People are notoriously bad at celebrating their own victories. Humility is important. But celebrating your victories can be equally important in making healthy lifestyle changes.

Every health victory—no matter the size—can and should be celebrated. The celebration will help you to have more victories and build up lifestyle filled with healthy progress.

Your employee wellness program puts you in an excellent position to help your employees celebrate their healthy victories. Your program can make it just a little easier for your employees to let loose, revel in the moment and celebrate the progress they’ve made.

You’ve heard us preach it time and again—positivity is important for employee wellness. You might be wondering how we landed on that message. Or even how you can use that information in your own wellness program.

We covered both of those questions and more on our recent webinar. If you missed the live showing, don’t worry! You can catch the recording below. If you're more of a reader, check out the slides here. Read on for a quick peek at what we discussed.

Employee privacy can be a very common barrier to corporate wellness participation. Many employees worry their health data won’t be safe when collected at the workplace. They also might worry that their health data could end up in their employers’ hands.

At most wellness events, the concerns employees have about privacy are addressed and the risk is minimized. If you work with a vendor for things like biometric screenings, there are probably certain safeguards in place to keep your employees’ health information safe.

As their employer, privacy is definitely something you need to focus on. It’s true at any wellness event. Any time health data is involved, privacy is important. Employee health data is very sensitive information. Different employees might value that information differently. So a high level of focus on privacy across the board is vital.

We throw a lot of wellness advice and information at you every single week. Sometimes it can be overwhelming and tough to take all of that information and apply it to your workplace. It can be difficult to figure out exactly how things work in the real world.

We want to give you a peek at something we know works in wellness—the program we use at TotalWellness! We really try to practice what we preach to all of you. Our program is simple. It’s focused on positivity and inclusivity. We try our very best to include all elements of health.

And, it’s really fun because our employees invest in it! In fact, last year we had almost 100% participation in our employee wellness program. So here’s how it works…

It’s that time of year. We’ve officially reached the point where we all look around, wondering where our motivation has gone.

The truth is, for a majority of your employees the fire for healthy change has faded. What on January 1st was a raging flame of determination has become a dull glow of frustration. For all too many of us, this is the case!

New Year’s resolutions are fantastic. The New Year provides a great jumpstart to healthy goals across the nation. The reality, however, is that building a healthy lifestyle can be hard work. Life can get in the way of even the best-laid plans, which can explain why over half of resolution makers haven’t stuck with their goals in the past six months.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. Every company does wellness differently. And that’s the way it should be! Depending on your company culture, elements of your wellness program might look different than someone else’s.

You might have a different focus area. You might approach wellness with a different style. You’ll probably even have some differing wellness activities built into your program.

In all of the variability, the most important thing is that you actually are focusing on wellness. Too many employee wellness programs are stuck in their ways. They only address the bare minimum of health problems that occur at the workplace.

The best way to make health work is to make it a habit. Committing health to habit can put your healthy decisions on autopilot. This means you’ll do them without really thinking about them, which can make health so much easier!

You can harness the power of healthy habits in your employee wellness program. Employees with healthy habits are healthier because it’s easier for them to make good decisions. Outside of all the benefits of a healthy workforce, your employees could be less stressed about wellness and therefore more engaged with your wellness program.

Creating a brand for your corporate wellness program has the same types of benefits as your corporate brand. Your wellness program brand ensures your program is recognizable. It helps you create something with which your employees can relate. Good branding can also make your program more attractive to employees because it helps you to maintain consistency and cohesiveness.

There are a few traditional brand elements that are predetermined when it comes to your wellness program. Your audience, for example, is already defined. The same is true of your position and your goals. These things are a given due to the nature of working in wellness.

Positivity can make all the difference in an employee’s journey towards better health. A positive mindset has some obvious mental health benefits including decreased stress, improved relationships and a lower risk for depression and anxiety.

What you might not have known, however, is that optimism has also been associated with some awesome physical health benefits. Many optimistic people are more resilient—meaning they can bounce back more quickly and easily. Their resilience helps them to overcome and avoid illness much more efficiently than their pessimistic counterparts.

Wearable fitness trackers can be a great tool for employee wellness. Many employers have begun to use wearables as tools for tracking physical activity, measuring sticks for challenge participation and even as incentives.

All of those things make wearables work in wellness—for some companies. Unfortunately using wearable fitness trackers isn’t always a feasible option for many companies. In some cases, the tech trend doesn’t even fit the company culture.