Avoid This Common Mistake in Corporate Wellness Programs: Employee Engagement Tips
In this episode, Kathie Owen discusses a major oversight in corporate wellness programs: poor employee engagement.
She illustrates the problem with a story about an intern winning a major prize, which left long-term, hardworking employees feeling unappreciated.
Kathie emphasizes the importance of understanding what employees value through surveys and suggests implementing a rewards program that recognizes and motivates employees based on their contributions and participation in wellness activities.
She also explains the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and underscores the necessity of tailoring rewards to foster intrinsic motivation among employees.
Avoid This Common Mistake in Corporate Wellness Programs: Employee Engagement Tips
In this episode, Kathie Owen discusses a major oversight in corporate wellness programs: poor employee engagement.
She illustrates the problem with a story about an intern winning a major prize, which left long-term, hardworking employees feeling unappreciated.
Kathie emphasizes the importance of understanding what employees value through surveys and suggests implementing a rewards program that recognizes and motivates employees based on their contributions and participation in wellness activities.
She also explains the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and underscores the necessity of tailoring rewards to foster intrinsic motivation among employees.
Let's talk about employee engagement in your corporate wellness program. And one of the biggest mistakes I see made in employee engagement. So think about it. Why have a corporate wellness program, if your team is not going to participate and what does the team want to, because if you give them things that they don't want, you know, they're not going to participate well today, I'm going to tell you a story about a big mistake that I see made in corporate wellness programs and initiatives. You're listening to Kathie's coaching podcast. I'm your host, Kathie's Owen. And on this channel, we talk about corporate wellness, Reality Transurfing, and more today we're talking about the biggest mistake I see made in corporate wellness programs that is employee engagement. So recently I worked with a company that had a party. They had a celebration. And if this sounds like your company, don't worry, it happens across the board. So I'm not pointing fingers at anybody. This company is very generous, just like your company. And they love to give back to their team. And they have contests, or maybe I shouldn't call them contests because they're not contests, but they have prizes that they give away and they give you a ticket that you put into a bag and you win a prize. The biggest prize of the year, or maybe it was like the second biggest prize of the year. Went to an intern. Somebody that's only at the company for two months. This person should not have even been allowed to participate in this contest. Why? Because. You had somebody over here who's been busting their tail for your business and they got nothing. Absolutely nothing. Oh, they got a free lunch, but trust me, that person did not appreciate it. Why? Because they didn't see the value. You see the value because you're giving it to them, but they do not see the value. They wanted this prize they worked hard all year for you. They did so much. In fact, this person's been with the company for five years and they still have yet to win a price. This happens all the time. And if it sounds like your company, it's not just, you. But there is a better way. And what does that have to do with corporate wellness? It has everything to do with corporate wellness because it starts with a survey. Yeah, it starts with this survey. You need to ask your employees what they want, what they value, what they appreciate. What are they going to use? Do you have a gym for your employees? Are they even using it? And if so, are you rewarding them for doing that? Oh reward Kathie's. There's that word again? I know because that reward. Could a go in to a rewards program. And I know, you know, about a rewards program. For example, you get bonus miles every time you use your credit card. Huh. What if we did the same thing for the company? What, if we did the same thing for your team, they get bonus rewards for what? Good performance. Good productivity. Good use of the health and wellness. Factors that you have inside the company. And not only that you can do all of that digitally, just like you get your bonus miles. You get your bonus points at work. And then from there you can easily attribute those to these prizes and therefore you eliminate the intern. That's only been there for two weeks. Getting the big prize. Instead you reward somebody who has been busting their tail for you. Who has been working overtime because all of these issues. Or because you made a huge sale and the team member worked overtime. Yes. You rewarded them with. Certain perks overtime pay. But maybe that's not what motivates them. So let's go to motivation. There's two types of motivation. There's intrinsic and extrinsic. When you have contests like that, your team is extrinsically motivated. You don't want extrinsic motivation you want intrinsic motivation. But how do you do that? It's kind of tricky because you have to find what motivates your employees and to do that, you need to do surveys. You need to understand. Oh, okay. I see this motivates them. They like having these health and wellness days. They like having these type of contests. Because. When they do that, they're telling you, Hey. This works for me, instead of you telling them this is going to work for you, and this is going to motivate you because it's not going to motivate the ones you want to motivate. Because what happened with that contest is. You motivated the wrong person. He's only going to be there for three months at the most. And be gone. Instead, you've got this little person over here. Who's been busting their tail for you. And been working very hard and working over time, trying to get things done, hasn't even been recognized for that. Maybe motivated the whole team by having a. Uh, luncheon for them or something like that, but that's not gonna motivate that person that you want to motivate because when you motivate this person and you recognize them for the hard work they have done, you have. Intrinsically motivated them. Does that make sense? I do several videos on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, but let me give you an example of extrinsic motivation from myself that maybe you can apply to you. I don't particularly care about waking up early in the morning to go to the gym. It's not like my favorite thing to do, but I am intrinsically motivated to do so, because I know it's going to make me feel better. I know I'm going to perform better at work. I know it's part of my morning routine, which helps me get motivated to go through the day. Oh, there's that word again? Motivation. And I also know that it's going to benefit my family, my work, my job, my team. It's going to benefit everybody if I do it. Those few minutes of waking up in the morning. They're not the greatest, but that's not what motivates me. I remind myself, oh, it's going to be a great day. Something great. It's going to happen today. Let's go. And especially if I go to the gym and I focus on my morning routine, my meditation. I know that's going to set intentions for my day. So let's go back to your team. What's gonna motivate them. And the only way you're gonna know is if you ask them. You ask them what motivates them. And when you have a corporate wellness director or you have a professional that works inside your company that works with your team. Perhaps you even run a questionnaire through your company. Oh, there's a novel idea. That might just give you clues. And those clues are what you want to work with and start working on. When you have somebody like myself working inside your company, I can tell you what's going to motivate them. When you start running a rewards program, like you get on your bonus miles for your credit card on your credit card, you get bonus miles. What if you ran a program that gave your team bonus points for good productivity? Good participation in your health and wellness days. Good teamwork. Good leadership. This is going to motivate your team to go, oh, I just got five points today because I did such and such. And those points add up and then that person gets to put more cards or more points towards the prize. The big prize if they want and gives them more likely a chance to win that. Instead of your intern. Who's only been there two months and is not putting in the work that this guy did. Yeah. So, this is one of the biggest mistakes I see across the board when it comes to corporate wellness programs, because motivation is a funny thing. And when you learn how to motivate your team and you know exactly how to intrinsically motivate them, you will find more productivity. More teamwork, more cohesion in your team. Oh, wait a second. Your employees are running your business. Like you want. Instead of the other way around, because what happens when they get de-motivated. They're going to feel unappreciated and they're going to run your business. The way. They want to run it. You choose. All right. That's my episode for today. I trust that you found it helpful. If you know someone who can benefit from this, please share it with them. And until next time I will see you next time, peace out and Namaste.