Why Leadership Support in Employee Wellness Programs is So Important

Anyone can be a manager. But not everyone can be a leader. It takes empathy, emotional intelligence, and confidence to lead people well. Good leadership can be felt throughout an entire organization.

When you have great leaders in place, they develop great employee retention, sustainable success, and high morale. In fact, 83% of companies say developing leaders is crucial. It's no surprise some of the biggest companies in the world are lead by such talented, inspiring people. They know what to do to take care of their employees.

And the same thing goes for leadership support in employee wellness programs.

Your employees need to feel heard, supported, and understood. And one of the best ways to lead is by example.

Our 10 best practices are effective tools we implement in our programming to offer companies a successful employee wellness plan. We explored our second best practice, Leadership Support, in depth to help demonstrate how you can put together a successful wellness solution for your company with the right leadership.

What is Leadership Support?

Leadership includes your human resource department, C-suite, mid-level managers, etc. Leadership support includes well-being programming buy-in, support, and engagement from leadership.

Why is Leadership Support Important?

Like we mentioned earlier, effective leadership is crucial to a company's success and employee retention. You wouldn't want to work for someone who didn't care about you or your career, right? Your health and wellness shouldn't be any different. 

For an employee wellness program to be successful, leadership has a vital role to play. Leaders act as models or champions for the effort, achieve buy-in and support from other levels of their organization, and help cultivate a supportive work environment. 

Ultimately, Leadership Support allows leaders to lead their teams by example. They're not just implementing an employee wellness program — they're actively participating in it themselves.

In order to have excellent Leadership Support, leaders must...

—Agree to have an organized wellness program at their workplace

—Act as role models and participate in wellness programs, including challenges, screenings, and classes

—Track and report their program participation

—Sign a leadership commitment

—Communicate to employees that participation in wellness activities is allowed during work hours

—Communicate leadership highlights and engagement quarterly

—Offer annual mandatory well-being training for mid-management team

—Make sure their own wellness participation is visible to employees in a variety of ways, like showing off a challenge completed by leadership

—Hold quarterly leadership meetings to create actionable plans for the wellness program's success

Each month, we'll continue to break down each of our 10 best practices in more detail — be sure to follow along and don't miss out on how you can invest in these wellness solutions to help your employees thrive!

Interested in learning more about implementing an employee wellness program at your company? Let us help guide you. At OnSite Wellness, employee health and wellness is our specialty.

We offer additional supporting services on top of our Best Practices. Incorporating an employee wellness program at your workplace can have massive benefits for your employees in tracking and managing a healthy lifestyle.

Let us help you reach your goals and set your employees up for success! Contact us today to get started.