Workplace Wellbeing

About the Episode

Wellbeing programs are one of the top five resources employees actively seek out from their benefits program. But not everyone is seeking out a weight-loss or step challenge. Johanna Dunlevy, Wellness and Marketing Manager at Employee and Family Resources, joins the vodcast to share her perspective and insights on developing meaningful programming and engaging employees with wellness resources at work.

Transcript

Tracey Orman: 
Johanna, thank you so much for being here. 

I know that through our research we know that employing wellness benefits is one of the top five things that employees are looking for when searching for a job, when looking for the benefits that companies are offering them. And you and I are both heavily involved in that.  

So, what do you think, where you are, wellness beyond the physical component looks like? 

Johanna Dunlevy:
Hi, Tracey. Thank you so much for having me on the podcast. I’m excited to be here and share a little bit of my perspective.  

I’ve been out of college for 20 years now. So, I feel like I’ve seen a lot of things shift in the worksite wellness space. And for the last almost nine years, I’ve been working in a benefits consultant role at Employee and Family Resources (EFR).  

And it’s given me kind of that balcony view or that kind of upper-level perspective of what different workplaces are providing. And I think there’s been a big shift.  

When I think about my first couple of jobs, my internship at Farm Bureau, right out of college in 2004, and then, you know, my first couple of jobs, they were heavily rooted in that physical dimension of wellbeing and it was about, you know, the 10K a day, the pedometer campaigns, back when we were actually wearing pedometers.  

Tracey: 
Good times! 

Johanna: 
I know, it’s like a blast from the past. 

And so, you know, just like smoking cessation, pedometer campaigns, hydration campaigns, those were the things that I was learning about when I was a student at the University of Northern Iowa in the early 2000s, and then when I was launching into my career as a wellness professional.  

Those were the things that were, you know, what you programmed around as a wellness coordinator, as a wellness consultant.  

And now, fast forward to 2024, and I think employers and employees are wanting more from a wellness program and a wellness benefit.  

I think mental health is become a priority for organizations. I think they’re starting to finally connect the dots. I wouldn’t say it’s been fully embraced in that, there’s no stigma around asking for help, there’s no stigma around employer groups really diving into that, but it’s so much better than it once was.   

I would say one of the emerging trends in worksites is to provide resources that support employee mental health and wellbeing, and not just the physical health, right? Because both are important and you bring both to work with you. 

Tracey: 
So looking more for a whole self. 

Johanna: 
Right, right. Yeah, everything is connected and we’ve known that for a long time.  

So, mental health and then also financial well-being. I’ve noticed a trend with regard to that dimension of well-being.  

I’ve got a lot of employer groups that I work with at EFR and they’re wanting to program around financial well-being. And that’s not surprising given the economy has recently changed. And if you think back to maybe 2008, that was probably another hot time for financial well-being in the workplaces.  

But I think employers are starting to pay attention to what’s going on, the current events, mental health has been a hot topic since the pandemic started and a little bit before, but I really think the pandemic helped kind of get that more on the forefront. And then financial well-being. 

So those would be kind of the two dimensions of wellbeing that I’ve noticed, you know, emphasize a little bit more. And physical is still there, but I think most groups are trying to do multi-dimensional programming now. 

Tracey: 
And your financial well-being affects your mental well-being, your mental well-being affects your physical well-being, and you can’t pay for your physical well-being if you’re not financially well-being…  

Johanna:
Right, right. Yeah, everything is connected, and we’ve known that for a long time. We as wellness professionals, but sometimes it takes a while for an individual to make that connection and to recognize that, or an employer, or a leader to make that connection and recognize that. 

Tracey: 
Now, just to clarify, in your company, are you 100% remote, 100% on-site, a little hybrid? 

Johanna:
We’re hybrid. So, we are in the office two days a week and home three days a week. And some people, that’s generally speaking at EFR, you know, two days in office, three days at home. But some positions are going to be in the office a little bit more.  

But we are considered a hybrid workspace and we didn’t move to a hybrid workspace until February of 2023. So, in some ways, I felt like we were a bit of a late adopter with regard to that, but we’ve been doing that for the past year. 

