Wellbeing programmes needs to be relevant to employees and incorporate strong performance metrics according to new research from Aon Employee Benefits. Employers also need to communicate wellbeing programmes in ways that best attract employees’ attention, including through the use of multimedia.
However, Aon Employee Benefits warns against relying on email to communicate wellness initiatives as this may be a false economy. Web tools, using an existing flexible benefits web site, employee surveys, fitness checks, health apps and seminars are all useful ways of engaging employees with a programme, but line manager training and buy-in is critical, the research concludes.
Some wellbeing initiatives founder because of insufficient investment, making it vital for sponsors to demonstrate a return-on-investment, for example, through absence reduction, better employee engagement scores, lower staff turnover and increased productivity. However, senior leadership needs to be made aware that wellbeing interventions may take at least 12 months to start having an impact on these indicators.
Martha How, principal at Aon Employee Benefits, said:
‘Much of the research indicates that to achieve better health and retirement provision, employees need to change their behaviour. Despite all the publicity, employees in the main are not paying sufficient attention to health and savings. However, employers have a vested business interest in employee health as there are clear business benefits arising from this and there are steps they can take to address growing employee financial and medical health outcomes.’