How to Motivate Employees to Participate in Wellness Programs?

Motivation. Everyone wants and thrives for it, but a few manage to find enough of it. However, whenever we find enough motivation, how frequently do we want to use those bursts of enthusiasm to improve our well-being and health?

It’s likely that you’re not the only one having issues in prioritizing your health and even resisting taking actions to improve it, and the same goes for your fellow colleagues as well. 

But what if you could change that and increase employee motivation and energize them to take action to improve their well-being?

It would not only save them money on health care but it would also result in more productivity and lower turnover for you.

So how would you inspire employees to come up with lifelong healthy habits? Consider incorporating these six effective and motivational methods into your overall health program strategy.

Engage Your Employees to Plan

If the majority of the employees are beginning their fitness adventure, booking health instructive sessions for the entire team can be very beneficial.

Regardless of how engaging the trainer or topic might be, if it is not something your team is interested in, they will not be driven at all to participate in these fitness sessions. This as a result might have a detrimental effect on their health and fitness.

Therefore, how can you be sure which topics employees wish to know about? You may begin by conducting surveys to dig into employee interest in a variety of wellness issues, while even inviting your employees to recommend more fitness topics. 

Moreover, you may even inquire about the feedback of these fitness sessions. 

Choose the Perfect Rewards

Just like not all employees share the same interests, even not all employees share the same motivations. However, every incentive falls into one of two categories:

• Intrinsic motivators— these are such motivations that come from inside, for instance, achieving something, or by making a difference in the community or organization.

• Extrinsic motivators— these are more like rewards such as raises and promotions.

Extrinsic motivators, like gift cards, cash rewards, and lower healthcare premiums, can be an excellent approach to instigate interest in these wellness initiatives.

However, it is also crucial for employees to feel proud of their achievements and to use that pride as a staircase for future success. 

Even managers should use this praise to acknowledge and congratulate those employees who achieve health goals—or can even make an exceptional effort to maintain motivation and promote future attempts.

Ensure Your Employees Clearly Understand the Program

If your employees are left to find out how this corporate wellness session works and the benefits they’ll be getting, it’s pretty likely they’ll be less motivated to join. 

So, to Increase employee motivation, conduct welcome sessions that explain the program’s purpose and how employees can optimize its value. 

You can even boost the employees just by demonstrating to them how to set specific, attainable goals and use program resources for their own betterment.

Regular communication can also increase motivation by educating employees about the program and the benefits of participation. 

Consider communicating beyond email—consider using text messaging, and posters to continuously remind them of these fitness sessions.

Peer Pressure Might be the Perfect Remedy

Peer pressure is often viewed negatively, but it can be a good thing especially when it comes to encouraging employees and coworkers for their own health and fitness. 

The reason is, it’s pretty easy to accomplish goals when working in a group rather than alone. This encourages employees to work for their health and wellness goals as part of a team. 

It’s not only motivating them to achieve something big, but it’s even strengthening them to work as a team to gain something in return, and in this case, better and well-functioning health.

Make it Easy and Accessible

If employees are incapable of participating in any wellness program activities due to health limitations or physical issues. In this case, their incentive to participate in the program is likely to dwindle. 

Rather than that, you can simply arrange many sessions at various times to allow all employees to attend the presentations of guest speakers, and provide employees with multiple opportunities to receive insurance premium savings or even program prizes.

Begin the Sessions with the Management

When managers take stretch breaks and do not reply to the emails on their weekends due to their wellness programs, then there are higher chances that the employees are also more likely to take time for themselves and become more active participants in these wellness programs. 

So, you can start encouraging your managers to start with these sessions, and sooner or later you’ll see that the employees are participating too. 

Bottom Line

Improving health and wellness is not a one-size-fits and neither should your workplace wellness program be. 

A well-executed wellness program requires something that motivates, engages, and inspires employees and management to grasp that knowledge into all aspects of the program. 

Moreover, it will motivate employees not only to participate but also to succeed. And this results in happier, healthier employees who are dedicated to providing you with their finest job.