Just like any effective business plan, wellbeing strategy is a continuous process. A cyclical plan will help you embed wellbeing as a core priority, make targeted adjustments and demonstrate its impact on business growth.
How often you revisit your strategy will depend on your own capacity and your business structure. One common method is to set the direction of your strategy yearly, review your priorities quarterly and monitor individual activities on a more reactive basis.
The five-step cycle of a wellbeing strategy looks like this:
Collect data
Continuous collection of data and feedback will help you focus your health and wellbeing activities where they’re needed most. You can use third-party research and average costs to make your initial case for investment, then collect data specific to your business to help you demonstrate its impact.
Identify themes and objectives
Themes might include common issues or requests, for example you might find a number of employees struggling with back pain or requests for mental health support. These can come from both employee feedback and your business needs.
Review against business priorities
Ensure your investment is effective by measuring the outcome of your wellbeing programme against key business areas, keeping your leadership team involved throughout the process. Business priorities might include cost reduction, absence management, employee retention or engagement.
Create or update your wellbeing strategy
A strategy document will help you track progress, engage stakeholders and make faster decisions. It doesn’t have to be a complex piece of work — it’s more important that it’s kept up to date and clearly explains your decisions and budget spend.
Implement and monitor
Put your plans into practice and keep gathering data to more accurately measure success. Share the results of your wellbeing activities and any key learnings to keep your stakeholders engaged in the process, then the cycle begins again.