So, my role at EFR is to work with clients who have our wellness benefits and to consult in that space. But then my other hat is actually doing the programming for my own colleagues at EFR.  

And I think that’s another thing that a lot of employers are experiencing is that their onsite wellness coordinator isn’t necessarily a full-time wellness coordinator. They’re an HR team member who’s been given 5% of your time or 10% of your time is dedicated to employee well-being, or it’s a manufacturing company and they’ve put a wellness committee together and these people just have a passion, or an interest for, wellness.  

And I think that’s another thing that maybe people don’t realize is going on as much as it is, is that in many workspaces, there aren’t people that are dedicated to wellness and well-being benefits 100% of the time. And so that makes it tricky to implement and to communicate and to drive that engagement. 

Tracey: 
Yeah, so true. So the fact that you’re hybrid and the diversity of programming, mental health, physical health, financial health, how are you working on engagement in those areas? 

Johanna: 
So, at EFR, we’ve had a pretty robust wellness program in place since 2016. We’ve done things, you know, onsite biometric screenings for many, many years, and we’ve dabbled in, you know, kind of paper and pencil campaigns that you turn in.  

And now we’ve evolved into something I would consider a little more holistic and inclusive and with regard to people being able to participate, especially in a hybrid environment. That’s important.  

And I think that’s where technology comes into play and I think that’s also another emerging trend on our field is that people want resources at their fingertips, ideally in the form of an app, you know, that they can access from their mobile device. And they want customization.  

They want it to say, ‘Welcome Tracey! Yesterday you logged 12,000 steps. What are you going to get today?’ Or, ‘Tracey, how are you feeling today?’  

You know, I think that customization is also kind of a trend that’s evolving as technology has evolved. 

At EFR, we have a wellness platform that our team members can engage with. We run challenges and those challenges can be done within teams or as individuals. We offer a lot of kind of do on your own time, do it your own pace wellness programming and it’s across a variety of dimensions.  

So, one thing that we used to do pre-pandemic that I’m excited that we brought back was that we were, we were just doing like a monthly walk where you get together with colleagues and you walk at a designated time. And of course, we want people to do that more than once a month, but once a month, it was kind of like, this is a designated time and place that we’re going to go for a walk. And that’s part of the wellness program. It gives you that social connection. It gives you a little mood boost for your day and it gives you the ability to exercise.  

So, it’s kind of hitting three dimensions of wellbeing.  

Tracey: 
Accountability. My buddy’s going to be there. I need to be there. 

Johanna: 
Yeah. And the accountability factor too, because I think what happens with people who are working remotely, they’re isolated, and so they might not have that camaraderie that they’d have in a traditional workspace, where people are, you know, in cubicles, or in offices, or on assembly lines.  

I think when you are in a hybrid environment or if you’re exclusively remote, I think it’s really important to consider how can you connect. Can you use technology to connect?  

So, we use WebEx at EFR. Whenever we run a challenge, I create a space in WebEx where we can talk about the challenge.  

So, let’s say it’s a stress-less challenge. 

I’ll start a thread a few times a week in WebEx, ‘What did you do today to stress less?’  

And then it gets people talking, it reminds them of the challenge, it gives them that social connection—because I think that’s what people have missed from going either hybrid or completely remote and I think social wellbeing is a big part of wellbeing programs. 

Tracey: 
It’s contagious. It’s contagious too, because if I’m having a good time doing this, I’m going to tell somebody, I’m going to tell somebody, are you involved in this? Are you doing this? So contagious, I think. 

Johanna:
Yeah, absolutely.  

So, in terms of engagement in a hybrid setting, we are leveraging technology. And we’re looking to also make those connections in person when we are in the office together. 

Tracey:
Awesome. So what programs have you had the highest engagement in your organization or throughout the industry that you’re aware of where people engage more in something versus something else? 

Johanna: 
Yeah, I think honestly—I’m not going to speak industry-wide because where I see some programs thrive in some organizations, it just won’t thrive in another. And I think a lot of that is the culture of the organization, the setup of the organization.  

