As part of our theme this month of risk mitigation and avoidance, we’ve focused a lot on the benefits of wellness and ergonomic programs in reducing absenteeism rates and health insurance claims while increasing employee productivity, efficiency, and overall rates of satisfaction. However, not all wellness programs are born equal, and simply stocking the break room with packs of carrots and celery probably isn’t going to be worth the investment or the hassle. So just what makes a good wellness program, and how can you ensure yours gets it right?
First and foremost, it’s crucial to appoint a wellness program leader who’s passionate about what they do and has what it takes to find success. According to the article, Building a Successful Wellness Program Takes Guts, Grit and Compassion…
There Are 7 Mains Traits of a Good Wellness Program Leader:
- Resilience. A good wellness program operates by the laws of measurement and analysis. That means that your first approach may not be the most effective one; that’s okay, simply regroup, restrategize, and try again.
- Assertiveness. Wellness programs can receive a lot of pushback both from leaders who don’t see the value in them and employees who feel their autonomy has been invaded. It takes patience and assertiveness to overcome these hurdles.
- Ego-drive. A good leader knows that, though wellness programs benefit the entire company, wellness is all about the individual. They also know it’s up to them to spread the program across all levels of the company and to employee families.
- Risk-taking. Sometimes, the most innovative solutions take a lot of risk. Good wellness leaders embrace this risk, with a willingness to restrategize when the time comes.
- Innovation. Highly effective wellness leaders keep their eyes open and their ears attuned for news of new strategies, always ready to implement when the data says an out of the box idea is the way to go.
- Urgency. Good leaders know that wellness is an urgent matter, with the potential to transform lives and dramatically strengthen their company’s bottom line. Therefore, they advocate with urgency and persistence.
- Empathy. Employees will resist wellness programs if they feel like their autonomy and privacy has been invaded with condescending, one-size-fits-all programs. A good wellness program leader approaches with their heart first, ready and willing to customize their program to suit individual needs.
When done well, a wellness and ergonomics program can have countless benefits for a company. For more on this issue, we highly recommend reading the original article. Does your company have a wellness program? If so, what has been your favorite part of it so far? Let us know in the blog comments below.
