Quick Summary: Most wellness programs try to improve overall employee health by focusing on the individual, but it’s hard to get people to change their health habits. Steal a behavioral change concept and consider first changing the environment. Altering the environment is like making water available to the proverbial horse. If there is no water,…
Quick Summary: An eat-well/live-well program that translates into weight loss is a smart way for employers to show employees that the most important company asset is its people. And how people feel—their overall wellness—has a big impact on the bottom line, according to Maggie Lehnert, who handles corporate wellness for TOPS (Taking Off Pounds Sensibly).…
Quick Summary: Through corporate mentoring programs, protégés gain career guidance by interacting with experienced people, using them as sounding boards for business ideas and problem-solving. HR directors and wellness managers can “steal” a page from corporate mentoring plans (which help firms attract, develop, and retain talented workers) and apply the concept to employee health and…
Quick Summary: Blogging about HR topics—including information about employee benefits, health care plans, and wellness programs—is one way to reach employees more frequently and effectively. Why should you start a blog? The idea of starting a blog is usually met with a simple question: “Why?” The benefits presented along the right column of the table…
Quick Summary: Want more employees to tell you what they like and loathe? Surveying them online can generate immediate, powerful, anonymous feedback that fuels your programming and benefits decisions Your employees will respond to online surveys more often if you avoid these common mistakes. 1. Don’t begin before setting objectives. Before considering questions to ask…
Quick Summary: Catch phrases such as “I understand” and “I’m sorry” are a barrier to sound communication in the workplace. You’ve heard these phrases. Maybe you say them yourself. Learn what you’re really saying and how to say what you really mean. Think about the times you’ve heard someone say “I’m sorry” so insincerely, you…
Quick Summary: You’ve just finished a dazzling presentation on benefits and launched into a question-and-answer session. The room is silent. You assume your talk was thorough, right? Wrong! Here’s how to prepare for a meaningful Q & A session. Human resources managers often spend days preparing for company-wide meetings to present benefits materials. But the…
Quick Summary: Do the 20-somethings in your workforce seem too busy thumbing text messages on their smart phones and updating their Facebook status to focus on important company communications? Learn to speak their language to convey your messages. Millennial employees were born between 1980 and 2000. They were born connected. According to Claire Raines, author…
Quick Summary: There are plenty of reasons that stress has spiked. But stressed employees can lack focus and energy, causing absenteeism to rise and productivity to fall. Although you can’t change the situation, you can offer suggestions on how workers can learn to strike a better work-life balance. First, look at the benefits and programs…
Quick Summary: Millennials, the children of Baby Boomers, are significantly different from previous generations in many ways. These differences can present both challenges and opportunities for those trying to communicate with them. If your organization doesn’t yet employ millennials in large numbers, you soon will. Born from about 1980 to the mid-1990s, this group is…