The phrase, “line of sight” is generally used to talk about employee engagement. This concept is used to refer to an employee’s ability to see the end result of the work he or she is doing, and how that result relates back to his or her specific job duty.
This clear vision, or line of sight, between an employee’s day-to-day work and the difference the company makes for its stakeholders is thought to contribute to a more invested workforce. Essentially, the idea is that if employees can see how their jobs make a difference, they’ll work harder at doing their jobs well.
Let’s take this employee engagement idea and see how it fits in the wellness world.
Employee wellness draws on engagement just as strongly as does corporate productivity. 
In any employee wellness program, engagement is relevant. Aside from this direct similarity, line of sight can be an excellent tool for corporate wellness in a couple other ways.
First, it can help keep employees connected to long-term goals. Wellness takes time, and progress can be slow. Establishing a line of sight between small, healthy actions and the goal of a healthier life months or even years in the future can make the process much easier.
Second, wellness progress is created by turning small mundane tasks into daily habits. The closer employees associate those tasks with the end result, the easier they’ll be to do regularly.
Ultimately, line of sight can be an efficient tool for employee wellness programs because it can improve engagement, provide a vision for long-term goals and make mundane tasks more noteworthy. But how can you draw on this employee engagement concept in your own corporate wellness program?
We suggest taking these three steps to get started:
Step 1, Establish the Vision
Start here by learning what it is your employees want from a wellness program. For example, a younger workforce might be focused on better bodies to be more attractive to others, while an older workforce might be focused on longer life expectancy to spend more time with family.
The only way to find out what your employees want is to ask and truly listen to the answers. Figure out what is driving your employees to participate in your wellness program.
Step 2, Design the Vision
After you know what your employees want from wellness, take some time to fill in any blanks. Dive into the details and strategically craft a vision that not only appeals to your workforce but draws on the features of your wellness program. With the details in order, it’ll be much easier to draw on this collective vision, which makes it much easier to draw a line of sight from a variety of wellness activities.
Step 3, Communicate the Vision
Every piece of wellness communication should point to this vision in some way. It can be big, little, direct or indirect. But it’s important to ensure that your employees can easily connect the dots between your wellness program and their vision of a healthier lifestyle.
After you’ve established the initial connection, remind, remind, remind. Keep your employee wellness program associated with the vision you’ve created so your employees don’t lose the line of sight.
Employee wellness programs can mirror employee engagement in using the concept of line of sight. This tool can be an awesome resource to make far away goals seem more reachable and mundane tasks seem more important.
Take the time to consider how establishing a line of sight can help to improve your employee wellness program. Walk through these three steps with your wellness committee to get started.
Have you used a similar concept in your program? Let us know how it went in the comments below!
