{"id":7299,"date":"2024-06-27T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learn.brightbreaks.com\/learn\/?p=7299"},"modified":"2024-06-27T15:17:34","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T15:17:34","slug":"summer-wellness-program-engagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learn.brightbreaks.com\/learn\/blog\/summer-wellness-program-engagement\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Boost Wellness Program Engagement During Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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As summer rolls around, many remote employees can\u2019t wait to head off on vacations, get into the great outdoors, or simply enjoy a more relaxed pace at home. For HR leaders, this can present some unique challenges around keeping engagement levels up in their wellness programs.\u00a0<\/p>

Your remote employees might take a few weeks off work, change their schedules, cover extra work for their colleagues, or prioritize their own leisure activities over work wellness activities. So you\u2019ll need to think about how to adapt your programs and promotions to meet employees where they are during the summer months.<\/p>

In this article, we\u2019ll look at effective ways to keep employees engaged during summer, together with some summer wellness challenge ideas and seasonal activities that can help them keep wellness top of mind.<\/p>

How to approach your wellness program and promotion in the summer months<\/strong><\/h2>

Why is engagement different during summer?<\/strong><\/h3>

When the warmer weather rolls around, most employees are itching to put on those long-awaited shorts and flip-flops. It\u2019s the time when people look forward to heading into the great outdoors to take a much-needed vacation, or catch up with friends and family for sports, barbecues, and other summer events.\u00a0<\/p>

Keeping up with your organization\u2019s wellness program is at risk of becoming\u00a0waaaaay\u00a0<\/em>down their to-do list.<\/p>

Even if employees are still at their desks over summer, there\u2019s a chance they will automatically feel physically and mentally healthier over this time. The warmer temperatures and\u00a0increased sunlight hours are a natural mood-booster<\/a>, so this lays the perfect foundation to leverage the motivation folks have to tend to their well-being this time of year.<\/p>

Why incentivization becomes more important in summer<\/strong><\/h3>

To help you keep on track with your organization\u2019s wellness goals and keep programs top-of-mind during the summer, incentivization for employees to engage is key.\u00a0<\/p>

You\u2019ll need to think of creative ways to keep employees motivated to participate outside of their summer social life and general work tasks, which means answering their most pressing question \u201cWhat\u2019s in it for me?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>

Wellness platforms such as\u00a0Bright Breaks<\/a>\u00a0make it easy for HR leaders and managers to promote \u201cparticipate and win\u201d challenges over the summer. Employees can join in at any time, from anywhere, and they will be entered into weekly prize draws just by engaging with the platform. There\u2019s also the opportunity to run challenges just for your organization – more on this later!\u00a0<\/p>

Why making an effort to keep engagement up is important<\/strong><\/h3>

Despite the potentially lower engagement levels in wellness programs, it\u2019s important that you make an effort to keep wellness program participation levels up during summer.\u00a0<\/p>

Even if employees are taking vacations, or relaxing with friends, burnout is still possible. Summer stress can rear its head during catch-up time after vacations, covering for coworkers, or trying to juggle a more hectic social schedule with existing workloads.\u00a0<\/p>

Wellness doesn\u2019t stop when the sun comes out. By actively promoting its importance you can keep your wellness programs top of mind for employees all year round, reducing the need for a large relaunch or re-introduction of programs when the cooler weather rolls around<\/p>

The wellness program seasonal engagement dilemma<\/strong><\/h3>

It\u2019s important to evaluate your well-being initiatives to see how they adapt to remote and summer-specific needs. It\u2019s advisable to track and measure engagement during this time, and compare metrics from last year, so you can have an idea of what to expect with engagement levels and what opportunities present themselves to influence metrics.\u00a0<\/p>

If there are wellness programs that present a sharp drop off in program engagement over the summer, this could be a false indication that employees aren\u2019t getting value out of the program as a whole, and this could hurt the chances of getting approval to keep the programs running at renewal time.<\/p>

With the potential of this lull in mind, it\u2019s important to think about how you\u2019ll promote wellness activities during summer. You also need to consider how you can mitigate the risk of a sharp decline in engagement and provide wellness support to employees who could still use it during this time, while keeping participation metrics at an acceptable level given the circumstances.\u00a0<\/p>

Some summer wellness promotion ideas might include:<\/strong><\/p>