How to Make Your Corporate Wellness Program More Human

It’s time for corporate wellness programs to become human again. Yes, metrics are necessary to help us find out where we’ve been, where we are and where we want to be in terms of goals — but they are not the be-all and end-all of our efforts.

Let me explain.

Your employees drive everything your company does. Without them, you probably wouldn’t be able to do what you do, and you definitely wouldn't be able to do it as efficiently.

Corporate wellness is ultimately about those employees. Yes it can improve your bottom line, but the end goal is to help your employees live happier, healthier lives.

When you look at it that way, people should be the obvious focus. While focusing on specific health risks is a good thing, it shouldn’t take your wellness focus away from your employees.

But, how do you keep the focus on people?

There are plenty of ways to bring your corporate wellness program back to your employees.

Seek Feedback

Talk to your employees. Learn what they think of your wellness program so you can make changes according to what they find useful. You can seek feedback formally with a survey or focus group process, or even informally with one-on-one conversations.

Be Whollistic

Sometimes it’s easy to plan only wellness activities that affect a measurable outcome (like weight loss). That’s only a small sector of employee wellness, though. Try to include activities that address mental wellness, financial wellness and even stress levels.

Show You Care

A huge part of showing you care is providing encouragement. Be available to your employees as a resource on their wellness journeys. Even if you’re not seeing company-wide results as dramatic as you’d like, encourage employees on the progress they make in their own lives.

Plan on a Personal Level

Goals and wellness activities need to be something that can be personalized to where your employees are at. Rather than focusing your wellness goals and activities at a stagnant, systems level, plan things that are flexible and can be adapted as needed.

Broaden Your Definition of Success

Sometimes success can be defined by things that are easy to measure like aggregate weight loss or blood pressure reduction. Other times, it’s not that simple. When you evaluate your wellness success, broaden what you look at to include things like employee engagement, job satisfaction and company culture.

In the end, people matter most. It is important that your wellness program addresses the health problems your company faces. But those problems aren’t more important than the people you work with.

How do you keep the focus on people in your wellness program?