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How to Build Your Workplace Wellness Dream Team

Posted by Gretchen Knurr on January 30, 2018
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When creating a wellness program at your company, your wellness team members are of critical importance to the program’s success. The responsibility of running the wellness program cannot fall exclusively to the HR department. You need a dream team!

First, Collect Data

What most organizations do is create a committee that runs the wellness program. This committee functions as your dream team. They keep employees informed about all wellness program events and offerings and they analyze the data specific to your employees. This brings up an important point.

You should be collecting information from your employees to better assess the type of wellness program offerings they need and would be interested in. Things like personal health assessments that provide group data on the overall health of your employees, or workplace surveys that assess what is available to employees and what is lacking, can help to show the wellness team the primary areas of need and interest for your employees. By culling this data, you can refine the vision of your wellness program, creating one that employees will enjoy and that will benefit your company for years to come.

Responsibilities of the Wellness Committee

There are a few key responsibilities that your wellness committee should have, and these responsibilities should be outlined clearly before assembling the team. First, the wellness committee should serve as a communication liaison between employees and management. Well-designed workplace wellness programs should reinforce the company mission and values at every turn. Second, the committee should help create a sense of enthusiasm and excitement about the wellness program. This starts with them being passionate about their own personal health and wellness. Third, the committee should represent the needs and desires of employees to the management.

The wellness committee keeps employees and management informed about all things to do with the company wellness program—including updates, events, ideas, and concerns. 

Ultimately, each committee member becomes a wellness “champion” responsible for promoting the organization’s goal of keeping teammates and their families healthy. Keep your committee small enough to enable the members to have defined roles and clear communication within the committee—that flow will translate through their communication to the rest of the organization.

Assemble Your Dream Team 

Recruiting interested or prospective members should be done by letter or in person. Since the wellness committee has a lot of responsibility, especially in the area of communication, it is extremely important that you select members who are consistently reliable and are respected by their peers. They should be enthusiastic about helping their fellow employees to lead healthier lives. Once you have assembled your dream team, there should be someone selected to serve as the committee lead, or chairperson, and another to serve as the secretary—taking minutes at each of the meetings and distributing those to the rest of the group.

If possible, the committee should be made up of people from all levels of the organization and represent a cross-section of employees. This ensures your program has input and ideas from diverse perspectives so that you can understand and meet the needs of your workplace audience and continually improve your program. There is power in diversity, and you will gain the maximum benefit from your wellness dream team by having all facets of the organization represented well.

When your wellness dream team is functioning optimally, it will enhance the trust relationship between employer and employees and will help to achieve company wellness goals. Workplace wellness programs help employees feel like their leaders and employer genuinely care about them. Investing in their health and well-being makes people feel valued and that goes a long way. Your dream team will lead the way to making the best possible outcomes of your company wellness program a reality.

References

7 Keys to Building a Workplace Wellness Network
Gretchen Knurr

About The Author

Gretchen Knurr

After 5 years of working in higher education, Gretchen brings a fresh perspective to research-based content through freelance writing and editing. You can usually find her working in a coffee shop filled with natural light and easy access to a hot cappuccino. When she's not finding new insights into modern HR topics, she is probably hiking in the mountains of Colorado or re-watching The Office. 

Post Topics Workplace Wellness, Resources for Managers, Company Culture

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