People & Strategy Winter 2015 Vol. 38 Issue 1 - 32

Incentives can also play an important role in
motivating employees to participate in these
initiatives. Globally, more than 50 percent of
employees report incentives would encourage them to participate in an employersponsored activity. Financial incentives to
encourage healthy behaviors are used primarily in the U.S. But there is a growing recognition that external incentives may not be
enough. Consequently, some organizations
are shifting their focus to more intrinsic values of health and wellness.
It is also critical for employers to communicate their health and wellness strategy using
consistent messaging via a combination of
high-touch (e.g., in-person meetings) and
high-tech (e.g., social media apps, web tactics). They should target their communications to a segment of "persuadable"
employees. This segment may be skeptical
about the initiatives offered, but can be persuaded if compelling reasons are offered.
various employee programs, they do not have
a formally articulated health and productivity strategy aligned to business priorities. In
fact, only 10 percent to 15 percent of organizations in each market have an articulated
health and wellness strategy with stated
objectives and goals.
However, most employers recognize the
importance of capturing this missed opportunity and plan to do so. Consistent with this
recognition is a key theme echoed across all
markets: the need to create a workplace culture of health. Said succinctly: culture beats
scheme. Unless you get the culture right, even
the cleverest designs will have a limited
chance of success.
To develop an effective health and productivity strategy that will drive such a culture,
senior leaders and HR staff must understand
and address the challenges they face on their
journey. The most important actions fall into
two categories: improving employee engagement in wellness programs and upgrading the
behaviors and actions of managers and executive leaders. HR plays a central role in the
development and management of initiatives
that drive wellness engagement and improve
leader and manager effectiveness.

PEOPLE & STRATEGY

Improving Wellness
Engagement

Overcoming Employee
Resistance

Employers striving to develop and implement
a coherent health and wellness strategy
should start by understanding what employees value. Because health and well-being is a
personal issue, many organizations use
employee opinion surveys and consumer
marketing techniques to segment their
employee population to better understand
the needs, preferences, and values of different
employee groups. Using this knowledge, they
can then establish program strategies and
priorities, implement different program elements, measure their progress, and modify
program elements based on those results to
drive sustainable change.

Employees have different attitudes about
their employer's role in their health and
well-being. Targeting employees that are
more receptive to employer involvement will
lead to better outcomes. To help employers
better understand their employees, we have
identified three types of employees based on
their attitudes to employer-sponsored health
and wellness initiatives as reported in our
Global Benefits Attitude Survey.

What are some specific tactics that employers can use to improve participation in
health and productivity programs? Employers with leading health and productivity
programs in the U.S. look for ways to connect with employees in the workplace by
sponsoring competitions between employee
groups and worksites as well as tapping into
the emerging social media by sponsoring
affinity groups and promoting the use of
mobile apps to complement health and wellness programs.

* On board. These employees support the
role of the employer in encouraging
health and willingly participate in
employer initiatives (globally 25 percent
of employee populations).
* Persuadable. Employees in this group are
skeptical about the well-being initiatives
offered, but can be persuaded given suitable circumstances (56 percent of all
employees).
* Resistant. These employees are not supportive of employers having a role in
their health and well-being (19 percent of
employees).

People & Strategy Winter 2015 Vol. 38 Issue 1

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of People & Strategy Winter 2015 Vol. 38 Issue 1