Is there future for workplace wellness?

As I awaited the beginning of the webinar, going through the notes, I wasn’t sure of what to expect. In Europe there is not that big emphasis on workplace wellness. We provide our employees with optional health/wellness programs but it is mostly a form of an employee benefit than an investment into lowering health costs or enhancing productivity. And for more, those programs often have no concept, don’t address any concrete goal. They just … are there.

What is this “workplace wellness”?

According to Wikipedia: “Workplace wellness is any workplace health promotion activity or organizational policy designed to support healthy behavior in the workplace and to improve health outcomes. […]  Known as ‘corporate wellbeing’ outside the US, it consists of a variety of activities such as health fairs, health education, medical screenings, health coaching, weight management programs, wellness newsletters, on-site fitness programs and/or facilities and educational programs.“

The problem with workplace wellness

What is wrong with workplace wellness? It doesn´t work, says the RAND report.

For several decades, since the Doing Better, Feeling Worse report in 1977, wellness programs address the same risk behaviors – Stop smoking, eat healthier food, don’t drink too much alcohol and start a regular physical activity.

But at the same time, RAND report covers only physical wellbeing in relation to health costs, but wellbeing as well as wellness includes more dimensions. (Even health itself doesn’t have only the physical dimension, but more on that later.)

Dr. Ward suggests that there is an essential need to change the objective of corporate wellness. The deal is not to motivate one to start living healthier life, but to create conditions within which others will motivate themselves. There is no doubt that extrinsic motivation accomplishes less that intrinsic motivation, even more when it gets to physical activity and lifestyle habits.

Yes, from the perspective of heath costs, wellness programs might not work, but there is much more that we can address and change for better with well designed workplace wellness program.

Characteristics of a “good workplace wellness program”

• Workplace wellness program mustn´t be one dimensional.
• Workplace wellness program should be long term, not time limited.
• Workplace wellness program doesn’t just change behavior of employees; it changes the culture of whole organization.
• Workplace wellness program has to come from within the organization, not only from external specialist on health.

These are just few basic remarks from the webinar (some more in upcoming articles). For now I hope you get a glimpse of the fact, that workplace wellness programs can work more effectively when addressing the overall culture of organizations, than just measuring blood pressure of its employees. My personal lesson is, that workplace wellness at its bottom gets deeper, to the management of organization, to managers, to leaders, to being nice and respectful to each other, to saying thank you.