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For company's who offer only minimal workplace wellness programming, a new report offers clear guidance: You may want to do more, as your employees' expectations are high.

Workplace Insights writes that “employers’ efforts in the US to improve staff health and wellbeing are falling short of employees’ expectations.”

The post highlights a report from Willis Towers Watson, which finds that “nearly two-thirds of employees (65 percent)… agree that managing their health is a top priority.” However, “while the majority of employers (56 percent) believe their wellbeing programmes have encouraged employees to live a healthier lifestyle, only 32 percent of employees agree.”

Employee Engagement Helps Expectations

Employee engagement is an important part of ensuring a well-run workplace wellness program is effective.

We have noted a study that indicates that effective communication may make a significant difference in driving engagement in a well-run workplace wellness program. The study is titled “Let’s work out: communication in workplace wellness programs” and was published in the International Journal of Workplace Health Management.

The study notes that “people spend a lot of time communicating with their co-workers each day; however, research has yet to explore how colleagues influence each other’s health behaviors. The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between health-related communication and health behaviors among co-workers in a workplace wellness program.”

Why does this matter?

According to Workplace Insight, 87 percent of employers who took the survey “say increasing employee engagement in health and well-being is a top priority.” Further, “the research warns that employees in poor health are twice as likely to be disengaged at work and take almost three times as many days off as employees who are in very good health.”

The piece adds guidance that employees who participate in a well-run program may well know already: “Employers can improve health behaviour through designing the workplace environment to make it easier for employees to stay fit, eat well, breathe fresh air and address stress adds the report.”