Ten Ways You’re Failing At Employee Wellness

This article was originally published on Forbes.com.

Employee wellness can be incredibly beneficial for your company. Not only can a wellness program help you save on insurance costs, but it can help improve employee morale, boost productivity and build a resilient workforce.

With all of those benefits on the line, it’s a shame that many managers really aren’t getting the most of their wellness programs. Common, avoidable pitfalls can stand in the way of developing a truly effective wellness program.

In my years in the wellness industry, I’ve seen these ten mistakes lead to lackluster wellness programs that really aren’t worth a company’s time or effort. Take a look at your program. Anything sound familiar? Then it’s time to make a change so you can set your employees up for wellness success.

1. You Use Scare Tactics

If most of your wellness program is focused on risks and unhealthy behaviors, you’re doing it wrong. Statistics are important—and there’s a time and place for them in wellness—but success stories and empowering messages are much more effective.

2. You Incentivize Poorly

There are mixed feelings about wellness incentives. I think that—when done right—incentives can be very useful. If you’re incentivizing effectively, you’re:

• Choosing incentives that further a healthy lifestyle for your employees

• Making incentives accessible to anyone who completes the requirements

• Requiring more than just a simple sign up to earn incentives

Choose wisely when it comes to your incentives and how they work in your program.

3. You Don’t Offer Biometric Screenings

Biometric screenings are a basic preventative health service many companies have adopted to help their employees evaluate their health. Usually a screening consists of a finger stick or blood draw to gather health metrics like cholesterol and blood sugar, and tests for blood pressure, body weight and body mass index (BMI).

These metrics provide a good snapshot for employees and help them to understand their own health. With aggregate reports, they’re also a great tool for measuring the overall health of your workforce, and benchmarking year-to-year.

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