Why Your Employees Don't Care About Well-being

"Our employees don't care about well-being."

Is that true, or are you struggling to communicate the value of well-being?

There will always be hard to reach employees who "never want to do anything."

Everyone struggles with it, so it's time we became solution-oriented instead of using it as an excuse.

How do you motivate someone to do anything?

You have to communicate the VALUE of doing it.

Consider than the reason your harder to reach employees may not be engaging is because you haven't given them a good enough reason to engage. Or if you believe you have, maybe you weren’t able to put it into the right words that helped them see how valuable your programming is.

There are three elements to this value communication:

• Relevancy

• Reward

• Resonance

Relevancy

This is the obvious one. People will not engage if they believe the initiative isn't relevant to them.

You may respond emphatically, saying, “but it IS relevant to them!"

That may be, but you have to show them by framing it in terms of their interests and goals. If there is no direct tie between what their goals are and the benefits you are communicating, they will not see value.

It’s crucial to understand what they want, who they are, what they struggle with, and frame the initiative communication towards those things. We recommend you try out an “employee persona” exercise.

Take time to create three employee personas from your population. One might be a salaried office worker in their forties, another might be an hourly delivery worker in their thirties, and another might be an executive in their fifties.

Write out a description of your personas, what they are concerned about, what goals they may have, and so on. You can even give each persona a name. Really have fun with this!

As you create your well-being program initiatives, keep each of these personas in mind. Ask yourself, “how would X perceive this? What would they find valuable?”

This will help you communicate value more clearly.

Reward

Your employees need to know they will be rewarded for participating. Not necessarily with a monetary reward, but with something they care about.

People are after health, wealth, and relationships. Pick the most relevant (see point 1) and explicitly state how an employee walks away "richer" than when they arrived.

Here’s how this might look.

For an office worker in her forties, a stress management initiative might help her:

• Improve her daily fatigue and reduce tension in her body as she learns to cope with stress (health)

• Provide clarity of mind as she learns mindfulness strategies that improve her efficiency and unlock new levels of productivity, potentially leading to a promotion or annual bonus (wealth)

• Allow her to connect on a deeper level with other colleagues who struggle with managing stress (relationships/belonging)

As you can see, none of the above promised a financial incentive for participating. All of the rewards could be found in the value of the initiative.

Resonance

We make decisions with our hearts, then justify with our minds.

Appeal to the heart and show why the initiative will benefit someone emotionally.

Maybe they get to have more heartfelt moments with their grandkids because they took care of their physical health.

Maybe they get to realize their lifelong dream because they achieved their financial goals.

Good well-being programming provides evidence-based justifications for healthier living.

Great well-being programming does this and connects with the participant on an emotional level.

If this was relevant, valuable, and resonates with you, maybe it’s time we connected.

Propel works with all of our clients to design custom communication and program marketing materials (at no cost) that deliver all three of these. If this is an area of your program that you feel you’d like more help in, we’d love to chat.

Schedule a strategy session with us to go deeper.

Implications for the well-being administrator:

• The level at which your employees engage is tied to how they perceive value within your well-being program.

• It’s important to know your employees’ goals, interests, and preferences to ensure you communicate the correct value to them.

• When you create well-being program communication, ensure it is relevant, clearly states the rewards of participating, and resonates with employees.

If you like this content, share it with other well-being administrators.

We’re committed to discussing challenges common to well-being leaders and presenting practical solutions that increase the wisdom of all well-being professionals.