5 Tips to Help Employees Fall 🍂 Back into Wellness (Remotely)

How to re-establish your (remote) corporate wellness program as we transition into fall & winter

And now we have the days getting shorter, comfort foods are everywhere and the inclination to hibernate kicks in!

Mindset change—let's rethink think this. How can we help workers re-charge and reset while they are working remotely? We have 5 tips to get you started!

5 Tips to implement

TIP 1 - If you have abandoned your wellness committee, it is SERIOUSLY time to herd those stray cats in!

The sole purpose of a wellness committee is to plan, promote and brainstorm wellness ideas that fit into your workplace culture. Now, that may be a bit more challenging when we are doing things almost entirely remotely. Think digital. Utilizing Zoom, GoTo Meeting or even a good old fashion conference call will do the trick. BUT, the key to making this work is our favorite word in the wellness world, CONSISTENCY. Pick a day and time to meet at least once a month and assign tasks to each committee member to accomplish PRIOR to the meeting. And lastly, don't have your committee full of marathon runners and health nuts, you need diversity to address people at different stages of well-being.

TIP 2 - Survey, survey, survey.

I know it sounds boring and people normally don't love surveys, but you have to find out what people are struggling with and what they are REALLY interested in participating in—wellness-wise.  Unfortunately, it is not always the coolest, trending, wellness craze that will engage employees. You may find out through the survey that your people want a stress management program not the more physical challenges that you have put forth in the past. You must survey to gauge the needs and interests of your employee population. And ALWAYS end the survey with a place for employees to provide feedback and ideas.

TIP 3 - Now implement the survey findings.

Pick one or two of the most popular requests and determine if your wellness committee can REALLY make this work OR do you need to partner with a wellness company. Either way, you need to make sure that the employee voices have been heard and serve up the survey results in challenges, programs that are fun and engaging. 

TIP 4 - Over communicate your programs.

I normally wouldn't say this, but we are talking about guerrilla marketing here. Especially now when we are all getting so much communication via email, you really need to market your program like your cable company.

a.) Think long and hard about the the subject line in your email. Keep it short, 41 characters is optimal for a subject line and include 😀😍❄️😁. 

b.) The message should be simple not complex, small wins over big and easy beats out hard.

c.) And once again, I suggest video.

This is what Ulliance did, watch the video below.

TIP 5 - Highlight your organizations wellness champions.

So now you have implemented some programs. Let's say you ran an eight week weight loss challenge and you had several employees that were successful in losing weight. And maybe, some people got their health numbers in shape —USE THEM AS AN ASSET! Share their success stories within the organization. Try having the employees video themselves and share some tips on how they were able to stay on track. Then post the videos on a company intranet or wellness newsletter (of course get written permission to use the media from the employee).

So now you hopefully have a few strategies to breathe new life back into your wellness program. It is not easy, and the remote thing makes it even harder. Please feel to reach out to us if you would to explore the Ulliance wellness program 5 to Thrive, where we focus on the 5 tenants of well-being—emotional, physical, financial, career and community. Be Well!

Now more than ever, your employees need emotional support and resources. The pandemic has created a whole new set of physical, financial and emotional stressors that have woven their way into the home and workplace. 

When you partner with Ulliance, our Life Advisor Consultants are always just a phone call away to teach ways to enhance your work/life balance and increase your happiness. The Ulliance Life Advisor Employee Assistance Program can help employees and employers come closer to a state of total well-being.

Combining years of clinical experience and the formation of a meaningful partnership with an organization’s human resources department, Ulliance is among the best EAP providers, and our experts can tailor recommendations for a variety of work\life circumstances.

Investing in the right EAP or Wellness Program to support your employees will help them and help you.  Visit www.ulliance.com, or call 866-648-8326.

The Ulliance Employee Assistance Program can address the
following issues:
• Stress about work or job performance
• Crisis in the workplace
• Conflict resolution at work or in one’s personal life
• Marital or relationship problems
• Child or elder care concerns
• Financial worries
• Mental health problems
• Alcohol/substance abuse
• Grief
• Interpersonal conflicts
• AND MORE!