Speaker 1: In this video, we're going to talk about implementing a wellness program. In another episode, we talk about the components of a wellness program. This time, we're going to talk about how to make it happen. That's coming up right now. Hi there, I'm Andrea Adams, and I am the host of the HR Hub. This is a rebrand of HR Shop Talk, but we're still going to talk about all the same HR stuff. I encourage you to subscribe to the show or podcast to keep learning from my smart and insightful guests. Today, my guest is, again, Reena Vukone. Reena is a mom, a former Google employee. She's a burnout survivor, and she's the author of The Wellness Empowered Woman. Currently, she consults to organizations on wellness, and she's the founder of a company herself called PassionFit, which does wellness programs and helps organizations with their wellness programs. Hi, Reena. How are you? I'm doing well, Andrea. Thank you so much for having me today. Well, thank you for coming on again, and we're going to talk about implementation this time. Very practical. We talked about last time a lot of the components and the basics of a wellness program, but this one, we're going to talk about implementation. If someone is implementing or thinking about implementing their wellness program, what are some key considerations?

Speaker 2: Yes, that's a great question. I would say the first thing is to obviously make sure that you either set aside a budget of some sort, or perhaps you might be moving your budget around from other areas that you were focusing on. It's looking at your overall priorities and figuring out where you need to emphasize more, where you might need to de-emphasize, and then figure out where you can allocate budget, because that's going to be important so you can make a proper investment. Second thing I would say is to make sure that you have buy-in from your senior leadership team, and that not only involves the HR organization, but probably involves your finance organization and others that are in the C-level roles, because really, a wellness program does need to have support from the top down in order to be successful. Otherwise, employees probably won't feel comfortable participating, and even before that, you may not get the right investments if the leadership team is not invested. So I would say start with budget, start with buy-in from the right leaders, and then you can figure out what to do next.

Speaker 1: Okay, I have questions about both of those. Budget. Are there any rules of thumb about budget? For every employee, you should budget between A and B amounts of money?

Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great question, and I think it's a tough one to answer, because depending on the size of your organization and the number of employees you have, the cost per employee is going to differ, right? And so I think looking at maybe how much you are already spending in health care costs for employees, are you allocating reimbursements for different types of memberships or other services, and then figuring out, okay, what is that cost per employee, and how much more can we add on to that, or do we replace certain things? So that's something that I think each organization is going to have to answer for themselves. I don't want to give a specific number, because I think, you know, an organization that's over 10,000 employees versus one that has 200 to 500 employees are going to have very different budgets and costs per employee.

Speaker 1: I mean, I was hopeful, but you know, it's not surprising. Okay, next question. You can say all the right things about it, and will say all the right things about it, but then you just go about your regular old job. What is buy-in? Once we're past the words of, oh, that's such a great idea, what does buy-in actually look like in action?

Speaker 2: Yes, I think it really involves, you know, having leaders that maybe already prioritize their own wellness, and I'm not saying you have to change your hiring practices or replace people or anything like that, but I do think, you know, the type of lifestyle that a leader leads will often have, you know, some sort of an impact on whether they buy into a program around wellness or not. I've, again, worked with a lot of different organizations, and oftentimes if I see, let's say, a CFO who is a key decision-maker, especially when it comes to the budget and the investment, and that person, let's say, you know, runs 10K races or half marathons, is very much into healthy eating and, you know, brings that with them every day to work, and you clearly see that, you know, my guess is that that person is probably going to be more open and, you know, into buying into a program compared to somebody who really doesn't, you know, have those activities in their lives. Maybe they work around the clock, and, you know, they're, you know, expecting their employees to be answering emails at 2 a.m. You might have a little bit of an uphill battle there, so I think it's looking at individuals and what they value and figuring out, one, if they already value it, then great, hopefully you can, you know, have a good conversation and you can get them on board. If they don't naturally have that focus in their life, I think it's important to, you know, have those conversations too and say, you know, we need to create a healthy workplace culture and it does start from leadership, so how can we all, you know, I don't think you should single anybody out, but how can we all as a leadership team, you know, practice, you know, healthy lifestyle behaviors, making sure people know they don't have to answer an email at 2 in the morning and that they should be able to take out some time for, you know, exercise or their families and things like that. It's not meant to make anybody feel bad because everybody is in different life situations, but to really look at who might be a good advocate for it and who might be a little bit more of a challenge to convince.

