How To Drive Participation In Your Company's Wellness Program

Employees supported by wellness initiatives at work are happier, more creative, and more productive. Yet, deciding to run a wellness program is only the first step in reaching the goal of empowering your workforce to embrace a healthy lifestyle.  The next step is actually getting your employees to participate. 

For this, employers can turn to digital tools like Sprout At Work™.  The Sprout platform uses game theory to encourage wellness. In other words, it takes something employees know they should be doing — living healthier lives — and makes it something they want to do. A business can funnel its entire wellness plan through this central wellness hub while encouraging participation through goal setting and incentives. 

Here’s how to promote wellness among your employees. 

Promote Healthy Eating

It’s no secret that eating well is good for you Increased energy, better concentration, and improved mental health have all been linked to healthy eating.  But there is a difference between knowing and doing. 

Often, a busy schedule conflicts with the desire to eat healthily.  Whether it’s not preparing a healthy lunch the night before, working through lunch hours or defaulting to fast food options when in a rush, lack of time often undermines the best of intentions.  

To counter this, businesses can promote the importance of taking a midday break to enjoy a nutritious meal.  Consider implementing communication quiet-times during lunch hour so that employees don’t feel they need to be constantly connected.  

Using the in-app communities feature of Sprout At Work, staff can share recipes and ideas for lunches and swap tips for quick and easy meals.  Users can also set goals, track healthy eating activities and earn points to unlock badges to re-enforce new habits.. 

Offer Stress Management Strategies

North American workers are more stressed than ever.  Organizations that actively acknowledge the challenges employees are facing, make policy changes and provide mental health support will be the businesses that succeed in the future.

Offering flexible schedules can help reduce work-related stress. Parents with childcare needs, people whose loved ones have medical requirements, and people who just need to know that getting stuck in traffic won’t be an issue at the office can benefit from this flexibility.  Additionally, flexibility builds an atmosphere of trust, which in turn contributes to a more cohesive workplace.

Effective methods for dealing with stress vary from person to person, so it’s important to offer a range of options to match employee needs. That’s why Sprout At Work prioritizes a holistic approach to wellbeing.  Employees enjoy unlimited access to the informative articles and videos in the Sprout content library and can connect with co-workers in community groups and the social stream.  Companies can also add resources within the Sprout At Work, including integrations with Employee Assistance Programs for secure and confidential access to mental health support.

Encourage Exercise

Simply telling people to exercise is ineffective Warnings of the consequences of inactivity or chastising people about their sedentary lifestyle simply doesn’t work, even when coming from a person’s doctor. 

Encouraging exercise isn’t about saying “you should be active.”  It is about providing the education behind how to exercise and modelling behaviour.  It's about removing physical and psychological barriers to physical activity, giving people a meaningful incentive to exercise and providing them with the opportunity to enjoy being active.

Together, Sprout’s in-app real-time health risk assessment and wearables & device integrations educate employees with personalized insights into where they are today in their wellness journey.  Our recommended goals & gamified challenges are designed to motivate employees, to help with actionable steps and inspiration in order to make regular exercise a part of their daily life.

Ready to learn how Sprout At Work can move the wellness needle at your organization?  Book your discovery call today.