How to make a Successful Well-being Program:

Hi folks,

I came across a really interesting question recently: "How 'well' do workers need to be for their well-being program to be named as successful?" Should they reach a certain standard in their health checks? Consider themselves totally stress free?

Wouldn't it be great if our companies were full of athletes & superhuman workers! This would undoubtedly give us optimum performance, reduced absenteeism & a good return on investment, all elements that the boardroom judge a well-being program by. Unfortunately this is not always realistic, many workers are hard to engage (usually the ones that really need to be) & even those that are, may not be committed. After all "you can lead a horse to water but..."

Perhaps the focus should really be on those that are in fact hard to engage, as their yellow-flag psychosocial characteristics may be acting as a drag on the company. We should maybe ask why they are hard to engage? What's happened to them between joining the company & now that's changed their attitude? What health measures would they like to see in a well-being program?

In my view the most successful well-being program does not need everyone to be in great health. It should involve the people responsible for the program to really know the demographics of their workforce together with how to use their particular workforce-culture to their advantage, only then are they in the best possible position. It should be judged by the quality of resources & the range of engagement methods used, the absenteeism stats & ROI will then look after themselves.

Let me know your thoughts

James