Ramp up participation in your wellness program: 3 keys

It doesn’t matter how many fancy bells and whistles your wellness program has, if it’s not presented to employees in the right way, participation will likely suffer.

The best way to boost participation? Find out what’s holding people back – and develop programs to fix these problems. Here are three ways to do it:

1. Work around the barriers. Employees avoid participating in wellness programs for the same reasons that they let their overall health slide: lack of time, feeling overwhelmed, not enough info, etc.

Make sure your wellness initiatives are designed to fit even the busiest schedules – with regular education about exactly how it will benefit workers.

2. Tell them (exactly) what to do. Don’t assume employees will just connect the dots. Calls-to-action for your program should be as specific as possible. Consider the following two bulletin-board postings:

Wrong: “Be sure to get your flu shot today.”
Right: “Today, we’re offering flu shots in room 107 in the West Wing from 9 am to 12 pm. Shots are free of charge for employees and should only take 15 minutes of your time. Call Ext. XXX  … for more info.”

3. Provide an array of reminders. Take a page from savvy marketers’ playbook and remind employees about upcoming programs and events using a number of mediums.

Some examples:

• “Save-the-date” mailings
• Refrigerator magnets, and
• Response cards that allow employees’ to pick and choose their own appointment times for things like biometric screenings.