Currently, the employee wellness program is one of the indicators that employees often pay attention to when finding their ideal company. This is quite common considering that people are starting to pay attention to their physical and mental condition in carrying out their routines at work.
According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) :
50% of company employees are concerned about their physical and mental well-being
The employee wellness program is a program established by a company with the aim of monitoring and improving the health of its employees, both physical and mental health which affects their performance at work.
There are many benefits of having an employee wellness program in a company, some of which are increasing work productivity, reducing absenteeism, increasing company employer branding , increasing indicators of employee job satisfaction , and increasing employee morale and mental health.
Read Also : 4 Ways to Improve Employee Wellbeing
By looking at the importance and how big the impact of having an employee wellness program is in a company, it is not wrong to start from now on developing an employee wellness program in your company.
Here, Mekari will explain the steps you can take in order to start an employee wellness program that is good for your company and your employees.
How to Start an Employee Wellness Program
Here are some steps you can take to implement a successful Employee Wellness Program at work.
1. Convey Ideas To Management
Before you start the program, you need to get approval from company management and decision makers . Discuss and describe how the program can benefit the continuity and development of the company.
Next, present ideas in a comprehensive and data-based manner, demonstrate a sense of commitment that you will show throughout the program and position yourself as an individual they can trust to lead and carry out the project to success.
2. Set Goals that Benefit the Company and Staff
When creating an employee wellness program , it’s important not to lose sight of your main goal. Namely ensure that all parts of the program benefit staff and the company.
In order to determine the right goals, conduct an organizational assessment of your company. From designing program features based on the specific needs, wants and suitability of your employees to determining which program features can have the greatest impact.
Read Also : What is the Big Four? Companies Targeted by Bachelor of Accounting
3. Set up a special team
A comprehensive employee wellness program takes a significant amount of time and effort to develop. Therefore it is wise enough to start assembling a team capable of handling the project and providing a lot of support throughout the process.
Consider trying to get volunteers first to see if any employees are interested in being involved in developing the program.
Form and find people who have a good understanding of employees and who have an interest in promoting a healthy workplace. Also, try to include people from different departments to have multiple perspectives.
4. Collect Supporting Data
What needs to be done next is to collect information relating to employees and the company. A good strategy is to conduct research by talking to employees to identify areas that need to be addressed, quantifying employee concerns, boundaries, and interests.
According to Champion Health Workplace Health Report :
Nearly 60% of company employees feel anxious and sad when carrying out their work
This can be through face-to-face meetings or internal surveys. Also make sure they have the option to opt out of completing the survey or skip questions they don’t want answered so you can get as much data as possible.
5. Create a Program Plan
After obtaining data that can support the program, the next step is to develop a program plan so that all stages can run according to schedule.
First, determine the program objectives and strategies that can be used to achieve them. As well as various series of events that support the implementation of the strategy such as monitoring and evaluation.
Second, the next main concern is the plan, namely how much it will cost to implement the program. You should develop a budget to help explain the projected costs and benefits of the feature.
Some of the main components that you can include in your budget include: 1). Vendor fees, 2). estimated cost of construction and renovation, 3). details of technology components, and 4). marketing costs.
Consider citing successful employee wellness programs as an illustration of how the program can ultimately increase revenue and benefit the company as a whole.
Read Also : What is Human Resource Development? Definition, Duties, Functions And Report Methods
6. Communicate the program
When the program has started to carry out its activities, the existence of the program must be known to employees. This needs to be done so that they can understand the schemes involved, the importance of the program, and the positive effects they will feel on their lives through the benefits of the program’s existence.
The strategy you can take to introduce this program is through the company’s official internal information channels. It can be from offline bulletins in the office, applications used by companies to communicate between employees, and e-mail.
7. Feedback and Program Optimization
An employee wellness program can be said to be good if it is continuously optimized. Therefore, the team must always be aware and open to new ideas and feedback to improve the program better and make employees healthier.
The existence of constructive feedback or criticism does not mean that the program you are forming has a bad impact. Conversely, this may indicate that the existence of the program can have an impact on employees and the company. This makes them always supervise the implementation of this program.
8. Choose Your Company Specific Benefits
When you can understand the limitations and needs of employees and the company, you can address this by providing specific benefits that you can include as features in the program. Consider whether the feature can be a solution to a sufficiently specific problem.
An example is when your employees feel that their mental well-being is declining due to irregular financial management.