The wellness world appears to be shifting from doing wellness to employees to doing wellness for employees, the latter often referred to as a “culture of health” approach.
Stanford University’s Emma Seppälä, PHD, writing “Good Bosses Create More Wellness than Wellness Plans Do” in Harvard Business Review, draws a bright-line distinction between the two approaches. Her first paragraph:
"In the name of employee wellness, and in response to insurance company demands, corporations are offering well-being initiatives with financial incentives. Complete this cholesterol screening, say, and you’ll get $100 added to your paycheck; participate in some number of wellness programs, and you’ll receive another bonus. In this quest to increase employee wellness, however, organizations are often unwittingly making things worse. Is it any surprise that initial studies on wellness programs are showing they don’t lead to any visible results?"
These programs “can actually cause more stress,” she writes. Ms. Seppala advocates a Dee Edington-type “culture of health,” starting with the work environment itself:
"A workplace characterized by humanity. An organizational culture characterized by forgiveness, kindness, trust, respect, and inspiration… Leaders set the tone for their organization, and their behavior determines whether interactions in their organization are characterized by trust, forgiveness, understanding, empathy, generosity, and respect."
Quizzify is part of the solution, of course. We help employees manage their own healthcare, using an enjoyable and inspiring educational approach, with no intrusiveness or coercion. An ideal fit for your emerging culture of health.
We’ll leave the rest for you to read.