10 top tips for communicating a joined-up wellbeing strategy
Communicating the wellbeing support, benefits and help available to your staff is key, so review our simple 10-point checklist to see how your organisation measures up.
- Begin with the end in mind
Be clear what wellbeing means to your people and what a good outcome looks like. Will you focus on a broad range of initiatives such as mindfulness, financial therapy, volunteering, yoga, workshops and education talks, or will you focus on a narrower set of initiatives? Does good wellbeing mean that staff score high levels of workplace satisfaction or does it mean measuring a meaningful reduction in absence and attrition? Understanding what good looks like is essential to know where to focus your time and communications as well as maintaining support from senior leaders.
- Take stock
Carry out an audit of what you are currently doing to support employees’ wellbeing. The chances are you already do a lot but perhaps the packaging, communication and engagement could be better. Identify what is working, what could be better and what gaps exist. - Foster dialogue and openness
The more people feel safe to discuss wellbeing issues, and the more involved they feel, the more they will benefit. Running workshops, creating social media groups, developing wellbeing mentors/ambassadors to spread the word and getting senior people to openly share their personal mental/physical health or financial challenges, fears and obstacles, can all get people talking and involved. - Share stories, not facts
Most people make decisions and choices based on emotion, not logic, even if they use logic to justify them afterwards, so don’t overload people with facts. Sharing compelling stories is a far more effective and engaging way to create a narrative which promotes and reinforces your wellbeing culture. - Keep it relevant
Focus on the ‘why’ rather than the ‘what’ of your wellbeing offering, so it resonates and connects with your people on an emotional and personal level. How people feel about their wellbeing is more important than how they think about it. - Make it entertaining
Avoid being preachy, sanctimonious or too strait-laced in communicating your wellbeing offering. Although mental health wellbeing needs to be handled with sensitivity, the more you can weave humour into your communications on physical, financial and social wellbeing, the more engagement you’ll get. - Have realistic expectations
Developing and communicating an effective wellbeing program takes time. Don’t try to do too much in one go. Create a rolling 12-month wellbeing roadmap with small, sustainable and deliverable milestones that fit your organisation’s priorities and needs, rather than a big bang approach. - Aim for progress, not perfection
Be pragmatic and flexible about how long it will take you to achieve the outcomes you desire. You should seek to make steady progress over time, not achieve perfection overnight. - Get buy in from the top
Unless you get full support from senior leaders, your wellbeing strategy will not stand the test of time or be properly resourced. Having a wellbeing champion on the board or senior leadership team and getting senior people involved in wellbeing stories is ideal. - Enjoy the journey
Developing wellbeing communication and finding out what works best for your workforce can and should be enjoyable, fulfilling and great fun. The potential value your efforts will create for employees is huge.
Helping your colleagues to improve their overall wellbeing won’t always be plain sailing or easy but, with a bit of imagination and consistent effort, it can be a very worthwhile, rewarding and noble cause indeed.
This article is provided by Salary Finance.
In partnership with Salary Finance Inc
We understand the impact finances have on our health, our happiness, our home life & our work life.
