Even though many employees aren’t yet coming back to the workplace, corporate wellness companies are rethinking engagement tools that will work both virtually and in-person. Here are five options we think can bridge communication gaps between wellness providers and employees.

Conduct a needs assessment

The pandemic is revolutionizing the way we do business, and wellness programs aren’t immune to those changes. Building a successful program requires knowing what employees need, what they’ll actually use, and how much access they have to virtual classes, webinars, and online behavioral change programs. Before wellness program architects begin reshaping current program offerings, conduct a survey to meet participants where they are right now. It’s the first step the Centers for Disease Control recommends, and gives employees some ownership by asking them to be advisors who can help determine a more focused direction for wellness programming.

Incorporate well-being goals

Establish a roadmap for employee wellness that includes goals and milestones to measure employee engagement and the efficacy of wellness programming. Any successful health promotion requires clear definition of population challenges (taken from the needs assessment) and goals related to those challenges.

Consider a gamification approach

Introducing the elements of game strategy – especially challenges, rankings, rewards, and social sharing – can provide the autonomy, purpose, and mastery that are the keys to engagement strategy. Ideally, large employers realize value in developing a gamification strategy that encompasses employee training and continuing education, as well as health and wellness program participation. Wellness applications often include integration of wearable technology and incentive programs scalable to your company’s needs. Use this Source Forge search tool to select the features that best fit your company’s needs and narrow down your software options, then click straight through to view each platform and get pricing.

Embrace text messaging

Smartphones are almost an appendage for most people these days. Even if you don’t gamify your wellness program, provide participants with text messaging support options, especially for behavioral change programs. For companies with Club Automation contracts, there’s an option for 60 days of free access to CA’s text messaging service, but your primary corporate wellness provider should also have a list of SMS resources and options that integrate with your existing online wellness platform.

Evaluate more than ROI

Wellness engagement can be hard to measure. Using well-being goals gleaned from survey results as baseline metrics for behavioral change programs can provide useful insight into what’s working and what needs to change in your company’s wellness offerings. But, don’t stop there. Check in periodically with wellness program participants through an integrated CRM tool to measure their engagement, progress, program and job satisfaction, and the overall value on investment (VOI) your wellness program demonstrates. Here’s a simple framework for building a financial wellness ROI/VOI evaluation tool. Use it to develop an overall assessment using metrics specific to your population, identified in a needs assessment survey.

If your company is searching for a new approach to employee wellness program engagement, contact Aquila. An award-winning health and fitness consultancy, for the last 25 years Aquila has been creating, managing, designing and implementing innovative health and wellness solutions for private and public organizations. Learn more about what Aquila can do for your wellness program by contacting us at info@aquilaltd.com.