Employee wellness is valuable.

Communication about it must be clear and action-oriented to be effective.

Talking proactively about wellness is a good use of time and “air space” when done effectively. Ideally, your company has a defined wellness strategy and plan. That becomes the primary input to planning communication about wellness.

If no such strategy or plan exists, be careful. It’s easy to get caught up in ad hoc, general wellness communication that has no clear and agreed upon objective. Often, the “it can’t hurt” argument is used when there is no plan. Trouble is, random or inconsistent communication can hurt. It creates noise that detracts from the value of other communication and distracts employees from their work.

The following How-To information is best used when there’s a clear organizational strategy for employee wellness. However, it’s also useful if that ideal hasn’t quite gelled in the company where you work.

Note: For the purpose of this article and related tools, “wellness” refers to overall and ongoing physical and mental health managed by the individual.  Immediate or sudden threats to health is considered “safety” and relates to workplace environment and conditions.

Keep concepts simple

Wellness is personal. Achieving optimal wellness usually requires an individual to change behaviors and/or attitude. And that’s not easy.  You increase the chances of individuals achieving wellness — and the organization achieving its wellness objectives — when you keep concepts simple.

Try to keep directions to 2-5 steps. Anything more can be overwhelming.

Provide examples that are relatable on an everyday level.

Project ideal outcome

Wellness is an aspiration. Use positive, forward-thinking language. Examples:

  • Imagine (…feeling, being able to…)
  • Become (…stronger, better at managing stress, healthier…)
  • Gain (…control, balance, confidence, sense of well-being…)
  • Build (…strength, healthy habits…)

Leave the organization out of it

There is a business reason for communicating about wellness, of course. However, there’s no value in mentioning that in the communication. In fact, it is a detractor. Why? Because, as we’ve stated before, wellness is a personal topic.

For example, let’s say it’s cold and flu season and leadership wants to contain absenteeism rates. An employee-centric email would say nothing, not a word, about absenteeism rates. Instead, it might look like this:

Subject line: To Your Health

Body: Want to keep yourself, colleagues and loved ones free of colds and flu this winter? It’s as easy as 1-2-3.

1. Wash your hands frequently. Use warm water and make sure you get suds from the soap. <include image>

2. Sneeze and cough into the crook of your elbow. <include image>

3. Stay home if you are sneezing, coughing, achy, or have a fever.

Here’s to your health!

Bonus action: Consider getting a flu shot. Get more info.

Feel free to use this as a template for your own email to employees!

[button url=”https://www.liftinternal.com/wellness-email-templates-2/”]Get other wellness related email templates [/button]

Offer options

Because wellness is an individual concern, employees will range from “rookie” to “expert”. Whatever the topic, be sure to offer examples and calls-to-action that have wide appeal.

It’s true that most of the time you really want the rookie to take action. But the experts hold lots of value! In addition to offering them increased support or incentive to continue doing what they’re doing, give them reasons and inspiration to set examples or otherwise support co-workers.

For example, if the goal is to get people to stop smoking, include a call to action for ex-smokers to offer insight and encouragement to peers.

Leverage outside experts

When it comes to topics like wellness, not everything has to be branded.  In fact, some things shouldn’t be.  If you’re offering information about nutrition, it has more value if it comes from a reputable agency — unless you’re in the nutrition business and you have in-house experts!

Here are a few places to get expert info and documents:

If you have an Employee Assistance Program, your provider probably also has useful material.

Get in-house testimonials

Informal peer support is effective in the workplace.  Find 2-3 mid-level employees/managers who actively use the wellness practice you’re talking about. (Why mid-level? Because they are more relatable to more people. They aren’t highly intimidating to entry level employees. They are peers to most. Senior leaders can say “If they can do it, so can I!”)

Tip: If you have a senior leader who wants to be the “poster child”, gently remind him/her that they get to be in the spotlight a lot. This is chance for employees to get to know informal leaders. And, the best way for senior leaders to support the initiative is to walk the talk and be “like everyone else”.

Translate

If your employee population has a high percentage of people for whom English is not their first language, consider translating prime content into the appropriate language(s).

Remember, wellness is about personal choices and behaviors. Even if someone has the English skills to do their work, they may find it more motivating to explore the topic of wellness in their first language.

A closing thought

Give managers notes for talking about wellness at team meetings AND give them cheat sheets for pointing employees in the direction of resources, in they are asked.