A recent survey points to a disconnect about wellness program awareness. According to an article by Dan Cook in ProducersWeb.com – Best-kept secret: company wellness plan? – there’s a huge difference in awareness depending on who you ask:
“Following close on the heels of a Society for Human Resource Management study that showed 70 percent of employers said their workplaces have wellness plans, Brodeur Partners asked employees the same question.
The strategic communications firm found that 34 percent of employee respondents said their employer offered a wellness program.”
This echoes results from a Gallup survey that also found a gap between employer and employee awareness of wellness benefit availability. Why the big disconnect? Brodeur Partners CEO Andrea Coville says that either employers are failing to communicate the benefit or the plan is weak enough that employees don’t recognize it as a benefit.
Are employers doing such a poor job of communicating with and engaging employees when it comes to wellness?
We’ve found that frequent communication and persuasive messaging is critical to any successful employee health and wellness program. The TotalCare Wellness Automated Digital Communications (ADC) system is a cornerstone in our workplace wellness messaging. It enables high-frequency, targeted communications in various media formats that deal with health issues, promote TotalCare Wellness coaching and counseling services and highlight all aspects of the employee wellness benefit program.
If you offer a wellness program. you might test your employees’ awareness via a benefits survey. If you find awareness is low, increase your communications, use multiple communication channels and vary the message. Plus, we find that if wellness is a priority to your organization, the message needs to come from the corner office and needs to be championed by the senior management team. A wellness program is only as effective as employee engagement.