5 Strategies to Improve Wellness Engagement

Are you struggling with keeping employees excited and engaged in your wellness program? Falling into ruts, getting bored and becoming disinterested in routines is common, but with a little work, innovation and planning, you can breathe new life into your program and increase participation. Try incorporating these five strategies to keep employees engaged in your program while building excitement about health and wellness initiatives.

1. Be innovative and create new events.  Based on employee feedback from previous wellness programs, try integrating new programs into the ones that received the most attendance, were the most successful and attracted the most interest. It can become too easy to repeat the same events over and over, which can result in overuse and eventual boredom.

2. Seek success stories.  Seek out employees who have become champions in the wellness program and achieved positive results. Use their stories as a road map for others and to exemplify the benefits of the wellness program. Invite these employees to speak and spread the word or feature them on your Intranet or in your company newsletter.

3. Highlight the benefits.  Promote and communicate the employee wellness activities that are offered and explain why the activities are beneficial. Identify different ways to become healthy and involved. When employees understand the choices available to them, they will be more inclined to participate.

4. Introduce all aspects of health.  Physical health is just one aspect of overall well-being. For most employees, this means more exercise, increased physical activity, better diets and improved eating habits. Employers have the opportunity to introduce other ways to achieve wellness by integrating new holistic health information into the program, focusing on mental health and reducing stress levels, and helping employees improve financial health.

5. Celebrate achievements.  Even though employers want to see the end results and bottom line, these measures should not cloud the success of participants. Along the way, reward milestones reached by employees. Small progress often leads to long term success. Celebrate these mini-achievements while keeping a focus on what still needs to be done. Employees will feel the excitement of meeting these benchmarks. 

When C-level executives and management are excited about the wellness program, often employees will catch the enthusiasm and participate. Evaluate what is working within the plan and discard what is not. Don’t be afraid to try something new and fresh.

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