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Author: Matias Golob, PhD.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Wellness is for everyone<\/strong><\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with a fundamental point underpinning efforts to enhance health and well-being: wellness ought to inspire every one of us to be active agents in the pursuit of a happy and <\/strong>fulfilling life<\/strong>. It should invite us to be deliberate in our intentions, choices, and actions.<\/span><\/p>\n And yet, we may find that in many instances we are not the architects of our efforts. For the <\/span>most part, we are told what are \u00ab\u00a0appropriate\u00a0\u00bb aims and how to achieve them. In our modern <\/span>and connected society, it seems like everyone is trying to sell us wellness. Consider for a <\/span>moment the proliferation of products and services being offered by self-help experts, clothing and beauty companies, car makers, social influencers, and many other brands vying to shape our efforts to improve our health and well-being. We are bombarded with messages daily that suggest, for example, if only you consume such and such vitamins, or practice mindfulness every day, or bought that red convertible, you would be well on your way to better health and happiness!<\/span><\/p>\n Employers also actively work to shape efforts to improve the health and well-being of their <\/span>workforce. This is largely due to the relationship between healthcare coverage and the <\/span>workplace. Disease prevention initiatives, operating under the guise of corporate wellness <\/span>programs, are being used by employers of all sizes to contain the escalating costs of healthcare. Participation in sponsored initiatives, such as health risk assessments, biometrics and preventative screenings, health coaching, learning programs and challenges, is rewarded with reduced insurance premiums, gift cards, and other incentives. But are these initiatives making a difference? And at what costs?<\/span><\/p>\n Notwithstanding the positive intentions and impacts of disease prevention and health promotion initiatives, shaping employees\u2019 understanding and application of wellness can simultaneously act to suppress creativity and self-determination. Moreover, such actions can contribute to a workplace culture that is indifferent or even hostile to different perspectives and outcomes. Empirical data have shown that despite the efforts of experts and technological advancements, employee participation in corporate wellness programs remains low. What\u2019s more, the data have revealed that minority and disenfranchised populations \u2013 which also happen to be most affected by health disparities, are the least likely to participate in corporate wellness programs. By and large, employers fall short in building capacity to enhance employee health, well-being, and performance.<\/span><\/p>\n In the best of scenarios, corporate wellness programs reduce or sustain overall healthcare spending while generating higher morale, loyalty, and productivity. At Konnected, we have found that the key to achieving these and other outcomes is by engaging employees as equal and valued partners in the design, implementation, and evaluation of wellness initiatives.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Participatory approaches are fundamentally opposed to top-down models. The intention is co-creation: creating with<\/strong><\/em> rather than for people, with the intention to build capacity for change. <\/span>By deliberately developing solutions with the consultation and participation of those intended <\/span>to be the beneficiaries, users, and stakeholders, leaders create space for individuals to actively <\/span>form and communicate a diverse range of meanings and understandings about health and <\/span>happiness. This point is particularly important to note when considering the positions of power <\/span>held by senior leadership, HR managers, and health and wellness experts. The position of <\/span>power occupied by such individuals, as \u00ab\u00a0knowledgeable\u2019 in the domain of wellness, can operate <\/span>to prescribe, define, and frame what counts as appropriate in the pursuit of a happy and <\/span>fulfilling life. Indeed, while many companies believe, without hard evidence, that their wellness <\/span>programs deliver returns on investment (ROI), they are blind to how employees actually view, <\/span>let alone embrace, their initiatives.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Engaging employees as partners<\/strong><\/em> in designing, implementing, and evaluating wellness initiatives <\/span>is a promising approach for optimizing the impact and sustainability of corporate wellness <\/span>programs. In our work with both small and large employers, we have found that participatory <\/span>processes have achieved substantial improvements in engagement and participation, and <\/span>subsequently generated safe spaces for innovation. Participatory processes have built capacity <\/span>for the voices and perspectives of disenfranchised populations to be valued, in turn generating <\/span>insights that have shaped wellness initiatives and product development. They have served to <\/span>challenge established beliefs and opinions and have acted as a catalyst for peer-to-peer support <\/span>and engagement. In doing so, program sponsors have achieved improved health and <\/span>performance metrics. Participatory approaches thus represent a pragmatic response for <\/span>reciprocal capacity building of employees, organizational leaders, experts, and service <\/span>providers.