So you're thinking of putting in a wellness program in your company, or perhaps you have one already and you're wondering "is it worth the investment?"

The global corporate wellness industry is estimated to be a $65bill USD. industry be the end of 2024 and estimated growth of over $100bill by 2032 according to fortunebusinessinsights.com. It's a rapidly rising industry, that only seems to be growing in popularity and perhaps your business or workplace has considered putting in place (or already has) a wellness program.

But do they work?  No most of them don't, according to Dr. William Fleming of Oxford University's Wellbeing Research Center. His paper published in January 2024 in the Industrial Relations Journal looked at 46,336 employees' feedback on wellness programs, with 90 different programs being reported on.  Out of all the programs only one program (around volunteering and charitable works) appeared to work, with employees that participated in it. Two appeared to have negative effects (interestingly around the topics of stress and resilience) and the remaining 87 programs failed to deliver. 

Why Wellness Programs Fail To Deliver

Wo! That's some scary statistics.  So should you continue to invest in wellness programs? Of course you should! The wellbeing of your people is important. But to make them work there are other essential parameters needed and as leaders, you have the power to make sure these are in place. 

To make {wellness programs} work there are other essential parameters needed

Having facilitated and created programs over the past 10 years, I know there is more than just the program itself to ensure success. A program isn't the all-in-one solution for wellness. Without some of the other crucial elements put in place (which we will get to later), a program is usually just:

• A bandaid - covering up the real cause of say, stress and burnout.  

• An isolated and controlled environment that doesn't transfer to the real world.

• Or just a way to tick the "we care about our people" statement on a corporate mission.

A program isn't the all-in-one solution for wellness.

Let's take the example of a wellness program that is aimed at handling stress and building resilience (the two programs that "failed" and even had adverse effects to employees according to Dr. William Fleming). Most programs, look something like this:

• Teaching about the underlying causes of stress, what happens in the body and the mind, for example

• Teaching various tools and strategies for handling and preventing stress and building resilience

• Real-world applications and role-playing of tools

• Creating individual strategies for participants

• Community building involving those within the program

• Some might cover a little more digging of the underlying cause of stress - looking at beliefs, thought- and behaviour-patterns

• Some may cover your "why" - why do you want to do this program? Creating buy-in for the participant.

The Missing Piece For Success - The Environment

This looks really good on the surface, right? A program that offers this appears to have everything that you would need from a program to succeed. But it's proven to not be enough. This is because none of this takes into account the systemic changes that are needed to make these programs (and the participating employees) more likely to succeed in the real world. 

None of this takes into account the systemic changes that are needed to make these programs (and the participating employees) more likely to succeed in the real world. 

This is an example of a program being a band-aid.  Although they work on the individual (which I agree with as a first step - that is do the inner work and make individual change first), they fail to address the fact that most people are creatures of their environment. 

If the environment that your people work in, is not supportive of the changes they are trying to implement, most people will fail. For example, if my goal is to eat less chocolate, I can make environmental changes that suppport me in doing this.  This looks like me having only one small block of high quality chocolate in the house, so that I don't just smash an entire king-sized Whittakers block over a week. In controlling my environment, I'm more likely to succeed in my goal to eat less chocolate!

If the environment that your people work in, is not supportive... most people will fail.

How To Ensure More Success With Wellness Programs

In the same way, if the goal of a program is to reduce stress levels and build resilience, then the work environment needs to be supportive of this goal too. This means that environmental changes have to happen in:

• The Systems

• The Culture

• The Leadership

Systemic changes will be unique to each company but they could include things like reviewing workload (and reducing by hiring more talent, or better yet deciding what is essential for the goals of the company and stripping down to those alone) or allocating time in employees' work hours and incentivising their dedication to wellness, personal and spiritual growth.  A company may even consider giving employees the option to work from home once a week or every month. This hybrid model has proven to increase workplace satisfaction, less turnover and in some cases increased productivity by 4.8% (at worst, no change in productivity was found). 

Assessing the culture of your workplace, is necessary to understand the interpersonal dynamics, the unsaid rules and norms that have become part of the culture.  This assessment could include rigorous employee interviews (preferably done by an outside, impartial third party with anonymity guaranteed). As a leader, it could be simply taking some time to observe the culture in your company and identify what rules, norms and expectations, work against the goal of reducing employees' stress.

{Take} time to observe the culture in your company and identify what rules, norms and expectations, work against the goal of reducing employees' stress.

Once these are identified, a plan has to be actioned to implement change, that is aligned with your company's goals and the reduction of stress. Part of the plan should also include the implementation of practices in the workplace that create a culture that supports less stress. For more about creating a positive workplace culture, check out this post.

Lastly, the leadership team.  Leaders are hugely influential.  You are the "face" of the culture of the business, you are the role-model.  The leadership team needs to actively participate and implement (role model) what is learned in wellness programs, be the champions of the positive systemic changes and a positive workplace culture. In other words, you need to live and embody the tools and the company's "new way of being" (I dive into this more in this post). If your leadership team has someone not willing to be part of the systemic and cultural changes, it may be time to consider different talent or a change in roles.  So your leadership team needs buy in! They have to want to change and be part of the change. Do not underestimate the influence of someone labelled "leader". 

The leadership team needs to actively participate and implement (role model) what is learned in wellness programs and be the champions of the positive systemic changes and a positive workplace culture.

Now, ultimately it does come down to the individual. Your people need to buy in (I have a whole post about gaining support here) to the wellness program to start with, then the cultural and systemic changes. As they say, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

However there is a responsibility from businesses and their leadership try to create an environment, that removes barriers to success and therefore makes success is more likely.  It's well known that more happiness in the workplace leads to more productivity.  It pays to make wellness programs work. But don't just rely on the program itself. Put in place the necessary changes and you set your people up to succeed.

It pays to make wellness programs work. But don't just rely on the program itself. Put in place the necessary changes and you set your people up to succeed.

As always, I am here for your constant evolution.

Arohanui,

Nik Chung

ps. If you want more help with creating systemic and cultural changes that can support your existing wellness programs send me a private message on LinkedIn or email me on nicola@nikchung.com and let's chat! If you have yet to implement wellness programs, let me support you to choosing the right ones for your employees' needs and your priorities, including advice on necessary changes.

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