2 powerful strategies to strengthen wellness engagement

Use these tips to boost engagement.

When it comes to wellness, leading by example sets your organization up for success. Your leadership team's engagement in your wellness program strengthens and prioritizes a culture of well-being that supports employees' overall health. And in a time when employee engagement is reaching historic lows, there's an opportunity to help employees feel valued and cared for.

Well-being is linked to health and productivity. Employees in good physical, mental, and emotional health are more likely to perform at their best compared to those who are not. Happy, healthy employees enjoy a better quality of life, face lower risks of disease and injury, increase their productivity, and are more likely to contribute positively to their communities.

These key strategies from Best Health® can help your leaders and staff take the next step toward wellness.

1

Create a wellness committee.

A wellness committee creates a space for leaders and staff to make their voices heard. At meetings, they can exchange ideas, identify creative and develop a wellness strategy to engage employees and drive change. Leaders' involvement in the committee demonstrates their commitment to wellness and sets a great example for their teams.

“Establishing a wellness committee is an important first step to start conversations about health and well-being across all levels of your organization,” explains Kathryn Goldberg, a Best Health wellness coordinator. “Committee meetings encourage staff participation, and when you create a place for employees to share their ideas, it helps them feel heard and valued.”

211 San Diego, one of Sharp Health Plan's valued community partners, works closely with Kathryn as their wellness consultant and formed their own wellness committee. The local nonprofit connects San Diegans to community, health and disaster resources to offer crucial health and social services. Wellness was already part of their work in the community, and finding new ways to bring it home to their employees was next.

“We knew wellness was something that was becoming more of an awareness in the workplace, so we reached out to other supervisors to see if they were interested in joining a committee to promote wellness,” says Catherine Smiley, HR director at 211 San Diego.

Best Health met with 211 San Diego's wellness committee and trained them to use our wellness platform to boost employees' participation.

“The training gave us confidence on how to champion our wellness program and best support our employees to engage with this fantastic resource,” Smiley says.

With a Best Health account, employees can join fun challenges, take a Wellness Assessment for health insights, learn from self-paced Healthy Living Programs and much more.

2

Host a wellness event.

Take what you learn from the committee and identify events and activities that support your employees' needs.

“By hosting events such as a cooking demo to a campaign to register for the Best Health wellness app, Kathryn highlighted engagement benchmarks, which were great for morale,” Smiley says.

If you need ideas, our team can help. Along with training, Best Health can help you coordinate wellness events. The team worked with 211 San Diego to organize a blood pressure screening with impactful results.

“Not too long ago, we had the blood pressure check, which was a tremendous hit,” Smiley recalls. “Many of the staff were surprised to learn that their blood pressure was high, which led a couple of them to see their doctor to manage it better.”

Get started

“Having our cheerleader, Kathryn, at Sharp to keep us going is a tremendous help,” Smiley says. “It's easy to lose track of wellness but it's so important that we keep the momentum going. We talk about wellness frequently and try and keep it in the forefront of our employees.”

Share these ideas with your leadership team to get them involved:

  • Conduct a survey to assess what topics employees want to pursue.
  • Participate in community walks, such as events to raise awareness for heart disease or cancer.
  • Plan company functions with heart-healthy eating choices in mind.
  • Get involved with community volunteer activities.
  • Provide flu shots at the worksite.
  • Publish monthly health tips in internal emails.

When you're ready to launch your wellness committee or plan an event, Best Health can help. Contact your dedicated account manager to get connected with the Best Health team.

You may also like...