5 Questions to Ask when Designing an Employee Wellness Program
1. Should I offer something to each demographic of my organisation?
Often we tend to neglect some people within our organisation when starting an Employee Wellness Program, to combat this, be sure to spread the plan across the 3 keys of Physical Wellness: Exercise, Nutrition and Recovery. My advice here would be to hold an open day in the weeks prior to the chosen date of the Wellness Week to get as much feedback on the elements of your program and to find out what the plan may be lacking.
2. What topics on-trend at the minute?
With the Wellness industry constantly evolving and most of us following these changes through platforms such as social media, it is important to include relevant events. For example we are now inundated with healthy cookbooks. During your next Wellness Week why not host your own healthy baking competition or invite in a local company to hold a Healthy Cooking Demo for staff members. As we know a habit like healthy cooking can have a huge impact on employee wellness for both the employee and the workplace such as; reduce stress, increase energy and improve body composition.
3. Are my Wellness Providers working in a corporate setting currently?
Looking at running a successful Corporate Wellness Plan is quite different to looking at an event in a gym or an exercise studio.
The different dynamics and requirements of the working environment mean that your providers experience is essential, we need to be targeting both mental and physical aspects of Wellness and placing ourselves in the employee's shoes.
This is a difficult task that only gets easier with prior experience of the Corporate Wellness Setting.
4. What worked during our last Wellness Program?
It is always a good idea to revisit a previous program, at FitVision we analyse each program for the Company and deliver real time data and feedback on what worked, this can help you design future Wellness Programs and discover reasons why certain elements of the program were effective or ineffective.
5. What can we offer employees during the program that they might not be able to access outside?
Many of us are now regular visitors to the gym but do not really know how to develop a specific training program to get results, the same applies for our nutrition as we struggle to understand what we should be eating for optimum health.
Health Assessments like Body Fat Percentage are something that can be very beneficial and motivational but not very accessible for the individual.
During one of our recent Wellness Weeks with Primark we held Health Assessments for employees along with seminars on Correct Training Techniques and finished it off with a Supermarket Tour promoting the products we should have in our trolley.
It's the little things like this that employees may struggle to get with the local gym provider and all of the above deliver valuable information that truly benefit the ongoing health of the individual.
For Further Information check out www.fitvision.ie