Productivity, health care costs, and workplace resilience are big ROIs of workplace wellbeing. But they are also end-stage outcomes of highly effective wellbeing programs. To get here, companies need to reach a tipping point of employee engagement where lifestyle risks are being reduced and health improvements are being made. And to get there, companies would have needed to successfully cultivate a general sense of health ownership and wellness buy-in throughout the workplace. Yet still, every one of these complex, yet highly valuable, metrics are still lagging indicators.
So how do companies get to the leading indicators of wellness? And what are the topline quantitative metrics that predict all these desirable outcomes? Fortunately, there is peer-reviewed research and literature that breaks down behavior change and informs on what is generally accepted science among researchers, physicians, psychologists, and behaviorists. Our blog We’ve Got It Backwards discusses how measuring perceived health vs actual health can accelerate health improvement outcomes.
As it turns out, Just Do It is not one thing but two. Humans need to have both the confidence in our ability to change and place a high amount of importance on changing. Saying no to a glass of wine has to be more important than drinking the glass of wine, and we must have confidence in going out with friends and ordering cocktails for the duration of the evening. With multiple studies concluding the high value of confidence and importance in predicting behavior change, Wellvation’s use of Mayo Clinic’s Health Assessment question set and stratification model incorporate these metrics and segments employees from low to high likelihood to change. This information informs what types of resources Wellvation provides to individuals.
Some organizations think that employees lack the will to change. But our data shows the larger issue is that employees lack the skills to change. How fast employees adopt and maintain a new healthy behavior is less about an employee’s willingness and more about providing a rich, personalized experience to build skills and take action.
Wellvation’s wellbeing platform helps employers understand employees’ ability to change their behaviors and gain targeted opportunities to increase skills. In cases where readiness is low, Wellvation delivers content that communicates why change is important. In cases where readiness is high, Wellvation tees up opportunities for more immediate action such as an invitation to health coaching. Metrics inform on the workforce’s perception, readiness, engagement, and health changes.
The change process is predictable. Wellvation gives organizations a pathway to align perceptions and increase engagement to finally get to wellbeing ROI and workplace resilience.
To discover more on how leadership accelerates change, read Aligning Organizational Strategy and Culture.