Speaker 1: Have you had any successes, you know, convincing somebody?

Speaker 2: Yeah, I have had successes convincing organizations and I think part of it is to do your homework and do your research and understand the culture of that company and really understand what their mission is and how can you tie a wellness program to the culture and the mission. So that's the first thing. It's also, you know, trying to take stock of their employee base and, you know, what they value and some of that will come from asking people on the inside, you know, tell me more about your employees, your culture, what are the types of, you know, programs that you currently have, what's worked, what's not, and then figure out where something new could come into the mix and either align with programs and initiatives the company already has or maybe a full, you know, overhaul and a reboot and need to do things very differently. So I think it's being very customizable in your approach because every company, as I mentioned, is different, every employee is different, so you have to really look at it with a fresh perspective and come in there wanting to create solutions, not just putting a fancy wellness program together that looks good on the outside, but that's truly going to help the workforce.

Speaker 1: You just mentioned helping the workforce. How should we help or how should we ask the workforce to be involved in creating this wellness program?

Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great question. And you, in some ways, sort of answered it by saying, asking the workforce to be involved. I think the more you can not only get leadership buy-in, but employee buy-in as well, the more success you're going to have because as much as there are leaders that might be skeptical of wellness programs, there are employees and teams that are as well, and I've faced that directly in my work in corporate wellness as well. So it's trying to find out what motivates people intrinsically. What are the types of activities that they would enjoy? What are the things that they just hate and they don't want to do or conversations that they don't want to have in the workplace? Because I think one thing to keep in mind is when it comes to people's health and well-being, for some, they can be very open about it and openly talk about it and discuss it even with their colleagues and managers. And other people feel very vulnerable to do that because it is such a personal thing for each individual. So I think it's also creating programs and thinking about where can we offer one-on-one support? Where can we offer group support? And how can we be empathetic and inclusive and make everybody feel that there's something that's for them? And it's hard to please everybody. It's hard to have a blanket approach. So I think it's really thinking through those nuances and figuring out how you can maybe create a menu of options that people can pick and choose from that's going to work for them. Because again, wellness is tricky and it is something that's sensitive for a lot of people.

Speaker 1: So we want to involve employees, but who should be responsible for it? Who keeps it going? Who decides what's in and out? What does the optimal oversight, ongoing oversight for a wellness program look like?

Speaker 2: Yes. In terms of who can be involved, I mean, there are a lot of different groups within an organization that ultimately might fall under the HR umbrellas we were talking about on the last episode that could include people in employee benefits, that could include people in total rewards or people operations. I've started to work with organizations where they literally have a team called the culture team, and their job is to focus on the company culture. And so depending on the size of the organization, they may have all of those groups and more, or they may have something that just more generally fits under HR. But I think leaders within any of those groups would probably be the best candidates to oversee a program like this when it comes to corporate wellness. Obviously, you're going to need sponsorship for the program. So that usually does come from the finance organization, but then it could be partnering with outside vendors who have an expertise in that area and can really help to guide and consult with them to figure out how to make the program work. And then as always, you do want to get employee feedback because taking an approach where you're guessing on what they need probably isn't going to result in a successful program, but really getting to the heart of where we see trends. If we're seeing that 75% of our workforce is saying in a survey that they're burnt out, that's a huge problem, right? If people are feeling like there's no work-life balance, and there's a lot of uncertainty in the company, that type of thing, or they're not happy with their management team. It's important to pay attention to those things because sometimes it's not just about their health, but it's about how the organization and the current setup affects their health because of stress.

Speaker 1: Yeah. So those things, you talk about those things, those are like fundamentals of the workplace, but they really aren't part of a wellness program and a wellness team. Can you reflect a little bit on the overlap between some of these things that really are wellness things like the gyms, the memberships, versus those other key workplace factors that are driving wellness, but aren't typically part of a wellness program?

