Last week during his keynote at Ragan‘s Corporate Communicators Conference, Steve Crescenzo blasted a host of topics covered by internal communicators. Articles about employee wellness were at the top of Steve’s list. Talking to employees about their health is a waste of time and resources; employees aren’t likely to take advice on their health from the company, anyway.

Hot on the heels of the conference, though, I caught the results of a survey from United Benefit Advisors, which talked to 1,746 employers representing a cross-section of industry groups, employee populations, and U.S. geographic regions. The results: Pretty much every employer in the country is looking to expand wellness initiatives. Companies want to lower the cost of the medical plans; healthier employees file fewer claims. They also want a more stable, productive workforce; sick employees who take a lot of time off aren’t as productive as healthy employees. Sorry to belabor the obvious.

Lower health care costs and higher productivity are not unreasonable goals, and a healthier workforce is not an unreasonable strategy for achieving those goals. According to the survey, nearly three-quarters of employes believe workers can become better healthcare consumers if the company gives them the right tools. According to UBA co-founder David LoCascio,

Employer involvement is helping to manage the health of its workforce has been rapidly graining momentum. The old approach of simply hoping for good claims experience has not worked, and employers are increasingly assuming more responsibility and control in an effort to impact both plan costs and employee productivity.

Aside from his use of the word “impact” as a verb, LoCascio is right. And wellness initiatives designed to drive business results need to be communicated. The question is, how do internal communicators convey these messages without sounding irrelevant? Steve is right, too, that most employees will roll their eyes and dismiss a story on how taking the stairs instead of the elevator will help you meet your daily exercise goals. (In fact, Steve doesn’t really have a problem with wellness communication. In an email, he clarified that he has a problem with bad wellness communication: “I just hate it when people take the easy way out and run stupid “tips” that nobody will ever follow!”

Here are some suggestions for communicating wellness in a way that’s meaningful:

• Monitor the company’s status—It’s often said that you can’t fix what you can’t measure. Report regularly on the company’s medical claims levels and the associated cost. If you can tie a reduction in claims to employee participation in wellness programs, so much the better!
  
• Make the wellness-work connection, and make it personal—Interview employees about how involvement in company-sponsored wellness programs is affecting their work and their attitudes about the company.
  
• Tie wellness initiatives into recruiting efforts—Offering wellness programs is a benefit; employees don’t need to seek similar programs at higher costs outside of work.
  
• Produce an independent wellness communication vehicle—Separate wellness from other communications. This keeps your business communications focused on business and appearing less fluffy. It also shines the light on wellness and confirms that it’s a serious issue for the organization.
  
• Use alternative channels for wellness communication—How about a wellness podcast? Or a wellness blog? Again, this keeps general internal communication and wellness communication separate, for the most part.
  
• Tie wellness to news—If company productivity is an issue, make sure the fact that the company’s health insurance claims experience is factored into the coverage. Healthier employees could make a difference. And if you can link that to incentive pay, then you could even motivate employees to get healthier because it’s in their financial self interest.

Other thoughts?