3 Big Mistakes Businesses Make In Wellbeing

Here are the biggest mistakes business make and how to fix them.

MISTAKE # 1 ASSUME INSTEAD OF ASSESS

Making assumptions about what your employees want and need is the number 1 mistake I see businesses make. If you don’t ask, you don’t know. Collect employee physical and mental health risks from your psychosocial risk audit or your workplace wellbeing assessment. If you don’t have an assessment, you can order a free one here.

MISTAKE # 2 WAIT FOR A BUDGET

Now you’re ready to customise your program based on your data. DO NOT SIT BACK AND WAIT FOR BUDGET.  This will result in zero budget! Here’s how to pitch for it…

The key to successfully securing your wellbeing budget is to present your business case in this order…

1. Here are our employee risks – present the data

2. Here is our customised wellbeing program to meet these needs

3. This is the budget required to implement this plan and the evidence to support the ROI, VOI and legal obligations.

The business case is super strong. Legal obligations are pretty convincing! Safework Australia requires us to identify psychosocial risks and put an action plan in place. We also have high ROI, minimum $2.30 for every $1 we invest, high quality candidate attraction and retention. Add to this high VOI – (value on investment), positivity, morale, motivation. See the full business case here.

MISTAKE #3 LAUNCH IT AND LEAVE IT

Ever launched a wellbeing event and no-one turns up? It’s devastating. I see this happen when businesses launch programs without asking employees what they want, do not communicate it well and do not have solid support. Tips to boost employee engagement…

1. “We have listened, here is what you asked for.”  This is the best way to attract employees to your program once your assessment is done. Give the people what they want! Set up a consistent communication plan year round. Post in newsletters, all employee emails, intranet portals, apps, posters, employee stories, team meetings, everywhere!

2.  Ask for expressions of interest for Wellbeing Champions. This ground up approach increases employee engagement when motivated by peers (not by head office). There is an EOI template here to get your started. If leadership buy-in is a challenge, this is a highly successful approach!

3.  The most important one. Take the resources to your people! I have found a combination of delivery models to be the most successful. Here’s how I would do it… host an online or onsite event, then supplement it with a short video, a talks track, a one page resource and maybe a challenge. This will motivate real behaviour change.

This article was originally published at Gembridge.com.au