Steps for setting up an employee wellness program

If you are a business owner who has decided to set up an employee wellness program then it is important to realize that there are certain steps that you should take. Taking these steps will help you to formulate an employee wellness program that will be the most beneficial for your employees. If you simply roll out a prepackaged employee wellness program or try to use someone else's then the chances are high that it will not be successful for your employees. Effective employee wellness programs take planning, research, and communication in order to be successful.Here are the steps for setting up an employee wellness program-

- Set up the employee wellness team-One of the first things that a business should do when they are setting up an employee wellness plan is to put together a planning team. Ideally this team should be made up of personnel that work throughout all different departments and levels throughout the business. This way you can get the insight of all employees. You want to make sure that the needs and views of all employees are being addressed and met. The team members can maintain a seat on the planning committee for a determined or undetermined amount of time depending on the needs of the business.
- Determine the best way to gather data-The team will need to decide the best way to gather the needed data. It should be stressed that there is no "one size fits all" type of employee wellness program. Trying to install components without the necessary data or using someone else's employee wellness program will not give the most effective results. You will need to make sure that you are designing an employee wellness program that will not only meet the needs of your employees but also contain information and components that will interest them enough to participate. This is where health screenings can be vital. This type of information can help the team determine which types of programs should make up their entire wellness program.
- Use the data to choose the right employee wellness components-Once that data has been completely gathered the team will need to go over it in detail in order to gather all of the information that they can. This data sorting process can take some time and should not be rushed. Team members need to have a clear idea of exactly what type of employee wellness program they need to design for the workforce within the business and if possible what could be done to involve the families of the employees, as well. This stage of the planning process will also involve researching what types of employee wellness program components will be available and appropriate to use. Many businesses choose at this stage of the planning process to bring in an outside company to help design the employee wellness program.
- Communicate with the employees about the wellness program-Once the employee wellness program has been designed it becomes imperative to launch an effective campaign of communication. The bottom line is that it won't really matter how good your employee wellness program is if your employees don't know about it and how to use. Team members will need to determine the most effective ways to communicate with the employees in their business. Keep in mind that just like marketing to your customers you will need to figure out the best places to reach your employees so that they get the message about the employee wellness program. You may want to utilize some marketing employees to help design an effective marketing campaign for your employee wellness program.