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Yet, there is a need to pay close attention to how<\/strong> <\/em>employees are engaged \u2013 in particular, <\/span>leaders ought to consider their roles and positions of power. Participatory approaches can set <\/span>in motion the processes by which all employees, can, in concert with leaders, experts and <\/span>service providers, critically analyze the meaning and application of wellness to develop <\/span>initiatives that positively impact health, well-being and performance. However, they can <\/span>nevertheless reproduce the very inequalities that the process seeks to challenge, particularly if <\/span><\/span>leaders and experts control how the topic of wellness can be meaningfully talked about and <\/span>reasoned about, and thus how initiatives are designed and implemented. <\/span><\/p>\n I stress the need for leaders to facilitate employees\u2019 ability to critically analyze the limits and <\/span>creative possibilities of the multiple and perhaps even contradictory knowledge claims that <\/span>inform wellness practices. This can be accomplished through informal and non-identifying <\/span>mediums, or intentional in-person settings, which lend themselves better for critical reflection <\/span>and open communication and knowledge exchange. The key is for leaders and experts to create <\/span>safe spaces for interaction and sharing, acting as facilitators to generate beneficial <\/span>engagements among all participants. In my experiences, such opportunities to learn from, with <\/span>and about others yielded important insights that problematized my understanding and <\/span>application of wellness. For example, my understanding of wellness as an \u00ab\u00a0individual pursuit\u00a0\u00bb <\/span>has been challenged and reframed by people who deliberately operate without a sense of \u00ab\u00a0self\u00a0\u00bb <\/span>and are driven to act in ways that support their communities and families. In this case, the <\/span>design and message of wellness initiatives require that we reframe to consider the impact on <\/span>the \u2018whole\u2019 as opposed to the individual actor.<\/span><\/p>\n We must also be ready to critically reflect on our workplace culture and accept that change <\/span>might be required. Establishing a safe environment that supports meaningfully engaging <\/span>employees as partners in co-creating wellness initiatives requires effectively addressing <\/span>dominant aspects of our societal culture, such as the emphasis on productivity and the <\/span>prevalent traditional top-down organizational structures. While we may not escape or <\/span>transform the culture of our society, we can effectively act upon the established structure <\/span>through the mediums we create and support within our workplaces. This a very important point <\/span>to build organizational capacity. It is always possible for individuals and groups of individuals to \u00ab\u00a0<\/span>resist\u00a0\u00bb the status quo and in doing so create new possibilities for themselves and others. If this <\/span>is not the crux of wellness, then what is? <\/span><\/p>\n At Konnected, we are driven to help companies of all sizes in engaging their population to <\/span>establish impactful and sustainable wellness programs. We can assist you improve the health <\/span>and performance of your workforce with our solutions designed to cultivate a culture of <\/span>inclusion and belonging.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=\u00a0\u00bb4.23.4″ _module_preset=\u00a0\u00bbdefault\u00a0\u00bb min_height=\u00a0\u00bb310px\u00a0\u00bb custom_margin=\u00a0\u00bb-71px|auto||auto||\u00a0\u00bb global_colors_info=\u00a0\u00bb{}\u00a0\u00bb][et_pb_column type=\u00a0\u00bb4_4″ _builder_version=\u00a0\u00bb4.23.4″ _module_preset=\u00a0\u00bbdefault\u00a0\u00bb global_colors_info=\u00a0\u00bb{}\u00a0\u00bb][et_pb_divider divider_weight=\u00a0\u00bb3px\u00a0\u00bb _builder_version=\u00a0\u00bb4.23.4″ _module_preset=\u00a0\u00bbdefault\u00a0\u00bb global_colors_info=\u00a0\u00bb{}\u00a0\u00bb admin_label=\u00a0\u00bbDivider\u00a0\u00bb][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_cta title=\u00a0\u00bbWe can assist you in improving the health and performance of your workforce with our solutions designed to cultivate a culture of inclusion and belonging. \u00a0\u00bb button_url=\u00a0\u00bbhttps:\/\/www.konnected.ca\/fr\/contact\/\u00a0\u00bb url_new_window=\u00a0\u00bbon\u00a0\u00bb button_text=\u00a0\u00bbRequest a meeting today\u00a0\u00bb _builder_version=\u00a0\u00bb4.24.2″ _module_preset=\u00a0\u00bbdefault\u00a0\u00bb global_colors_info=\u00a0\u00bb{}\u00a0\u00bb][\/et_pb_cta][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Engaging employees as partners in the design, implementation, and evaluation of wellness initiatives is a promising approach to optimize the impact and sustainability of corporate wellness programs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"\n Lorem Ipsum<\/strong> is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using 'Content here, content here', making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for 'lorem ipsum' will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source. Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of \"de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum\" (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, \"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..\", comes from a line in section 1.10.32.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The standard chunk of Lorem Ipsum used since the 1500s is reproduced below for those interested. Sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 from \"de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum\" by Cicero are also reproduced in their exact original form, accompanied by English versions from the 1914 translation by H. Rackham.<\/p>\n","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[29,34,33,30,36,38,31,35,28,37,32],"class_list":["post-784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-5-minute-read","tag-corporate-wellness","tag-corporate-wellness-initiatives","tag-employee-engagement-in-wellness-programs","tag-employee-partnerships","tag-inclusive-workplace-cultures","tag-organizational-change","tag-participatory-approaches","tag-sustainable-wellness","tag-wellness-engagement","tag-wellness-program-design","tag-workplace-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.konnected.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.konnected.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.konnected.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.konnected.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.konnected.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.konnected.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1380,"href":"https:\/\/www.konnected.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784\/revisions\/1380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.konnected.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.konnected.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.konnected.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Engaging employees as partners<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
What is Lorem Ipsum?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Where does it come from?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n