Key Message:
Employee engagement, programme transparency and consistent communication are essential for Implementation success.
This step is simply putting your Action Plan to action. All necessary activities and considerations have been laid out in your Action Plan (Step 3) and now you’re ready to Implement each activity. The crucial components in Implementation are to involve and engage employees and to provide thorough communication and transparency of your initiative.
It is critical to involve workers and their representatives at this stage, and desirable that management should also demonstrate their support and commitment for specific programmes or policies
WHO
Provided you designed your programme to closely address the employee and organisation concerns identified in Step 2, your employees should organically engage in the initiative. In some cases, the use of incentives and social marketing may be needed to encourage employee engagement as well as reasonable accommodations to enable participation. Additionally, ensuring that employee wellness is embedded within the company culture should encourage engagement by making employees feel secure and inspired.
Additional Tips from NIOSH: During Implementation:
- Consider phased implementation or starting small and scaling up
- Be willing to abandon pilot projects that fail
- Accountability and rewards for success should also be built into the programme
Communication and transparency are essential. Employees should consistently be informed of the outcomes, values, and direction of wellness programmes. Developing a communication strategy is helpful and keeping a record is recommended. Non-confidential aspects of wellness programmes should be accessible so that resource allocations and programme success is visible to employees and managers alike.
Communicating consistent and honest messages to employees is important. Employees also need to see action on and results from wellness initiatives from the very outset. Communicating how the programme is contributing to the mission of the company and its goals is critical. . . Establishing a dedicated team of people or wellness champions is useful as it is an opportunity to provide on-going, personalised messages to employees.
PWC’s Framework