The rise of wellbeing champions – how employers are engaging staff with wellbeing

Wellbeing champions are increasingly being used by employers to engage staff and spread the word about wellbeing initiatives, a study has found.

The Employee Wellbeing Research 2019, published by the Reward & Employee Benefits Association (REBA) in association with AXA PPP healthcare, highlighted that almost half (46.7%) of organisations are using wellbeing champions to communicate to employees about their wellbeing activities.

This represents a huge 30% increase compared to last year.

Meanwhile, the bulk of wellbeing communication continues to take a traditional form, with more than three quarters (77.9%) of employers using email and more than two thirds (67.8%) using posters and leaflets. Around half have wellbeing pages on their organisation’s general intranet (51.3%).

However, employers are now embracing more modern communication methods to increase engagement with wellbeing initiatives, showed the survey of 250 wellbeing, HR and employee benefits specialists.

Around a quarter (24.1%) are making use of social media in their wellbeing campaigns, up from one in six (15.7%) last year. More than one in 10 (13.6%) are also using audio and/or video content to communicate with staff about wellbeing, more than double the figure from 2018 (6.1%).

And working with online or mobile games has risen from no organisations using them last year to 5% this year.

“It is encouraging to see respondents starting to embrace video and audio communication methods in this area, as these media lend themselves well to the kind of story telling that can be so effective in sharing the benefits of wellbeing and raising awareness of issues such as mental ill-health,” said the report.

Download a copy of the 76-page Employee Wellbeing Research 2019 (free to REBA Professional Members and all those working for REBA Associate Members).

Do you have a great wellbeing programme in your organisation? Have you considered entering REBA’s Employee Wellbeing Awards 2020? Entries are now open until 7^th November 2019. Full details of how to take part are on the Employee Wellbeing Awards 2020 website.

The author is Rima Evans, freelance writer for REBA.