Workplace Wellness Programs: they feel fun, but aren’t fun for everyone

 
Workplace Wellness Programs: they feel fun, but aren’t fun for everyone

I recently discovered the Maintenance Phase podcase and listed to the Wellness at Work episode.
I encourage you to listen to the episode to learn about the history of programs and how they are used in the US often to reduce insurance premiums. Honestly it’s a bit wild. I had a visceral reaction to the first minute learning about mandatory daily weigh-ins in front of all of your coworkers. I’m not talking about that here, instead I’ll share what I have learned with a focus on Canada of course.

Workplace wellness is probably one of the broadest terms in the employee benefits space and when an employer claims to have a wellness program it could be as simple as posters in the lunchroom to a complex strategy with goals, objects and an ROI. When you google the definition it’s just as wishy washy “Workplace wellness is essentially any workplace health promotion activity or organizations practice or policy designed to support healthy behaviours in your workplace”.

While well intentioned, I learned that wellness programs are often problematic and even harmful. Let me explain.

First, in a lot of cases, workplace wellness = surveillance. Think about the data being tracked - from your location to your activity and even your routine. Employees end up sharing private information about their life outside of work hours (that’s none of anyone’s business) during many classic wellness challenges.

Second, with fitness challenges like 10,000 steps, you’re asking employees to participate in workplace activity outside of work hours and your activities outside of work now play into they way you are assessed at work. This becomes even more problematic when you consider a huge number of people cannot participate in the challenge due to life responsibilities and that employee may be forced to share this private information they did not want to share with their boss or colleagues. For example, many people will not be able to or want to participate in the challenge for many reasons. Imagine someone working a second job, or someone living with a disability, or someone caring for an aging parent, someone caring for their children, someone in a long distance relationship, someone with a chronic condition. Imagine a colleague casually asking why you’re not participating in the challenge – “come on! It will be fun” they say – forcing the employee to reveal they have XYZ that doesn’t allow them to participate or be judged if they don’t reveal a sufficient “excuse” for not taking part.

Third, in a rewards-based program, selection bias is real. People who are already doing the activities are rewarded for behaviour they already do, and the program doesn’t encourage those who are not to begin these activities and participate.

Fourth, wellness programs may create and emphasize stigma. “Take the stairs when possible” seems innocent enough, but as the podcast says, “the idea that if fat people just took two flights of stairs they wouldn’t be fat is outrageous”. Obesity is after all a complex illness and we are learning not necessarily related to calories in, calories out. This also makes people feel bad for using the elevator and can drive bullying or a culture where people are judging each others health behaviours and how they look. 
Bonus – Wellness is often connected to being thin. But there is much more to a healthy body than weight and often one’s weight is not an indicator of their health.
 
It’s worth mentioning that it does seem like having some form of workplace wellness is worth it for employers. Year over year, the Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey finds that employees who have a wellness program at work are more likely to report their benefit plan as quality that the plan meets their needs. The survey also find that employees who view their benefit plan as quality, are more likely to be satisfied with their job.

What can you do to make your workplace wellness program feel fun AND be fun for everyone?

1. Make the wellness program voluntary and results private. This will help with the surveillance issues and disclosing of personal info.  
2. Make the wellness program inclusive – take a beat to think about your employee population. Do you have employees living with a known physical disability or other accommodation?
3. Consider that you will 100% have employees whose personal lives and struggles and background you know little to nothing about. Think about the many invisible chronic illnesses and invisible disabilities and be mindful of how what you put in place could make these employees feel.
4. Be mindful of those living with, or in recovery from an eating disorder or a chronic illness like Crohn’s, and IBS. Food based challenges can be triggering and exclusive for this employee population.
5. Focus on more than eating and moving as wellness is about a lot more than these two items. What about smoking cessation? Quitting drinking? Health screenings? Confidential health risk assessments? Mental health? Financial health?
6. Don’t discount the value of education. Bringing health experts in to share information on identifying symptoms of common chronic illness or other health topics (not related to food and weight) is a great component of a wellness program.
7. Be mindful that when you attach rewards for completing a health behaviour you may exclude people. For example, someone allergic to ingredients in the flu shot cannot receive the reward for getting the shot and again could force them to reveal personal medical information to their employer.

 
Updating Some classic employer wellness perks and benefits that employees value:

1. The pizza lunch – instead of ordering pizza for everyone, or sandwiches for everyone, choose a location with a variety of options and let people choose their meal.
2. Free food – nothing wrong with the free fruit basket and making it easy for employees to grab a healthy snack. Improve this by adding variety like cut up veggies to the mix.
3. The beer keg – it could be time to rethink having it. Now I love a good beer don’t get me wrong and the afterwork beer can help drive work friendships and culture. But the culture around drinking in Canada is problematic and we know the negative health impacts of even a small number of alcoholic beverages per week.
4. Flu shot clinics – ensure the space where the shot is being administered is private and that the sign up list is as well.
5. Massages at work – ensure that the massage space is private and employees are not penalised for having the massage during work hours.
6. Health Risk Assessment – again ensure that the results are confidential to the employee and that the assessment is more than BMI based.
7. Renovating? Build the office to naturally support what people are doing already in their life such as having bike storage, showers and lockers to encourage active commuting. Free coffee, tea and water. Quiet rooms, with the ability to change the lighting so people can have a nice break.
8. Share the various programs built into the benefit plan and how to access them.
9. Have flexible working hours and locations so that people are able to see their health practitioners in the 9:5.
10. Be mindful of time zones. Hosting a lunch session in Ontario but have employees in BC? Don’t call it lunchtime yoga, or a lunch and learn or a lunch and whatever. 

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