How to create a winning wellness strategy for the New Year

2020 was a year like no other. The Covid-19 global health crisis placed the topic of health and wellness firmly into the limelight, especially as it emerged that poor health could impact Covid-19 outcomes. With lockdown causing us to spend more time at home, and restricting access to primary healthcare, a knock-on effect on our activity levels and physical and mental health was inevitable.

The economy and our working lives were another casualty of the pandemic. While many businesses had to close because of lockdown sanctions, others had to make rapid adaptations to facilitate remote working and on both sides, we saw huge uptake of the governments furlough scheme. This saw thousands of employees effectively ‘benched’, impacting morale and engagement levels.

Adapting wellbeing strategies to our changed reality

Given that we spend a third of our lives at work, employers have been compelled to take a more active interest in the wellbeing of their staff in recent years, and it’s common to see health provisions and workplace wellness initiatives as part of employee benefits packages.

Maintaining good health and wellness is more important now than ever and, as such, you may have already made some changes to your strategy to make it more suitable for your remote workforce. Since this is one trend that looks set to stay, and research shows that many employers are enjoying the same or higher levels of productivity as before lockdown, now’s the time to try and maintain this momentum.

To overcome the challenges of keeping your workforce engaged while they work apart, it’s the ideal opportunity to review your strategy and make changes that will give it flexibility and ensure it is fit for purpose.

What employees want

Undoubtedly, the best health and wellness strategies are based on concrete facts and insights, so having a picture of your employees’ current health and needs is a good place to start. But it can be tricky to achieve. Whether you’re looking to improve on what you have, or you’re starting from scratch, our unique Workplace Wellness surveys have been created to address this need. The surveys have been designed to help you get a finger on the pulse of your employees’ health. They’ll gauge key lifestyle habits and aspects of physical and mental health of individuals within your business, and provide you with in-depth insights that highlight where the pain points are. You can then use these to better inform your decisions and see how your strategy can help encourage healthy habits and improve areas of concern.

We have also created an in-depth guide on how to create the ultimate health and wellbeing strategy that you can use to inform your 2021 plans. Packed with everything from initial scoping, to stakeholder buy in, budgeting and employee engagement, it’s a great asset for those new to the space and those looking for new ideas. You can read our guide here.

Remember, the healthier your employees are, the happier they’re likely to be. This in turn has a positive impact on engagement and productivity levels – good for you and them. By making health and wellness a fundamental part of your company culture, your interventions are far more likely to succeed, and this will be even more important in these uncertain times we’re living through.

Find out more about Workplace Wellness and how to apply. Surveys are complimentary, and you don’t need a Vitality plan to take part.

The author is Jill Pritchard, director at Vitality at Work.

This article is provided by Vitality at Work.