5 tips for supporting employee wellness goals in 2021

For many people, the start of the new year prompts a renewed focus on taking better care of their health. In fact, exercising more, improving diet and/or fitness and losing weight are perennially among the top New Year’s resolutions.

Related: ‘Healthy’ habits? It’s all a matter of perspective

But on the heels of one of the most difficult years in a generation, setting and keeping wellness goals might be tougher than ever without the right kind of support. Not only are we still dealing with extended lockdowns, working from home—or not working at all—and the stress of a global pandemic, but as a result, many of us have also struggled with a host of related issues, such as:

• Increased depression brought on by employment concerns, isolation and health worries;
• Lack of motivation, especially when working from home makes it easy to stay in PJs all day;
• Work-life balance issues that make it hard to carve out time for self-care; and
• Increased alcohol consumption, which can undermine any wellness goal.

For organizations, that means prioritizing employee wellness has never been more important. It’s been well documented that healthy employees are not only happier, but they also perform better and are more productive. And these individual benefits translate directly into advantages for the company as well, including reduced turnover and absenteeism and substantially lower health care costs.

With employees facing extraordinary circumstances, employers have a tremendous opportunity to help support their people in prioritizing personal, holistic wellness. Here are 5 tips for supporting your employees’ wellness goals this year.

1. Help with goal setting

While some employees may have already committed to a new year’s resolution, for others, this may not be much of a priority, especially if last year’s plans were foiled by pandemic restrictions. But setting wellness goals is important for both physical and mental health—it gives us a sense of confidence and control over our destiny when it feels like so many things right now are out of our hands. While it’s true that we may need to cut ourselves some slack this year, setting realistic goals and establishing a plan to work toward them is still important.

To help employees with this all-important first step, provide a goal-setting tool that can help guide them through the process. Prompt employees with thought-provoking questions that encourage them to think about how they want to feel and come up with some personalized, meaningful goals to help them get there. Regardless of the tool you use, encourage them to set measurable benchmarks to check-in on their progress over time. Seeing gradual progress can be strong motivation to stay on track.

2. Make wellness perks accessible remotely

For many of us, remote work is likely here to stay, which means you must be able to offer wellness perks that employees can access from home or that make sense for the work-from-home population. For example, consider offering a stipend for home fitness equipment or even home office and ergonomic workspace products that can help employees stay well, work well and achieve better work/life balance.

Offering free access to virtual fitness classes or meditation apps can also encourage employees to take time for self-care, including individuals who can’t work from home, such as those in retail, health care and other essential workers. These can also work well for in-office staff and for business travelers, once it’s safe to resume. This way, everyone can take advantage of benefits regardless of their location or schedule.

3. Offer incentives

While feeling better should be a strong motivator, sometimes people need a little extra push to make their wellness a priority. Gamification platforms are one option that can help create a bit of healthy competition among staff, rewarding employees with badges and peer recognition for achieving milestones.

For further incentive, consider offering financial rewards. These can be either paired with gamification (employees earn real money for achieving certain goals) or stand-alone. For example, companies might add extra dollars to employees’ health spending accounts if they log 150 minutes of exercise each week or get a minimum of seven hours of sleep 20 nights each month. Offering and supplementing a lifestyle spending account can also encourage employees to meet their goals by setting aside post-tax funds employees can use on exercise equipment, mental health services or nutrition counseling. If those aren’t possible, gift cards are also a great option, allowing employees to choose the restaurant, retailer or experience they’d prefer.

No matter what you choose, incentives can help reinforce healthy habits, keep employees motivated and reward them for a job well done.

4. Include mental health support

Physical and mental health are both critical for overall wellness, and the past year has been especially difficult for a lot of people. Over 40% of employees say they felt burned out or emotionally drained from work and numerous studies have documented the impacts of quarantine, along with the daily onslaught of COVID-19 news, including anxiety, fear, depression and even PTSD.

While many companies offer counseling services and mental health support through an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), it’s important to communicate those benefits to employees, including details about the number of free sessions, virtual access options and how much it might cost to continue services once EAP benefits are exhausted. For companies that don’t have an EAP in place, consider partnering with an online therapy provider, many of which offer corporate programs, to offer these services to your employees. By making these services readily available and promoting them, companies can destigmatize mental health issues and encourage employees to get the care they need.

5. Deploy a communication campaign

Simply offering these benefits to support employee wellness isn’t enough if your employees don’t know they exist. And if you only send an email in January about sticking with new year’s resolutions, your employees will likely be among the millions of people who fail to reach their wellness goals.

Instead, sending proactive, ongoing communication is critical for program adoption and employee success. It not only serves as a reinforcement and reminder, but also helps to create a culture of personal wellness across the organization. It demonstrates to employees that taking care of yourself should be a top priority for everyone, that you value them as people not just workers, and that wellness is essential to operations. Using a purpose-built employee communications software allows HR staff to create and send personalized messages to employees across the organization, tailoring each one based on the individual’s role, goals and place in their wellness journey.

It’s more important now than ever for companies to actively support their employees’ wellness goals, and that means creating or offering programs that can help them thrive mentally, emotionally and physically. In order to be successful, companies must be thoughtful and consistent in the approach, programs and services they offer and bolster their commitment with incentives. And by engaging in regular, ongoing communications to promote programs and support overall employee well-being, companies can effectively foster and encourage year-round wellness across the organization.

Michelle Sedlacek is director of people at GuideSpark, a change communications company. 

Read more: 

• Employee well-being: Employers making progress, but still a lot of work to do
• 6 creative ways to help employees kick-start wellness goals
•  Health and well-being of employees become a top priority of companies