Why Good Leadership is Important for Employee Wellness Program Success

Great companies know that how you communicate and engage employees matters, and that hearing from more voices can produce better results. This also holds true for your employee wellness program. It’s important to establish a leadership team early on to help drive engagement. Here are two ways you can leverage your current team to produce great results.

Build a Wellness Committee for your Employee Wellness Program

A Wellness Committee can give your employees a voice and provide several unique benefits. It allows employees to have a sense of ownership and investment in the program, which will help find ways that work best for your demographic.

This will go hand in hand with frequent feedback, which ensures your program is accessible and appeals to all eligible participants – including feedback on incentives and activity options.

Having strong internal “brand ambassadors” who can drive participation and act as well-being role models can influence behavior and help grow company culture. A wellness committee can be an additional set of hands to help answer employee questions promptly.

The impact of these benefits means increased participation in your employee wellness program and less administrative burden on your team.

Utilize your Management Team

As leaders within your organization, managers heavily influence the behavior of their teams. They are critical assets for developing a work environment of health and wellbeing. Managers are uniquely positioned to check in when team members seem unwell, provide support for employees who need time for appointments, and can set healthy precedents for actions like walking meetings or exercising during lunch breaks.

However, even beyond these direct actions, managers also have a strong indirect effect on the actions of their teams. Direct reports heavily rely on cues from their manager for everything from company culture, to utilizing company resources. So when managers lead by example and get involved in wellness activities, their direct reports are more likely to get involved as well!

Here are a few simple examples of how managers can help shape employee wellbeing:

• Participate in Wellness Program and Challenges
• Practice self-care and share experiences with their team, when appropriate
• Provide support and flexibility for team members to attend appointments
• Model appropriate practice of “health at work” such as walking meetings, etc
• Staying healthy themselves

The best way to ensure that your employee wellness program is successful is to involve your employees in the process, whether that be through encouraging them to participate in a wellness committee or discussing with their managers more ways to get involved.