Janine Fry, Vice President of Customer experience at Flare, speaks to businesses and HR leaders across the country about their wellbeing programs daily. In her role, Janine helps them successfully implement and launch their benefits and wellbeing offering. She shares some of the most typical problems that are heard from clients as to why programs have failed in the past, as well as tips on what to avoid.
One-dimensional
“Companies need wellbeing programs that address holistic health: physical, mental, financial, and social. In the past, wellbeing programs have been focused on physical wellness like discounted access to gyms and step competitions. While those types of things are still important, it’s now widely acknowledged that programs need to respond to holistic health. Companies that are winning in this space have evolved their view of wellbeing,” says Janine.
Lives and dies on the intranet
“The workforce is becoming more flexible. People want to engage where and when it suits them, so access is key,” says Janine.
“It’s critical that wellbeing programs are engaged with and utilised, regularly. If they are sitting on a static intranet, then they risk going unnoticed and unused. One of the ways we have addressed this at Flare is by creating both a desktop and app experience that connects workers with their benefits anytime, and anywhere. It’s promoted to them during onboarding,” she adds.
Benefits miss the mark
“Offering compelling benefits is one way to differentiate your business with new and existing employees, especially in this competitive wage environment,” Janine points out.
“We think of the employee experience as a journey from start to retain,” says Janine. “Non-wage compensation like perks, salary packaging, and wellbeing support and experiences, alongside mandatory benefits like Super and policies, create a complete offering to employees. We know that this combination is difficult for businesses to execute and manage on their own. There are so many considerations. Flare’s benefits solution helps take the pain out by packaging all these elements together to support businesses to engage their workers with their wellbeing.”
One hit wonder
“One of the most disheartening aspects of a failed wellbeing program is seeing all that hard work not add up to engagement. Influencing up, building a program and communicating it to employees takes effort, time and resources. Sometimes it’s difficult to sustain this investment over a long period. Really, you need that commitment, cultural alignment and advocacy to support the program ongoing,” admits Janine.
“At Flare, we have focussed on removing frictions from delivering and managing wellbeing programs. We offer the benefits, the products, the platform and the engagement program. We also empower businesses to have a level of control over that experience by embedding their wellbeing agenda,” says Janine.
This is an excerpt from our Flare guide: How to design a wellbeing program. Download a free copy today for more tips on a successful wellbeing program.