Speaker 2: Right. And honestly, I do think that the term wellness, right, and health and wellness of an organization or of an employee has broadened. And even in my conversations directly with companies, they'll even say that, like, we don't want to just do, you know, step challenges and a healthy nutrition luncheon and they actually want to move beyond that as well. I think those things are important. They are tools and lifestyle behaviors that can help people perform at their best when they feel well, they sleep well, eat well, move well. But at the same time, it is important to think about those other elements that also involve things like employee engagement, right, and culture and retention and productivity. And that does kind of get into the nitty gritty of the workplace and team dynamics and manager relationships. And even, you know, I'm also trained in employee, not only wellbeing, but also professional strengths based coaching from Gallup. And I don't know if you've heard of CliftonStrengths, but, you know, there's a lot of research that shows that if people are in jobs that allow them to use their strengths and their talents and their skills, they're also going to be happier and healthier as employees. So you also want to look at those types of things, right? It's the physical and the mental health, but are they happy at work every day because they're actually using skills that, you know, that are strong for them and they're in jobs that fit their passions and their goals and, you know, that type of thing. So a wellness program is becoming broader, and I know that makes it even more complex and even more difficult, right? Your head almost explodes thinking about all of it, but it is all interrelated. And again, it takes probably, you know, a lot of different leaders and, you know, consultants and vendors to figure out how to pull that all together. I'm not saying it's easy, but I think it's necessary.

Speaker 1: I imagine that organizations are doing each of those pieces differently, you know, where they're bringing it together differently and under different parts of the organization. What are you seeing that works?

Speaker 2: So I think it's looking at all of those different elements, and it probably is going to involve cross-functional team collaboration and work, and that's the only way it can work, right? Because everybody does have different specialties and different focuses, but it does all kind of come together when you look at the overall health and wellbeing of the company, right? And the people that make up the company, and some of it gets into, like we were talking about in the first episode, the whole person, you know, how you feel, how you function, how are you mentally, how are you physically, even emotionally, socially, financially, and then also how are you in the job and within the team, and, you know, how does that fit into the larger organizational culture and mission and goals? So I think it's getting those teams together and focusing on, you know, creating robust programs that address those things, but in different ways. It's not just going to be one sort of straight path. It's probably going to have different options and different things that people will get to choose from. There'll be different incentives. There'll be different, you know, rewards for things, but it should hopefully all feel seamlessly put together, starting maybe from the inside out. So working with the person on their actual health, physical and mental, right? And then the other elements of health and wellbeing, because there are so many different social determinants of health, right? We think of career health, financial health, mental health, physical health, emotional health, and there's different elements of that that are in the workplace because we spend so much of our time working. It's a huge part of everyone's life. And so to ignore those things and try to keep them separate would be a missed opportunity to really bring out the best in people as well as your organization.

Speaker 1: Um, ROI, how should we measure the effectiveness of a wellness program when there are so many determinants, most of which we don't have control over, um, over, you know, the wellness of our employees?

Speaker 2: Right. I mean, the ROI piece, it is tricky and it isn't like a one-to-one ratio of you do this and you get that right. What we can do is look at first and foremost, okay, how much do we want to spend on a monthly basis on an quarterly or annual basis? What does that cost look like per employee? I know you asked me that earlier. And as I mentioned, it's a tough question to answer, but every organization can maybe look at their threshold of how much they are willing to spend on a per employee basis for some kind of a program like this. And then it's measuring how, okay, if we put together a workshop or we've put together some sort of a community focused ongoing event or coaching or other things, are we seeing a good percentage of our employee base participating and is that growing over time? And are people then, um, you know, giving feedback on how it's helping them in working and then, yeah, you can look at things like, as we talked about before, sick days and reduction in healthcare costs and medical costs. Yes, there's probably a lot of factors that could be impacting those things, but, you know, hopefully you could see some sort of, uh, you know, an impact from the wellness program. You know, if you're seeing, okay, we implemented this wellness program six months ago, nine months ago, 12 months ago. And in that time, we've seen a decrease. There probably is some sort of correlation, right? Right. So the best way to, to look at ROI is knowing it's not going to be an exact science, but you can put some parameters in place so that you have data and you have both qualitative and quantitative to really measure the effectiveness of the program. And then also figure out, you know, what you need to do differently. And if you're using a technology platform, even better because then it's a direct access to data.

