You Can Keep Employee Wellness Participants Coming Back for More

You Can Keep Wellness Participants Coming Back For More. Presentation by Health Enhancement Systems

AndMany workplace wellness programs don’t make it any easier.

Changing health behaviors ingrained over years is tough. And many workplace wellness programs don’t make it any easier.

They put people to sleep…

They put people to sleep…

…with dry facts and

DO THIS!DON’T DO THAT!guidelines.

…with dry facts and Do This! Don’t Do That! guidlines

Recently, startup vendors have come on the scene promoting online social tools to engage participants in healthy behaviors.

Recently, startup vendors have come on the scene promoting online social tools to engage participants in healthy behaviors.

Ultimately, these tools rely on their users to generate interest and a sense of community.Ultimately, these tools rely on their users to generate interest and a sense of community.

This method can be quite effective in the first year.

But in year 2, participation drops off significantly…

…and in year 3, it’s a fraction of what was in year 1.

It’s not that the tools aren’t well designed…

…it’s that people get bored with the same thing.

When it becomes clear that bored participants become former participants…

…some vendors will pitch the idea that wellness managers have to pay people to engage.

They’ll set up elaborate point systems that reward participants with gift cards, cash, or premium discounts once they reach predetermined thresholds.

Unfortunately, people don’t change their health behaviors for money.

Although money is a nice perk, it doesn’t improve your bottom line or an employee’s quality of life.

So, if user-generated challenges and bribery don’t work for more than a year…

What does?

Three ideas:

Challenging goals.

Challenging goals. Why do big, challenging goals inspire?

“Succeeding at something hard is more pleasurable, gives greater satisfaction and happiness, and increases overall sense of well-being better than little accomplishments. And setting specific, challenging goals creates a cycle of success and happiness that can repeat – creating what Locke and Latham call the ‘high performance cycle.’” – Heidi Grant Halvorson, PhD

Fun themes.

Fun themes. Every wellness challenge we create has an interesting theme and compelling visuals – always with the opportunity to learn something beyond the health issue.

This is where wellness gets “unboring”: You can see your progress wrapped in a game show theme, travel adventure, or nostalgic trip back in time.

We put more energy into this aspect of our campaigns than anyone… and it shows – we get thousands of compliments from excited participants each year.

Social Connections

The world doesn’t need another Facebook, but if you’re attempting to change a health behavior, you sure can use the support of friends and family.

We’ve been creating workplace wellness challenges for more than 15 years based on these 3 ideas.

It’s not complicated. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

To keep people engages year after year until they have truly internalized healthy behaviors, you need to keep your wellness program fresh.

That means new challenges with new themes that participants can rally around every year.

It means giving them something to learn and do in a way that’ entertaining and reinforces their belief in their own ability to be successful.

That’s what we do.

So if you’d like to keep your wellness program from boring participants and losing them in year 2… or 3 or 10.

…we’re here to help.

We have 2-3 new challenging, fun, theme-based, socially supportive campaigns coming out every year to keep your participants interested and wanting more. Ola Ala, Passport, Make Some Tracks.

Check out our 13 online wellness campaigns today.

HealthEnhancementSystems.com800.326.2317

Thank you.