So, I have a group I work with, and they do a competitive physical activity challenge every summer and they get great participation. But their workforce loves competition, so they really thrive in that.  

That type of program wouldn’t go over as well at EFR. I know that from past programming and just kind of from the culture of the teams and the team members at EFR. But what has been successful with us is when we offer a variety of programming.  

This is kind of outside of the wellness, I consider it wellness but we consider it our cultural competency committee, we do a book read or kind of a docuseries watch and so people will come together for that. We’ll get great participation there.  

I think people want to talk and they want to connect, and so opportunities for that, like the walks, we do virtual stretch breaks, we do virtual mindful moments.  

I’ve also noticed that there’s greater participation in shorter duration. So, a 15-minute wellness activity, at 10 a.m. or 2 p.m. I think is key. I’m not seeing a lot of participation over the lunch hour. And I see that with a lot of my client groups. They’re wondering, ‘Why is no one showing up to the lunch and learn?’ Well, people probably wanna use their lunch break for themselves.  

So, if you start making your wellness programming outside of a traditional lunch hour and giving them permission to also take a lunch, right? Because a wellness program shouldn’t feel like it’s taking away from your “regular break” throughout the day, right?  

I think we find the most success when we consider people’s needs and that, you know, they’re going to want a lunch break and they might also want a 15-minute walk or a 15-minute stretch break. 

Tracey: 
When you said docuseries and things like that, are you having like a watch party where they watch it together or just talk about it after? 

Johanna: 
Talk about it after. We’ll do, you know, a group book read.  

And actually, for people listening, if you want to implement this in Des Moines area, the public library does book bundles for book clubs. So, we’ve taken advantage of that resource. We’ll check out maybe 12 to 18 of the same book because the Des Moines Public Library does book bundles and it gives people an opportunity to access the book without having to buy it or wait on a long list at the library. 

So, there’s just so many little things that I think have evolved, you know, that I wouldn’t have thought of in 2005 or 2010 or, you know, even 2015.  

Tracey: 
My last quick question here at the end, communication. How do you communicate to your folks what is going on in their wellness space? 

Johanna: 
Yeah, I think it’s so important to think outside of email. Email, of course, is going to work, but it doesn’t work in all settings, right?  

When I work with manufacturing clients, email is just not going to be as effective because they’re not computer-based. They’re not sitting at a desk. They’re checking email. They have email, but it might not be something that they’re checking daily.  

So, I would say email is going to be a mode of communication, but also that word of mouth and kind of like you mentioned earlier, getting your team members excited and kind of that word of mouth, the recruitment aspect of wellness programming, so to speak.  

I think when leaders embrace it, and if a leader participates, or if a leader just suggests or reminds their team members, ‘Hey, there’s a wellness stretch break today, let’s all do it as a team.’ I think that’s really cool.  

So, email, word of mouth, if your organization uses something like Webex or Teams, I think you can leverage that—like I had mentioned earlier, I created the space for whatever wellness challenge we have going on.  

And I think another solution that has been effective for some of the groups I consult with is having kind of an opt-in email group or space. So, it could be an email or it could be a space in kind of a chat platform. 

So, if anyone is interested in talking wellness or wants more updates on wellness, join this space.  

Of course, you want to ensure that everyone in the organization has access to the communication so that they can participate and sign up.  

But some people want more. They want to join a challenge and kind of, you know, have that camaraderie or rib people with jokes or just like, ‘Hey, I beat you yesterday, can you beat me today?’ type things.  

I think opt-in types of distribution lists, I guess if we wanna call it that, can be really effective too. 

Tracey: 
I think leadership bias is huge too, as you said, because it almost gives me permission to participate because my leader has suggested it. My leader said it, so then they’re giving me permission. I love that. 

Johanna: 
Yeah, and then if they can even take it a step further and participate themselves. Because then, you know, it’s one thing to say, my leader said I can take this hour to go to this wellness training, but if your leader shows up for it, I think that makes a huge difference too. 

Tracey: 
Yeah, it’s huge.  

Well, thank you so much. This has been so insightful. Thank you for your knowledge and your sharing. It’s been great.  

Johanna: 
Thank you.