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Employee Wellbeing Calendar

How to Set Your Employee Wellbeing Calendar

It’s the time of year when many organizations are setting their calendars for the coming year. Hopefully, part of that strategic planning includes an annual wellbeing calendar containing carefully selected wellbeing campaigns.

A wellbeing campaign details an employer’s time-specific strategic focus on a designated emphasis related to employee wellbeing. A campaign may include motivational education, activities, contests, and incentives. Here are nine simple guidelines for selecting your wellbeing campaigns:

1. Know Your “Why”.

The choices you make in planning your wellbeing campaigns should be highly influenced by your goals. Are you aiming to drive down claim costs? Is your highest priority to enhance culture? Do you want to use employee wellbeing to drive engagement?  Knowing the answers to these questions is fundamental to making the most of the guidelines below. “Why?” is one of the first questions I ask when consulting with our clients seeking to implement a wellbeing strategy.

 

2. Set your wellbeing calendar and the frequency of your campaigns.

Some of our employer clients will choose to conduct a monthly wellbeing campaign, while others go with quarterly or bimonthly campaigns. Some employers will skip months or scale back campaigns during a particularly busy season in their industry, such as CPAs who may forego any additional work-related activities during the first quarter when their employees are already taxed with long hours and added stress.  When setting a calendar, consider the capacity of your team to execute these plans alongside other organization-wide activities, events, and initiatives.

 

3. Let data drive

When I meet with an employer to develop a wellbeing calendar, I often present them with more than 30 options of themes for wellbeing campaigns. A common tendency is to go with our gut. However, data should outweigh gut. The use of this data is particularly necessary if one of your top priorities is to drive down claim costs. Data can provide stunning insight into the health needs of your employees and other members of the employer’s medical plan. Claims data can be the flashing arrow pointing us to where we need to put our wellbeing focus. The decision-making progress of selecting campaigns can be quickly narrowed down after looking at claims data such as:

        • Percentage of members compliant with annual exams and recommended preventive care
        • Percentage of members who are obese
        • Number of times members went to the ER when less expensive options would have been recommended
        • Number of members who are diabetic
        • Percentage of members noncompliant with their medications
        • Number of members dealing with depression, anxiety, or other mental health issues
        • Number of members with a substance abuse disorder

 

4. Consider the uniqueness of your organization.

  • One of our clients had a younger population and the babies were coming, so they asked for “Well-baby Care” to be one of their monthly campaigns. Another client, because they had a majority employee population of men who “liked football,” decided to have a football-themed wellbeing kick-off to coincide with the start of the football season. After an employee died of a heart attack while on the job, another employer decided to have annual onsite heart screenings. It is great when we learn from one another and from our experiences at previous employers. However, one of the worst mistakes an employer can make is to mimic the wellness program of another organization. Your company is unique, and your wellness strategy and calendar should reflect your uniqueness.

 

  • 5. Some campaigns should be repeated annually.

When I work with an employer on setting a calendar for their campaigns, I share why some topics should be repeated each year.  I recommend the following to be annual focal points, though not always a part of a singular, full-blown campaign:

    • Annual Physicals & Wellness Exams
    • EAP & Mental Health
    • Flu Shots
    • When to Go Where for Care (PCP, ER, Urgent Care, & Telehealth)

 

6. Demonstrate your commitment to wellbeing.

Yes, I am stepping up onto my soap box! While wellness is often seen as focusing on physical health, wellbeing is a more holistic approach to health. Wellbeing includes the physical plus many other components of our personhood, such as our emotional, social, community, financial, spiritual, and career wellbeing. We will want to be sure our annual calendar reflects our understanding of, and commitment to, holistic health. (For more insight on this topic, see Wellbeing and Wellness: There is a Difference.)

 

7. Campaigns don’t have to be singular.

Some campaign topics can be seamlessly combined. I often recommend combining an emphasis on “the importance of an annual wellness exam” with a focus on “finding a primary care physician.” Campaigns on vision exams and dental cleanings also work well together. A focus on breast cancer awareness can be expanded to “preventive care” that includes everyone. “Maximizing Your EAP” can be combined with a focus on mental health or suicide prevention. Uniting multiple themes can be particularly helpful if you choose to have a limited number of wellbeing campaigns during the year.

 

8. Be deliberate in your timing for the greatest impact.

Conducting a flu shot campaign in May will not be nearly as impactful as the same campaign in September. Emphasizing the need for proper hydration is an excellent topic during the summer. When considering a focus on mental health, it is advantageous to know that certain mood disorders not only peak during the winter and holidays, but also during spring.  Many employers like to follow national campaigns such as heart health in February, men’s health in June, breast cancer awareness in October, and national diabetes month in November. January is certainly a time when our employees are considering new resolutions. But September is also a time for actionable fresh starts as summer comes to an end and schools get back in session, providing unique opportunities when we may be open to new healthy habits.

 

9. Mix it up.

No one likes boring. Campaigns can be a mix of creative and motivational elements to keep your team engaged. In addition to choosing elements that support your goals, being creative will heighten your chances of success. Below are a few campaign elements to consider:

    • Share links to engaging YouTube videos & TED talks.
    • Hold contests.
    • Create fun games to reinforce the topic.
    • Include individual and/or team challenges.
    • Use raffles and door prizes.
    • Offer incentives.
    • Present Lunch & Learns.
    • Capitalize on existing communication avenues, such as employee newsletters and intranets.
    • Incorporate team activities.
    • Develop activities that include the children and grandchildren of employees.
    • Share testimonials and success stories (with photos!).
    • Recommend books or articles on the subject.
    • Hijack a session of the company book club.
    • Form a wellness team to brainstorm creative activities related to a theme.
    • Sponsor a community race or walk.
    • Involve your internal marketing team in a promotion.
    • Make wellbeing a part of Open Enrollment.
    • Celebrate successes.

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If you would like a copy of my list of over 30 wellness campaign themes, please message me through LinkedIn. I would be happy to send it to you.

Jack W. Bruce, SPHR

  • Population Health
  • Employee Wellness & Wellbeing
  • Human Resources
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