What Does a Wellness Team Do?

ANATOMY OF A WELLNESS TEAM

The “Three Questions” Checklist:

1. What are the organization’s short-term and long-term strategic priorities?
2. What benefits can be expected from your wellness initiative and what is the potential value of health promotion to the organization?
3. What are the leadership styles, pressures, strengths and weaknesses of your senior level executives

Positioned for Success; There you have it. Three strategic questions that, if considered carefully, can help you to successfully engage your senior level managers in supporting a worksite health promotion initiative.

You may be thinking, “There has to be more to it than simply answering three questions!” And you are right — there is a lot more to it.

THE WELLNESS TEAM

You may have the most dynamic Wellness Coordinator on earth — a paragon of fitness and health, a great organizer and inspiring leader. But your goals are ambitious. You want to actually change people’s lives, and transform your company into a healthier place to work — meanwhile showing the top brass that wellness efforts can improve the bottom line.

How hard can it be? Think a minute. You know you should eat healthier and exercise more, right? But do you always? It’s tough to make those changes. It’s even harder to change the culture of a business whose main purpose seems to be unrelated to health. In fact, some people will think that health initiatives will hurt productivity. They imagine cubicles filled with relaxed employees taking naps instead of working.

The Lone Ranger approach may seem easier, but it just won’t work as well as creating a team. Believe it or not, you need people who are less healthy, more critical about costs, and who think differently than you to help you achieve your goals. Your company needs a wellness team!

ASSEMBLING THE WELLNESS TEAM

Appointments or Volunteers? It’s been debated whether team members should be appointed from the top down, or be volunteers who stand up to be counted. Each has its benefits.

Top-Down Appointments. When the CEO has charged certain people with the job of promoting wellness, it’s a powerful statement that the program is a priority. It’s likely that those chosen will want to report a mission accomplished. The team can spend its time on results instead of struggling for support from management. But it’s important that members have some genuine interest in health.

Volunteer Members. It’s impressive when busy people volunteer to help their coworkers get healthier. And you may find some great talents — a worker who used to teach aerobics, another who quit smoking after the eighth try, someone who has had heart surgery and has learned all about heart-healthy lifestyles. There’s a nice feel to volunteer groups, but be sure they include people from different levels and departments — and that they know they’ll be accountable for results.

How Should the Group be Lead? Effective teams have solid leadership. The team leader should be someone who understands the company’s strategic direction, and the wellness teams’ vision of a corporate culture, which better supports everyone’s health. In addition, the team leader should be someone who can integrate these two missions and talk about them persuasively to everyone from the newest employee to the CEO.

The leader should have a healthy lifestyle, be a good motivator and mentor, be able to work with a diverse group of people and acknowledge and support other’s efforts. He or she must be able to handle disputes calmly and reasonably; and, a good leader isn’t too shaken by setbacks, uncertainty, or confusion.

How Big Should the Group Be? 8-15 members is small enough to allow meaningful participation by each person, but large enough to include enough “heads” to generate lots of ideas and provide a variety of skills.

How Often Should the Team Meet? Teams will have “peak seasons” when they meet more often to gather data or plan major events. Thus scheduling will need to be flexible, but all teams should meet at least once each quarter.

WHO SHOULD BE ON THE TEAM?

You want employees from all sectors of the company who can envision how wellness (or the lack of it) affects different aspects of the business. You need people who can think strategically, make realistic plans and anticipate pitfalls — people who know where to look for support and where to anticipate resistance.

You also want a diverse group in terms of health. A smoker can give you realistic feedback on your smoking cessation program. Someone who’s overweight and doesn’t exercise can “tell it like it is” and help your team understand why some well-meaning plans may not work. And if that person supports your programs, it may inspire others.

Potential wellness team members:

1. Senior and mid-level managers
2. Front-line employees
3. Benefits managers
4. Employee Benefit Consultants
5. Union representatives
6. Human resources personnel
7. Marketing and communications directors
8. Safety coordinators
9. Information systems representatives
10. Health care representatives