“Wait. What? Don’t run a wellness program? But Workplace wellness can improve productivity, reduce injuries, reduce absenteeism, help us retain staff and enhance our corporate reputation.” Yes, that’s what I am saying – DON’T RUN A WELLNESS PROGRAM. At least not in the way that most companies do.
At Employ Health we see all too often a wellness program that is a flavour of the month initiative, something that gets rolled out when times are good and there is some extra money in the budget. We also see these types of programs rolled out in response to incident or event. It gets the ball rolling, however as time passes, enthusiasm wanes until the next incident happens. Workers see the posters that have been put up, they hear the message fleetingly and then notice it’s absence. Then further down the track, another incident happens and your workers hear you calling “we care again now – sign up for this new initiative.” Their trust is gone. Wellness programs run this way fail and are a waste of money.
One of my colleagues, Matthew Stewart, explains this phenomenon well by relating it to a diet. We are all on ‘a diet,’ as a diet is simply what we habitually eat. Your wellness diet, is what you habitually do day in day out to improve the health and wellness of your employees. It does not change when business is good or bad. It does not stop and start, it’s just what you do.
The typical workplace wellness program is just like a ‘fad’ diet. This may seem to work well for a while before everything slips back into the same old ways.
So how do you get your ‘wellness diet’ right?
First, start by seeing your people as an asset and not a liability. Start with the fundamental belief that your people are important to you, and that caring for their health is fundamentally important for your business too.
A&L Windows and Doors are an example of a business that is getting this right. For A&L, wellness is not a three month initiative because that is the flavour of the month.
Their Wellness Centre at Stapylton is unheard of in a business of their size. Workers have access to physiotherapy, pilates and yoga. Some of their older workers do two sessions of exercise onsite every week – during work time. Office staff have sit stand desks and do group dynamic stretches twice per day. They have a Wellness Tribe, made up of workers from different departments, that are involved developing wellness ideas and sharing them with their colleagues. And that is just the start.
Caring about the health and wellness of their employees is one of the core beliefs in their business, and in fact they recognise this as being central to their overall success.
When workplace wellness programs work there is no start or end date. There is just a fundamental commitment or belief that the people in the business are the most important asset. Caring for the health and wellness is not something that happens when business is going well, it just happens – always.
