to $8 for every single dollar invested. This is a dream investment. One that produces an incredible return, but also makes the company stronger and more set up for success in the future.

Unfortunately, the strategy, tactics and implementation of wellness is rarely connected effectively.?

Think of it this way. If I provided you 4 wheels, a steering wheel, a few random engine components, and some mismatched nuts and bolts, you wouldn’t say you had a car.

Even if you had ALL the components and the blueprint to build it, the end product wouldn’t be useful until everything was assembled and put to use (having it sit in the garage may look cool, but doesn’t produce results outside image and marketing)

Yet, this is the common situation with workplace wellness!

Companies from large, successful multinational organizations, along with small and medium sized businesses may have a range of random pieces...or even a fully formed plan, but not using it effectively.

These organizations will have detailed and clearly defined strategic plans around each business segment, yet the KPIs and programs related to the performance of their most important asset (their people) consist of ad hoc snippets of information bolted on to randomly implemented overly generalized programs.?

In fact, according to a comprehensive review of North American corporate wellness programs, the most common “wellness benefit” that 71% of companies provided to employees was access to “resources and information”. 62% of companies provided “wellness tips or information” on at least a quarterly basis!

That’s wonderful...yet these stats say nothing about how often employees engage with this information, how it’s presented, or if they even find it useful.?

Think about it. When was the last time you dove deep into you corporate intranet to find a wellness resource on “nutrition”, “fitness”, “sleep”, “stress”, “disease management”, etc.

Compared to this thing called “the internet” and “google”, a random collection of resources on your corporate Intranet is almost inconsequential...UNLESS that content is properly curated, promoted, created to be engaging, directed at key high risk demographic groups in the organization, directly connected to hands-on practical implementation programs for these high risk groups, and part of the organization's annual (or multi-year) strategic wellness plan.

Just like we say to our individual clients, “goals without a plan or merely dreams and wishes!”

Effective workplace wellness programs are an incredibly powerful engine in a business that can drive long-term financial and organizational performance.??

Most businesses wouldn’t consider providing random acts of “business” to their clients, so why do so many companies use that model when it comes to employee performance?

Does your company have a strong wellness program, or is it more RAW?

If your company could benefit from more structure, strategy, and engaging programs, please share this information with your HR Director or Executive team.

To help you out, we even have an event coming up they can register for. It will cover

• The essential categories of wellness that are missing in most organizations
• Key components every effective program should have...but most don’t
• How things factors are linked to employee health, happiness, performance, and profitability
• How to create a highly effective, employee wellness program that consistently produces significant and measurable returns on your investment

Join me and Shannon Hughes on March 17th for our special breakfast seminar event titled:

Deconstructing Wellness: The Future of Wellness at Work

More details at www.freshgroup.ca/wellatwork (Yes...breakfast is included)!

Have an amazing day. We would love to?help you (and your company) improve your health, happiness, and performance!?

Tim

P.S. When you are ready, here are a few ways I can help…

• COACHING: The highest performing people and teams in the world use coaches. A great coach is the catalyst to ignite your potential and performance. Are you an aspiring or executive leader that wants greater performance without sacrificing health and happiness to get it? Let's chat. Whether it's leadership and performance coaching just for you, or your entire team, it's time to accomplish great things and life an awesome life!
• CONSULTING: The ideal place to start is with a Workplace Wellbeing Audit - Identify what's working, what's not, and receive a valuable report to help you maximize the potential for positive change in your organization. This is a critical first step for any workplace that's serious about improving employee health, happiness, performance, and productivity. DM me to set up a quick call where we can discuss the details.
• SPEAKING: Engaging Keynotes and Workshops for your Organization and Corporate Teams - Choose from many popular topics in the areas of workplace wellbeing, organizational performance and employee engagement, or we will work together to create a custom topic. DM me to set up a quick call where we can discuss the details.
• WELLBEING: Follow the plan in my book, The Fitness Curveball. - This is your step by step guide to mastering the 4 Pillars of Personal Performance (Mindset, Habits, Movement, Fuel) to look great, feel amazing, reach your goals, and live your best life. If you are self-motivated, love to read, and ready to change your life, visit www.thefitnesscurveball.com or Amazon to pick up your copy!