Workplace Wellness Whisperer – (May 20)

Hello Workplace Wellness Seeker,

Happy Saturday!

Are you thinking about eating less meat, meatless Mondays perhaps? Try out this vegan meatball recipe. Check out the recipe on Instagram or Facebook.

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Showing gratitude can make you more optimistic. Studies show that those who express gratitude regularly appear to have a more positive outlook on life. 

🙏Gratitude Practice🙏

A colleague I cherish is _____, because he or she. . .

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What can employers do to avoid common pitfalls that lead to ineffective and, in worse case scenarios, harmful workplace health promotion initiatives?

One of the biggest lessons we learned in the process of creating successful workplace wellness programs is that one-time events masquerading as health promotion programs; that is, activities which are not integrated into a comprehensive workplace health promotion strategy, are likely to fail.

My Workplace Wellness Calendar can guide you with some ideas for implementing your wellness strategy. 

There are a lot of misconceptions about wellness programs out there. As a result, many leaders pick and choose options fairly blindly, doing their employees and their company a disservice. In the end, you don’t necessarily need the latest wearable or a new vendor. To achieve very real health improvement at the workplace, employers should first understand what the evidence says about what works, and then weave together individual health promotion programs with organizational change interventions that build on and support a healthy company culture. This isn’t always easy. But the rewards can be huge, both for your company and for your employees for years to come.

Subscribe to my YouTube channel for amazing daily workplace wellness tips that can help in all factors of your wellness program.

Here’s a summary of this week’s 5 pitfalls that can lead to the failure of a wellness program.

Read, Listen and Share!

Pitfall #1. Lacks Leadership Support

Wellness programs don’t happen without the support of key leaders. Identify your resources and key people, and engender their ongoing backing. If you introduce wellness programs but have senior leaders and managers who don’t foster well-being employees may end up seeing your wellness communications as just lip service. But when wellness is at the heart of everything you do, it’s easier to share it with employees and watch them follow your lead. Basically, I’m asking the leaders to walk-the-talk! Consider creating a wellness committee so that your employees have a say in co-creating their wellness program.

Listen to the Self-Care Goddess Podcast “Escape The Victim Mentality NOW & Become the Author of Your Best Life!” episode #74

Pitfall #2. Lacks Integration

Avoid creating something quickly that doesn’t tap into long-term behavioral change. Instead, establish a comprehensive strategic plan that builds employee engagement over time. Make sure the wellness program is customized to your organizations needs and aligned with the company’s mission and goals. And just as important that it’s integrated with other cultural and wellbeing initiatives and programs. And remember to be measuring progress and results so it can be improved and successes can be celebrated. Why not include a wellness goal in your staff ’s yearly performance objectives? So instead of thinking about wellness as just a program, make sure it’s part of your corporate culture.

A great gratitude practice you can do is my Mindful Heart-Focused Breathing video. I hope you find this video helpful and please share with family, friends and co-workers.

Pitfall #3. Lacks engagement

As you can imagine, a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work well for well-being and health concerns. In a workplace where there’s usually a mix of Gen X, Baby Boomers, and Millennials, it may feel challenging to address everyone’s issues. So I recommend Surveying individual generations and their needs can help leadership better understand what type of programs would work best for each group. This is to support employee choice without making it overwhelming, consider providing a wellness credit so employees can choose the activity that works best for them. Make wellness programs accessible by sharing information through team meetings, corporate emails and your corporate intranet.

Download my FREE morning routine here and learn how to: Increase Energy, Improve Sleep and Decrease Mood Swings.

Pitfall #4. Lacks Consistency

Avoid trying for quick fix wellness initiatives such as often “flavor of the month,” challenges, contests, biometric screening, and lunch-and-learn events, that are often forgotten or worst not integrated with other initiatives or not followed up on. Consistency can carve mountains. Having a well thought out integrated wellness plan demonstrates to your employees that you’re serious and dedicated to their wellbeing. This will increase their participation because they will come to expect it and even look forward to it. Provided that you’ve created the program with their feedback and needs in mind.

Check out my amazing ‘Tart Cherry Lemonade’ recipe.

Pitfall #5. Lacks a Holistic Approach

Some wellness programs lack a Holistic Approach to Physical & Mental Health. While customizing the program to your workforce is important, make sure you don’t end up with a fragmented initiative focusing just on physical wellness like exercise and eating well. Since body and mind are connected, giving your employees physical wellness tools without any tools to combat stress such as breathwork will yield only partial results.

If you’re ready to leverage your workplace wellness strategy and explore how to optimize individual, team and your company’s performance, book your complimentary Workplace Wellness call here.

References:

https://hbr.org/2016/03/how-to-design-a-corporate-wellness-plan-that-actually-works