While most organisations understand the importance of these programs for both current and prospective employees, the design, execution and management of them isn’t always up to scratch.
Put simply, workplace wellbeing is all about how we feel at work. Wellbeing programs aim to facilitate these good feelings and address any issues.
If you’re wondering how to design a program that delivers measurable results to your business (by making your employees feel safer, healthier and more engaged), you’ve come to the right blog.
We recently held a webinar all about building a wellness program from the ground up. Hosted by Victorian State Director for Talenza, Peter Rodriguez, we got to hear some great insights and tips from our guest speaker, Ryan McGrory, Founder of Exsona, on exactly how to nail this thing!
If you’re still sitting there wondering if wellbeing is even something worth worrying about, let’s start with a few stats:
To kick things off, Ryan took us for a brief stroll along the history of how workplace wellbeing has been viewed and handled by organisations.
What started out as an attitude of leaving your personal life at home, grew to an understanding that we should support our employees wellbeing - not that we’ve always hit the nail on the head in this area.
The first acceptance phase was simply reactive. This was where we discovered that EAP’s were important and they quickly became the norm, but weren't anything super effective.
From here we entered into what Ryan terms the “sugar hit” phase, “where companies attempted to solve workplace wellbeing problems with fruit bowls, yoga and table tennis”. The obvious issue here being that this didn’t solve any of the root causes of workplace problems or address issues like toxic leadership, burnout or anxiety.
More recently, thanks to the pandemic, things have taken a more digital turn. Companies took on a bunch of expensive tech with plans and promises to solve all our wellbeing woes, but only a fraction of employees actually adopted these new services.
Now, Ryan feels we’re at a critical point where government legislation has stepped in to ensure companies take care of their employees wellbeing, but how will we choose to use this?
“Do we simply tick a box, go through the risk management process and make sure we’re compliant or do we actually take the right level of action to create a truly supportive and healthy workplace culture”?
If you’re sitting there thinking, that sounds nice and all but will it really have an impact? The answer, hell yes! In fact, Ryan shares that there are three key ways that having a solid wellbeing plan in place can help your employees:
No matter the size of your company, your budget or where you are on your wellness journey, Ryan’s wellbeing program can help you nail those wellbeing goals and make some serious improvements in your workplace - and it all starts with the “discover phase”.
As Ryan says, this phase is essentially an “inward exploration phase” where you look at where your company is at, what you need to address and where you want to go - this is where you discover your why. Let’s break it down into a few easy steps.
Now that you’ve gathered all your intelligence, what do you do with it? It’s time to step into the creative arena and craft the how with the develop phase of Ryan’s method.
If you really want a top notch program, Ryan says you not only need some solid initial research and visionary thinking, you need practical execution. This means it’s time to move on to the third phase - design.
For all our aspiring authors out there, this is where you get to become a storyteller. This is where you decide what exactly will be going into your program and figuring out how you frame the narrative for your people. It’s time to breathe life into these new programs and communicate what you’re doing.
It’s time to integrate all this hard work into your business and bring your wellbeing program to life!
Want to hear the full, in-depth conversation with Ryan and discover how to really nail your wellbeing offering?
Click here to view the full webinar.
Sydney: Level 7/10 Spring St, Sydney NSW 2000
Brisbane: 40 Creek Street, Brisbane City QLD 4000
Melbourne: Level 7, 222 Exhibition Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
© Talenza Pty Limited. All rights are reserved.