How to Report Progress When You Don’t Have ROI Yet

Do you need ROI to demonstrate impact?

Author

Nicholas Layne
March 30, 2026

Welcome to the Well-being Wire, the bi-weekly newsletter focused on practical strategies and solutions that advance well-being in the workplace.

Many well-being leaders struggle with an important communication challenge.

How do you shift leadership conversations from participation metrics to risk reduction when you do not yet have a clear ROI?

The good news is that perfect ROI data is not required to change the conversation.

What leaders are really looking for is directional movement tied to the risks they care about.

Have you ever wanted to see how a well-being platform works, but didn’t want the sales team to follow up?

Propel would like to invite to our Anonymous Platform Preview, a 30-minute live session where we’ll explain Propel’s unique approach to well-being engagement.

You don’t have to register. You don’t have to sign in.

Just click on this link on Thursday, April 2nd at 12 pm ET, and you’ll join the session.

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Most well-being programs report surface-level metrics such as:

  • Platform registrations

  • Incentive completion rates

  • Challenge participation

  • Content engagement

These metrics are useful and necessary for program management.

However, they rarely capture leadership attention because they do not connect to what leaders are accountable for.

Senior leaders are constantly thinking about issues such as workforce stability, safety performance, health cost volatility, and productivity. Reporting needs to align with those priorities.

Instead of only reporting participation metrics, organizations can begin reporting indicators that suggest risk stabilization.

Examples include:

  • Changes in preventive screening participation

  • Engagement with musculoskeletal programs in high-injury divisions

  • Trends in absenteeism or turnover stability

  • Uptake of sleep or metabolic health resources among safety-critical roles

At this stage, the goal is not to claim savings.

The goal is to show that the program is moving in the direction of reduced exposure.

Directional indicators demonstrate that the organization is addressing risk factors that ultimately drive financial and operational outcomes.

When well-being is reported this way, it becomes aligned with the areas leaders are responsible for managing. This alignment changes the internal conversation.

Instead of being viewed as a participation initiative, well-being begins to look like infrastructure that stabilizes people risk.

And when leaders see a program connected to the problems they are responsible for solving, that is when attention increases and well-being programs begin to move from the margins of the organization toward the center of strategic decision-making.

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An example of a fully customized well-being portal designed by Propel

At Propel, we create made from scratch well-being platforms that are built to fit your brand, goals, voice, initiatives, and culture.

Propel partners with our clients by providing a dedicated team that works collaboratively on a weekly basis to develop a program plan, set metrics, create custom branded communication and marketing materials, plan and implement engagement initiatives, answer questions, and provide strategic advice.

From marketing and communication strategy and execution to well-being champions programming, we design your program (not ours).

If you believe there is value in a well-being program that truly integrates your organizational culture but need strategic guidance or a team to take the workload on for you, Propel would love to help. The easiest way to get started is by scheduling a strategy session with us to discuss your program.