Why Your Wellness Program Has Low Engagement
Kristina Mereigh
Director of Wellbeing
“Why won’t they come?” Why is nothing working? “People say they care about wellness but then we provide great speakers and cool programs and they don’t show up. Our peoples’ team is putting their hearts and souls into showing people that the company cares about their wellness but honestly… we care more than they do.”
Has anyone else experienced a similar situation with their wellness programming?
Spent months and thousands of dollars to host a wellness seminar/webinar/ conference or event that ended up with low engagement resulting in frustration or even resentment?
The sentiment has been expressed to me by frustrated clients again and again and again. Part of the problem is “showing them that the company cares” by utilizing band-aid measures instead of making impactful, intentional changes to the work culture and environment to foster wholeness and humanity.
My initial questions for them are the same.
1) Have you asked your population how they encounter/ experience barriers to well-being and humanity at work?
2) Are the wellness programming that you offer one-time programs/series not connected to a larger well-being strategic plan? Overall organizational plan?
3) Does the organizational culture support people’s overall well-being in the office and beyond? Does the organizational culture support people’s ability to attend wellness programming?
If you are feeling frustrated, cut yourself and your company some slack. Many of you have been fed the lie that “everyone can do wellness” or put together a wellness program. It is as simple as providing opportunities to breathe, move, or talk about mental health. This is false.
Designing a well-being strategy is more than a series of programs. Enabling people to increase control over and improve their well-being and cope with their individual challenges/ barriers requires the following:
Assessment Organizational development, Administrative buy-in/modeling, Policies that foster inclusive and supportive environments, & strengthen community action, Universally designed working and learning environments and, Health literacy.
Programs can support those structural designs, but they cannot be the strategy for deployment. Don’t try to do it alone. Utilize a health promotion professional who is trained to assist in strategizing and promoting health from a structural approach.