There are many powerful benefits of a corporate wellness program.  They not only encourage employees to be more conscious of a healthy lifestyle, which helps them with their drive and attitude at work, but they also heighten employee engagement and productivity.  So, how do you, as a leader, create the best atmosphere for a wellness program?  What is your role in developing and sustaining a company culture that values healthy living and employee health?

The answer lies in two of the core tenets of leadership, with honest enthusiasm and a well-constructed plan.

A Healthy Culture Begins With a Wellness Strategy

Business leaders rarely implement major business operations without a plan, and making wellness part of your company culture is a large task.  You should absolutely have a plan before you begin implementation.  This step begins with examining everything from your company's values and mission statement to seemingly mundane areas such as job descriptions and work styles.  The strategy has to revolve around your company's values.  The benefits your wellness plan should be in-line with your employees' work tasks.

After all, if you are developing a wellness plan across your entire company, and it covers everybody from senior leadership to warehouse employees, you need to come up with fitness options appropriate for everybody.  If you ask a middle manager to go for a run after work, you might receive a much different answer than if you asked a warehouse worker or member of your maintenance staff.

Here is an outline of six steps you can take to develop your wellness program.

• Consider all aspects of your company, from administrative functions to more physical jobs, like logistics.  Understand the ages, limitations (physical, time, etc.), work environments, and the impact they have on your employees.  Look at quantifiable metrics like absenteeism and work place injuries.
  
  
• All programs need metrics to assess employee involvement and effects.  Establish what you will measure to assess the impact of the program.  Obviously, you can't ask people about personal information such as body measurements.  However, you can measure things like absenteeism, worker's comp claims, health insurance rates, recruiting and retention.  You'll want to keep ongoing measurements of these numbers.
  
  
• Next, set your goals for the program.  What do you want to see?  A decrease in absenteeism?  Fewer employee injuries?  Increased employee engagement?  Whatever goals you choose, like all goals, you should be able to measure them.
  
  
• After you assess your company and goals, decide on your strategy.  Decide where you want your wellness strategy to go, and what programs or classes you'll offer to get there.  This is where you decide on things like whether you'll construct an onsite gym or offer your employees company-sponsored access to gyms.
  
  
• Implement your plan.  First, use whatever channels of communication you have available to you to get the word out about your new wellness program.  Remember, different generations of employees like to receive information in different ways.  This is also the step where it's important for leaders to lead the way.  Senior managers should be seen participating and promoting the program; it inspires and motivates employees.
  
  
• Periodically, reassess your program and adjust it as necessary to keep it on track with your goals.

When planning your strategy, take the generational differences of your workforce into account.  Older workers will have different goals than younger workers.  This is the reason it's important to offer a plan offering a variety of activities and benefits.

The Most Important Role of Senior Leadership in Creating a Culture of Wellness

The key aspect to remember here is the program is geared towards your employees, but it's led by senior leaders.  Senior leaders need to be invested and involved in the program.

Leaders should be visibly supportive and participating in all aspects of the program.  The best place to see this is the military.  Leaders exercise with their units, and are encouraged to encourage and be supportive of good nutrition and exercise habits.  Your employees will be far more likely to participate in a wellness plan when they see the company president and participating in the employee program.

How to Encourage Consistent Participation

The biggest criticism of wellness programs is that participation in the program drops over time.  There are steps you can take to combat this problem.

• Offer a meaningful variety of fitness activities.  When choosing a gym, or if you are bringing in guest fitness instructors, make sure there is a variety of classes offered.  If choosing a gym, make sure you choose one close to work or close to the transportation corridor that most of your employees use.  After all, the closer employees live to their fitness center, the more likely they are to use it.
  
  
• Encourage competitions between employees, departments, management, etc.  You could sponsor fitness challenges with meaningful prizes given to teams that score the most points.  At the end of the competition, you could have a health "fair" or "benefits day."  Invite your health insurance provider and other benefits coordinators to offer classes about using their services.
  
  
• Make it easy for employees to flex their hours to get to the gym or go to a fitness class.  For example, an employee commuting through heavy traffic may want to come in earlier to avoid traffic, and then leave earlier to attend a fitness class near their home.  By offsetting their hours, their stress is reduced, and they get to exercise near home.
  
  

There's More to Wellness Than The Body, Keeping People's Minds in Mind

Besides physical fitness, there are other aspects to being healthy.  Promote overall wellness by encouraging people to seek ways to relax and calm themselves.  For example, you can choose a gym offering yoga or tai-chi classes.  If that isn't possible, book classes with therapists so people can learn how to relax, deal with frustration, anger, or other negative emotions.

Mental health is key to a healthy lifestyle, but woefully overlooked.  Offering your employees an opportunity to strengthen their mind as well as their body would truly set your wellness program ahead of many others.

Often there is a stigma associated with anything related to mental health.  Again, this is where the enthusiastic participation of leadership is helpful and encouraging.

The Key Takeaways for Leaders

Leaders lead, that's your job.  To encourage healthy, engaged employees you must also be healthy and engaged.  Leaders don't have to be fitness gurus, but they must be enthusiastic, encouraging, involved, and seen participating in the wellness program.  Otherwise, employees are going to feel the program isn't worthwhile, or they may even feel they are being given a program that is made for them, while management gets something different and better.

Embrace your wellness program; you'll experience positive benefits for both your company and employees.