Speaker 1: Right. I think that people analytics, uh, you could put them to work on this if they didn't have, you know, 10,000 other things that they were supposed to be working on. But I, I think it could shed a lot of light on this. Uh, what are some common obstacles in creating and running a wellness program?

Speaker 2: Yeah, there can be definitely obstacles and some of them involve, you know, budget constraints, you know, leadership, buy-in employee, buy-in, um, the company culture, maybe not making employees feel comfortable taking part in wellness programs, um, often competing priorities. That's one that I often hear, you know, we have other priorities, other initiatives in the company that truly affect our bottom line. We need to focus on that. We don't have the resources or the time or the budget to invest in a wellness program. So those are some of the main ones that I often hear. And I think, you know, if we are faced with those types of challenges with organizations, it's important to kind of ask a lot of questions and figure out, okay, what are your priorities and what are your challenges and where are you investing your money? And, you know, do you think that there could be a need for a wellness program to help you with some of those other initiatives that you're having? Because I have to believe that in this day and age with how much people are suffering from burnout and lack of work-life balance and anxiety and other things that, you know, I feel like how can you ignore those things, right? As an organization are focused on them in some way. And if you're not prioritizing them, I think it's important to ask why and to figure out how, you know, amidst everything else that an organization absolutely needs to focus on how can this also fit in there and become part of the priority. And again, it's something that's not going to happen overnight. You can't change a company culture overnight. You can't change priorities and budgets that are maybe set overnight. But I think asking questions and really getting into the bottom of the health of the company and the workplace can help figure out where a wellness program might make the most sense and when and how and why and all of that.

Speaker 1: All right. Final question here. Where can people learn more about implementing wellness programs?

Speaker 2: So I think it's, you know, looking inside the organization, maybe looking at different companies out there that offer solutions. It's, you know, reading about the trends in health and wellness earlier. And I hate to use the word trends, but the latest developments, the latest research to see what's happening. And not only health and wellness, but workplace culture as well. And what's happening in the workplace. My company, PassionFit, offers corporate wellness programs. And that's really our focus is to create customizable programs that are culture-based, values-based, peoples-based and really can help, you know, to educate, but also create long-term behavior change and a supportive network and community. And that's the type of thing you might want to look for.

Speaker 1: You speak about your company. I have an audience, most of whom are somewhere in the United States or Canada. How can you help? Like, you know, if you were needed to go, somebody hired you from Toronto, like you aren't going to know who's delivering whatever services in Toronto. How do you handle that?

Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think in this day and age, especially after the pandemic, with so much of a hybrid approach to everything, right? To work, to healthcare, to, you know, health and wellness services. My company is hybrid. So I work with global companies who have employees all over the world. And, you know, part of making sure that a program can be effective is to be able to have that mix of virtual resources that people can tune in from anywhere. They can get access to resources from anywhere, but then wherever you can, you know, create some in-person engagements and events and things as well so that you can create that culture within that office or that geographic location as well. So I think it's something that does have to have a hybrid approach, knowing that, as you said, your listeners are in Canada, in the US. So, you know, not everybody is in one place and being able to reach people regardless of where they are. And I think that's something every company has to think about because so much of their workforce is spread out nationally and globally as it is and even more so after the pandemic.

Speaker 1: And this is not to say there are a lot of people tuning in from outside the US and Canada. However, the majority are in North America. Thanks, Reena. That was helpful and made me think about how we can incorporate wellness into our organizations in an authentic and meaningful way rather than, as we talked about in another episode, just getting on the bandwagon. I have done other episodes on wellness, at least in a digital sense, and the link to that's right here. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.