As more companies prioritize employee wellbeing and the employee experience, they start to think about a wellness program. It’s not as easy as hiring a yoga instructor, but maybe you could start there?

I spoke with Reena Vokoun (again). She’s the owner of Passion Fit which works with employers to build meaningful wellness programs. She also wrote The Wellness Empowered Woman. Here are a few of Reena’s tips to keep in mind as you develop your program:

Make sure you have the money and support before you start.

Consider how to offer individualized content: Not all employees have the same needs when it comes to wellness. Consider offering one-on-one in addition fitness classes, nutrition coaching, and mental health resources.

Wellness programs don’t replace healthy workplaces like reasonable workloads and supportive management.

Recognize the social determinants of health and do what you can: Health is impacted by factors beyond individual behaviors, such as access to healthy food, education, and healthcare among others.

Involve employees in developing their programs: They are the experts on their own wellness needs.

Reena can be found through her company, Passion Fit, at https://passionfit.com/

Andrea is an HR consultant and can be found through www.thehrhub.ca

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Employee wellness programs are nearly a required feature of employer value propositions. However, designing a cost-effective, meaningful program that provides value to employees AND the employer is challenging.

This was the focus of my chat with Reena Vokoun. She’s the owner of Passion Fit which works with employers to build meaningful wellness programs. She also wrote The Wellness Empowered Woman.

Some of her key points:

Timeless but Flexible: A wellness program should be designed to stand the test of time, but still be flexible enough to accommodate the changing needs and interests of employees. Broader societal changes will impact the health of employees and what you might want to include.

Aligned with Corporate Values and Culture: A wellness program should align with the company’s values and culture so it reinforces your direction.

Aligned with Employee Needs: You must have input from employees themselves to ensure the program fits them. Involve employees in the program’s design, implementation, and maintenance.

Measuring Success: Like many parts of HR, measuring success can be challenging because it’s people. However there are several, relevant metrics like participation rates, satisfaction, attendance, and health plan usage. It will take time to see the impact.

Reena can be found through her company, Passion Fit, at https://passionfit.com/.

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Think about your favourite online escape.

Is it making you happy?

Connecting with people is overwhelmingly shown to create happiness. That doesn’t really happen when we are spending more and more time online. And, if we’re honest, so much is a total waste.

Digital wellness in the workplace is becoming an increasingly important aspect of wellness. As we spend more and more time on our devices, it’s helping drive burn out, stress, and anxiety. Obviously this will have a negative impact on the well-being and productivity of workplaces.

The first of my guests, Daniel Sih and author of Spacemaker, has been invited to speak at TedX and his ‘idea worth sharing’ is that we need to manage our use of tech. He laughs, a little amazed, because most of us remember a life before this level of tech and yet we have become so dependent so fast. And now it’s an idea worth sharing. Elissa Lok, my second guest and HR Consultant, helped Daniel develop a Spacemaker course and reflects on the impact in organizations.

Some other ideas:

Boredom is not bad even if we do anything to avoid it. In fact, a lot of creativity happens when we are bored. When we give ourselves time to be unplugged and disconnected from technology, we allow ourselves to have new ideas, and think more critically. It’s hard to underestimate how valuable that is.

Our tech is powerful and useful – and addictive. Addiction can be defined as the repeated use of something even though it causes substantial harm. Of course the irony of this topic and how I am delivering it is obvious.

Steve Jobs didn’t let his kids use ipads or iphones.

The relationship between tech and productivity is an inverted U curve.

If employers are interested in employee productivity and wellbeing, they should investigate digital wellbeing. It’s the right thing to do do, but there is also tremendous benefit to the workplace, to ourselves and our humanity.

Spacemakers: How to Unplug, Unwind, and Think Clearly in the Digital Age

You can find more about Daniel and Spacemakers on www.spacemakers.com.

You can find Elissa Lok for Spacemaker or Email Ninja training in North America at elissa@spacemakers.com.au

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