New Perspectives in Wellness & Benefit Communications by Shawn M. Connors (romantic novels to read TXT) 📕

feel comfortable using it. They can’t fast-forward past it. Print doesn’t delete. You don’t need to charge it.

Print is beautiful. It can draw the eye to content and photos with effects and papers that make readers want to touch and feel your message.

Print enhances the impact of other media. Direct mail, poster campaigns and brochures can lead people to websites, videos, and social media sites — and vice versa.

Even new digital technologies such as Quick Response codes (“QR codes”) — two-dimensional bar codes appearing on printed pages or packaging that people scan with mobile phones so they can quickly access corresponding websites, videos, coupon offers and more — co-exist with print.

There is a possibility that our enthusiasm for a “paperless society” has gone to an extreme. There is too much congestion online now. We believe advertising, publishing, and entertainment industries will begin testing new tactics in print as part of a process of breaking through. In a recent survey of HR directors, wellness professionals and benefit managers we recently conducted, 76% of respondents will continue to use print somewhat or consistently as part of workplace communications.

To remain effective, any communication method must deliver messages that people want in a way that’s relevant and useful to them. Printed content will continue to play a strategically important role in communication. Print gives you a less competitive and crowded medium with all the benefits of a physical impact. Make print part of your media mix.

8. Simple beats complex. Small beats big. Easy beats hard.

Some of the most effective health, wellness, and benefits communication plans were created by organizations that were brave enough to think small.

Rome wasn’t created in a day. Improved health and a better understanding of benefit options won’t happen overnight either.

Well-crafted messages can spur employees to action, but change is more realistic when it’s less idealistic — when it encourages minor changes rather than massive overhauls.

Consider a common health communication challenge: On one end of the fitness spectrum, you’re speaking to the gold standards of good health — passionate folks who exercise five times a week and like salads. On the other end of the spectrum, you’re trying to reach folks who don’t even consider the need to exercise.

Many health communication plans focus on getting people in the latter group to join the zealots. That’s ambitious and unrealistic. Smart communication aims to move unhealthy people an inch forward on the spectrum, not push them to lose mega-inches from their waistlines.

“People don’t have to spend hours in the gym,” says Gordon Blackburn, PhD, program director of Cardiac Rehabilitation in the Preventive Cardiology Department of the Cleveland Clinic. “Walking the dog, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and even vacuuming briskly burns calories and can improve your cardiovascular health.”

While some changes — quitting smoking, for example — are foundations of healthful living, simple lifestyle improvements such as moderate walking and switching to fat-free milk can lower weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol, Blackburn points out.

Effective employee communication eases instead of urges.

So, go ahead: Start thinking smaller. Toss in some humor and have fun. Recognize and reward small accomplishments regularly. Baby steps are fine. One thing at a time.

You need a simple, actionable communication plan

Almost everywhere we go, communication is an afterthought, viewed by organizations as a necessary byproduct of their wellness and benefits plans. Companies design or adopt a program, and then consider ways to deliver messages to elicit employee participation. Communication doesn’t lead the charge; it goes along for the ride.

This seems like the path of least resistance to some workplace communicators. They assume health and benefit topics are complex compared to communication, which feels intuitive. (We communicate constantly, after all.) What to say — isn’t that more difficult to figure out than how (and when) to say it?

Not necessarily. Identifying goals and objectives, knowing your audience, and realizing the medium is not the message are all important, but an effective communication strategy is critical to a successful workplace program, too. The communication strategy shouldn’t be served late, whipped together so it appears in a hodgepodge of messages, voices, and looks. It shouldn’t be stifled by red tape or turf wars.

There is a better way.

That way is a framework — a place to begin, and a few practical steps to guide you along a fresh trail. The result of simple planning can be a structure that’s effective and (thank goodness) energizing, a total communications experience that inspires, informs, shares, and celebrates the potential of healthy living and the human spirit.

It’s time to inject life into wellness and benefits plans. Here’s a taste of how.

1. Discover what employees want — and how they want it.

Well-intentioned professionals nationwide make key decisions based on best guesses and first reactions. But effective workplace communication is too central to leave up to your gut.

Reaching employees with effective, timely, relevant messages is your mission. Information can serve as your map: What do they want to know? What do they really want to accomplish? How would they prefer to receive (or not receive) the messages you’re sending?

“Asking questions about who you’re talking to, writing for, or presenting to is the first place to start, and it’s generally where most communications strategies fail,” says Bill Dickmeyer of Madison Human Resources Consulting LLC in Madison, WI.

Find out what your employees are thinking and what captures their attention with this quick survey — see Resource Section Item #5.

While each member of your audience is different, the survey will help you collect information on overall characteristics such as interest (often missed in this stage), HRA data, gender, culture, and education.

This information can fuel your communication plan, help you establish a philosophy and mission for your program, and enable you to set expectations and create demand.

