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Employee wellbeing is the secret ingredient for the most successful companies around the world, and more organisations are recognising the importance of creating a culture of health in this post-pandemic world. The return to the workplace will be different for each organisation, but most will be dealing with a dispersed workforce as well as budget constraints. Your employees will be looking to you for guidance as they enter their new environment. The best ways to empower your employees to prioritise their health are through wellbeing champions and intrinsic motivation.
How to successfully prioritise employee wellbeing:
Know the importance of wellbeing
Research shows that more and more businesses are beginning to offer wellbeing programmes, and, at Virgin Pulse, 90% of our members believe that wellbeing programmes make their companies a far better place to work. Wellbeing has helped managers meet department goals by lowering absenteeism and increasing engagement as well as productivity. A movement towards health and wellbeing across the organisation encourages all employees, from lower management to executives, to improve workplace culture and put wellbeing first.
Why wellbeing champions are necessary
Health and wellbeing champions provide motivation, support and encouragement for their peers. Champions not only drive employee engagement with your programme, but true adoption of the positive behaviours you’re trying to reinforce, leading to the health and business outcomes that matter most to your organisation. Wellbeing champions can evangelise the benefits of wellbeing and be a model for embracing your culture of wellbeing.
Motivating frontline wellbeing champions
These leaders are essential to the success of wellbeing programmes, so it’s important to invest time and attention into these champions. Small gestures and incentives, such as providing small, frequent rewards for healthy behaviour and continuous recognition, can go a long way.
Intrinsic motivation is key
Creating meaningful, lasting changes, and maintaining a high level of participation from employees can be achieved by focusing on intrinsic rewards – encouraging your people to participate in healthy habits because the reward comes from within (i.e., I’m doing this because I know it’s good for me and I like feeling my best!)
You can leverage wellbeing champions to help you build a supportive culture and leverage leadership buy–in, hold frequent wellbeing challenges, and encourage ongoing camaraderie and communication. Additionally, your wellbeing champions will serve as intrinsic motivators as they inspire their colleagues to participate and build a culture of wellbeing.
If your company is able to influence your employees to become intrinsically motivated, you will be driving behaviour change that positively affects their daily habits.
Set goals
In order to ensure that your wellbeing programme succeeds, you need to set realistic goals. Most importantly, the safety, health and wellbeing of employees must be placed first. These goals should focus on promoting healthy lifestyles, addressing the needs of your at-risk employees and highlighting the available resources in addition to your wellbeing programme.
While getting your workforce to embrace a culture of wellbeing requires a little extra effort, creativity and persistence goes a long way. By leaning on intrinsic motivators like wellbeing champions, your organisation can achieve success with a wellbeing programme that is customised to fit your needs, integrates healthy competition and streamlines communication.