Reduce Stressors for Wellness Success

September 13, 2011

  by Dean Witherspoon     

Occasionally we get to work with a newly formed wellness committee or expanded professional staff to launch or push their programming to another level. One of the first questions we ask is: “What’s the #1 cause of stress in your organization?” The responses aren’t always unanimous, but there are usually no more than 3 answers — regardless of the group’s size.

Depending on the stressors, and their intensity, we explain it may not be realistic to start a new wellness initiative until the problems are resolved. The reason: stress is a demotivator. If people are down about things happening in the organization, it’s a stretch to believe they’ll get excited about your health promotion efforts, no matter how dazzling.

Here then are the most common stressors we hear and why you should work to reduce, eliminate, or at least acknowledge them while attempting to build your wellness program:

• Change. The only thing that won’t change in today’s organizations is the fact there will always be change. But change shouldn’t be fashionable. Always have sound business reasons for adding to the turbulence. Many workplaces haphazardly adopt new approaches because other organizations in the industry are doing it. But unless you’ve been asleep at the wheel for a while, you have a solid rationale for the way you’re operating. Don’t abandon an approach completely in favor of another — without good reason.
• Uncertainty. For all the empowerment hype in the last 2 decades, many organizations still don’t seem to trust employees enough to share plans until they’ve leaked out and generated rumors and misperceptions. Lack of information makes employees feel dumb and suspicious.
• Politics. Accurate or not, plenty of workers believe it’s more how you play the game than the quality of your work that determines success. If employees feel politics are the road to success, they won’t be motivated to produce better products or services.
• Indifference. Layoffs leave a lot of casualties in their wake — still working for the organization. A belief the company no longer cares about rank and file employees, while top executive pay packages continue to climb, makes employees ambivalent toward anything the employer sponsors… especially your health promotion services.

A good wellness program will never cure the ills of a poorly run organization. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. If you recognize any of these demotivators at your workplace, do what you can to change them — first within your own department, then among others.

If you don’t have an upper management champion who believes in you and your purpose, try to get one soon. Share employee perceptions and testimonials, along with your ideas for eliminating demotivators. As the stress subsides, interest in your health enhancement efforts will go up.