As you build your strategy, keep in mind these key elements of effective wellness and benefits communication:

A holistic approach that encourages small changes that lead to bigger changes

A focus on community support, events, and programs

A blend of digital and print communications, which are most powerful when they work in concert

A continual way for employees to provide input and feedback to communicate with one another

A brand, logo, slogan, and visual identity to give wellness programs personality

An injection of humor and entertainment to make it fun

2. Organize your thinking into general categories.

Many health, wellness, and benefits experts feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of what they could communicate. Figuring out what to say, write, email, post, embed, film, upload, text, and tweet can make your head spin.

Steal a page from newsstand publications, and categorize your thinking into sections that match your mission and your employees’ needs.

Think about USA Today. World events are ever-changing, and the supply of human interest stories is endless, yet each issue is segmented and presented in four easy-to-find, color-coded sections: main news (blue), Life (purple), Sports (red), and Money (green).

Likewise, your favorite monthly magazine includes regular “departments” in each issue that complement its cover story and main features. This material changes from month to month (different people are interviewed, different ideas are presented), yet the content feels right because it’s categorized under topical headings.

This structure enables readers to form expectations — people “know where to turn” for information that matters to them.

It gives them a sense of comfort and trust — traits you want employees to feel about your communication.

So, assume you’re the editor-in-chief of your company’s editorial products: What departments would you create? What special issues might you plan? What would your cover stories be about?

An easy, effective way to segment your content is by topic. Here’s an example, using four categories — Movement, Food, Money and Trends:

Movement

5 Main Benefits of Walking

Why You Should Take the Stairs

Getting Fit While Sitting at Your Desk

Food

5 Tasty & Healthy Recipes

What You Should Know About Salt

The Power of Okra

Money

5 Things to Know About Your Retirement Savings

Is an HSA Right for You?

Fun Activities That Don’t Pinch the Wallet

Trends

Childhood Obesity & What It Means for You

Actually, You Do Need Carbs

Yoga Isn’t Just for Women

Another way to segment your content is by theme. Here’s another example, using the same 12 topics listed above, just categorized differently:

Inspiration

You Can Cook These 5 Healthy Recipes!

Kick-Start Your Retirement Savings!

Cut Back on Salt!

Humor

Okra, Arugula, Ice Cream: Why You Should Try 2 of These 3

That All-Carb Diet is aGreat Idea (If You Want to Gain Some Weight)

Maybe You Should Walk to Work? (Just Don’t Be Late, OK?)

Common Sense

The Plain Truth About Childhood Obesity

Chart: Stairs vs. Elevator

How to Burn 200 Calories While Sitting at Your Desk

Family Values

Is an HSA Right for Your Family?

Guys, Is It Time to Join Your Significant Other in Yoga?

Pile the Kids in the Car, and Check Out These Free Activities

Let categories guide your messaging. They will help you determine what to communicate, which will come in handy as you develop a plan for when and how to send your content.

3. Think of seasons of the year and seasons of life.

Most organizations don’t plan ahead in their employee communication efforts. They produce messages haphazardly, often at the last minute. They might suddenly realize, “We haven’t included anything about healthy nutrition in a while. Can we pull something together before our wellness event next week?”

They grasp at straws.

Instead, they should grab a calendar.

You need a systematic way to quickly and effectively communicate and share your new ideas, programs and events. It’s time to start thinking about timing.

Seasons change. There is an ebb and flow of activities and priorities as we move from spring to summer to fall to winter. This comes as no surprise to retailers. They develop coupon programs, special rates, and more based upon seasonality. They’re excellent at taking advantage of predictable behavioral patterns, leading consumers to tune in to what’s happening “now.”

Think of a typical family with kids in school as they transition from summer to fall. Wellness topics could be produced to match what is on their minds — healthy school lunches, sports participation, freed up time at home, clothing, outdoor activities, etc.

That’s a smart way to plan health communications.

In fact, each content category you created in the previous chapter could have specific material prepared based upon seasons of the year. Here’s an example:

Food

Spring: Best ways to design a vegetable garden

Summer: Finding nearby farms for strawberry picking

Fall: Giving thanks to local chefs and dieticians

Winter: Paying attention to portion sizes during the holidays

Money

Spring: Earmarking tax-return money for your IRA

Summer: Easy ways to save on school supplies

Fall: Getting ready for open enrollment season

Winter: Maximizing the use of your flexible spending account

Then there are also seasons of life within your target audience. Make sure there is relevant information for the young and old, fit and unfit, caregivers, new parents, and kids. Mix your topics among a variety of demographic groups because all that we love are among these groups. We like to think of people reading our stuff and saying, “Hey, Martha, did you see this?”

You can plan your messaging one year out, working season by season. That way, you’ll keep your wellness programs fresh, repeat information you’ve identified as important, and make consistent messaging part of your culture. You’ll also be able to anticipate benefit renewals, changes in benefit plans, and other important annual benchmarks.

This annualized planning will help you avoid “flavor of the month” programming that can be hit-and-miss for your population. Thinking ahead allows you to consider interesting, fresh ways to communicate, and then to produce those messages strategically.

Thinking ahead — simple ideas can do wonders.

4. Take advantage of National