Awakening the Wellness Warrior: Top 7 tips for capturing senior leadership support

to drive your wellness efforts

by Katrina Walton, Director, Wellness Designs

Katrina has built a reputation as a pioneer of

workplace wellness in Australia.

She has over 18 years experience in the

development and management of multi award-

winning programs for small to large organisations,

nationally and internationally.

Katrina is passionate about spreading the wellness

message, whether it be through consulting,

publishing, speaking, training or tweeting!

In her spare time, you'll find Katrina relaxing in a

yoga pose, enjoying a nice glass of Barossa Shiraz

or planning her next trekking expedition.

Director / Workplace Wellness Strategist

Wellness Designs

BAppSci (HMS)(hons1), Grad Cert OHS, Masters Public Health (hons1),Cert IV

Training & Assessment

Senior leadership support is the ‘make or

break’ of a successful health and wellness

strategy.

As wellness practitioners (or equivalent)

many of us struggle with how to:

• demonstrate the initial business case

• engage senior leaders and encourage

them to ‘walk the talk’

• demonstrate the ongoing value on

investment

Perceived or actual barriers may be at an:

• individual level (e.g. dealing with time-

poor senior leaders)

and/or

• organisational level (e.g. dealing with

competing business priorities).

What’s keeping

your CEO up at

night?

Is the company

trying to control

costs? Attract top

talent?

What are their

passions outside

of work? Their

wellness goals?

What are your employees health and wellness needs? What existing

resources and/or facilities do you have at hand? What is the cost of poor

health and wellbeing to the organisation?

What are the competition doing? Is the

competitor down the road gaining a

competitive edge from their wellness strategy?

If so, your CEO will want to know.

What is the perceived value of investing in

employee wellness? This will stem from the key

drivers for adopting a wellness strategy in the first

place. For example, being a great place to work or

reducing the cost of workplace injuries.

This is not the time to replicate

another company’s strategy or

choose a ‘one size fits all’

solution from a provider. It

must be tailored to your

organisation’s business

objectives, structure,

demographics and culture.

Tip#5: Be Realistic

It won’t happen overnight! Stick with

your wellness strategy and it will reap

benefits in the short-term (e.g. improved

staff morale) and long-term (e.g.

improved productivity).

Research and experience suggests it

will take 3-5 years to embed wellness

into the ‘DNA’ of your organisation.

Tip #7: Ensure leaders

understand their role

From the outset, senior leaders

will play a critical role in your

strategy’s success. This

includes:

• allocation of resources

• policy development

• accountability

• active involvement

Keep employee wellness front of mind. Have your “elevator

pitch” ready. Grab every opportunity to spruik the benefits of

your strategy to senior leaders. Keep it succinct (no longer than

2 minutes or length of an elevator ride) and meaningful.

Bonus Tip #9: Measure

& communicate the

results

You can’t manage what you can’t

measure. You will need to

demonstrate the impact of your

wellness efforts, both for

employees and the organisation.

This will also help to avoid the

‘nice to have’ tag.

When you put the “right thing” with

the “smart thing” = the “wise thing”