​With a growing emphasis on employee well-being in the workplace, HR  departments are expected to design and deliver a workplace well-being strategy. Continuing with the list put together by the Global Corporate Challenge (GCC), below are a few more mistakes organisations are making with regard to well-being strategy.

Read part 1 of Workplace well-being – 11 guaranteed ways to fail.

Mistake No.3: Doing well-being to your employees, not for them

Most well-being programs stumble because the target audience has limited interest in what is being offered. For an initiative to work, it needs to use the tone and language that appeal to your most sedentary, disengaged and distracted employee. It not only needs to include activities that are universally accessible and attractive, but it should also be framed creatively in a tone that repositions bland, corporate ‘well-being’ as a valuable element in your people’s lives. The ideal strategy needs to be genuine and authentic, and employees need to feel the program was created for them and with them, rather than feeling like it is being done to them in order to benefit the organisation.

Mistake No.4: Assuming one size fits all

No two people have the same attitude, physical strength, self-discipline or motivation. Likewise, not all of your employees need the same type of help at the same time. Some may need assistance with nutrition and others with increasing their physical activity. Some might need help with engagement and others with improving the amount/quality of their sleep. Even within these elements, employees’ needs will vary.

Mistake No.5: Paralysing people with too many choices

A fragmented approach to workplace well-being can stall your employees’ decision-making process. If there’s something starting – and ending – every other week, then there is a risk that your employees may become overwhelmed and not opt-in to anything. The likelihood is that they will just keep leaving it until ‘next week’, which inevitably never comes. There is nothing wrong with offerings such as on-site fitness classes, annual health fairs, flu shots, in-house gyms or the occasional seminar. In fact, these options are helpful in supporting your overall strategy, but there needs to be an overarching, structured strategy that drives people towards these options in the first place.

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In this five part series, we’ll take you through the 11 mistakes organisation make in their well-being programs as outlined by GCC. Stay tuned for part three.