Wellness Summit recap: Employee engagement strategies

On March 17, southeastern Wisconsin business leaders gathered at the 2017 BizTimes Wellness Summit to share their experiences and learn about the latest strategies in workplace wellness and employee engagement.

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield was proud to sponsor this event alongside Aurora Health Care.  The theme for the session was “The Happiness Factor: Why employee wellbeing boosts the bottomline.”

Working directly with employer groups, Anthem and Aurora have seen time and time again that an emphasis on wellness and wellbeing really is what separates the leaders from the followers and the innovators from the imitators.

Engagement can be measured in many different ways, ranging from employee satisfaction to sheer productivity numbers, but a common theme across the small group discussions I led was that businesses need to take a comprehensive approach to employee engagement and workplace culture to see the best results.

If you’re looking to refresh your corporate culture and supercharge engagement, you need to start by asking your employees what’s important to them.  Feeling appreciated and understood goes a long way toward job satisfaction.

Companies that focus on employee engagement have seen the following benefits:

• Higher retention rate – by offering employees a way to maintain personal interests and time with family, you can improve job satisfaction and commitment levels.
• Increased productivity – by empowering employees and giving them the opportunity to enjoy a better work-life balance, you can help them reduce stress levels and avoid family conflicts. This cultivates a healthy work culture, resulting in increased motivation and productivity with employees able to be more committed to their work.
• Better company reputation – a commitment to work-life balance can actually lead to you having a bigger pool of talent, giving your company a competitive edge, according to HC Online.
• Cost savings – recruitment and training aren’t cheap. The best businesses invest in their employees to drive increased satisfaction and decreased turnover.

One of my directors had the opportunity to lead small group discussions focused on how to create more engaged employees. A few common themes from the discussion were:

• The importance to creating a culture that fosters strong employee engagement. This starts with communicating, developing and rewarding employees.
• If you want to improve something, measure it. It is important to conduct an employee engagement survey.
• Workers must be the ones to develop a successful employee engagement strategy. They know their own minds— as management, you can only guess. Directly involve your employees in the strategy creation process.

Employers interested in learning more about workplace wellness strategies are invited to visit Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s The Benefits Guide website. There you’ll find articles focused on the needs of small and large businesses covering everything from managing an employee benefits program to how to implement a successful social media policy at your company.