New Perspectives in Wellness & Benefit Communications, Shawn M. Connors [scary books to read TXT] 📗

eBook contents: Introduction

The 7 mega-trends in health communication that will change everything

People will Demand a Reason to Believe and Commit

Social Media will Free Up Hidden Assets and Enable You to Communicate with Employees Instead of at Them

Powerful, New Self-Care Tools will Further Empower People to be Wise Consumers of Health

Your Community is an Untapped Gold Mine Waiting to be Discovered

Consumer Retailers and Advertisers will Fund Workplace Wellness Programs via Sponsorships and Incentive Offers

Demographics, Technology, and Healthcare System Changes Converge into an Explosion of Empowerment and Interest in Healthy Living

New Wellness Topic: Reduce Debt and Save Money

The 8 timeless truths of communication

A Flawed Plan Well Communicated is Better than a Perfect Plan Poorly Communicated

If You Think “Plain Language” is “Dumbing Down,” You Flatter Yourself

Creativity is a Precursor to Engagement

Less is More. Think “Telegraph Message”

People Understand Real Risk, not Relative Risk

Headlines are Critical

Print Communication Will Not Disappear

Simple Beats Complex. Small Beats Big. Easy Beats Hard.

You need a simple, actionable communication plan

Discover What Employees Want — and How They Want It

Organize Your Thinking Into General Categories

Think of Seasons of the Year and Seasons of Life

Take Advantage of National Health Observances

Use Our Little Secret to Help You Mix All Media Effectively

Connect People Using New Media Tools

Promote Your Program and Build a Sense of Urgency

Build the Nuts and Bolts of Your Content Deployment

Customize to Your Culture

Outsource the Communication Work or Do It Yourself?

Summary

About the authors

About Hope Health

Acknowledgements

Links to resources, tools and samples

Join in the conversation

Share your thoughts and opinions with your peers…. Here

Read this eBook if you…

Sense communication could be the driver to employee satisfaction with benefits, and the critical element in improving enrollment and engagement in wellness programs

Wonder how to get employees to read important information

Feel the way we relate to each other at work and in our community is changing at lightning speed, and you want to keep up and make sense of it

See that great tools for wellness, benefit programs, and self-help go underused, and think there must be a better way to realize their full potential

Suspect that paying big cash incentives for people to be well isn’t the right motivation for long-term behavior change, and also feel that there is a meaningful, long-term convergence occurring between financial literacy and health literacy

Want to understand and tap into the power of social media, video, and other new communication vehicles, and need a guide on how to use them in balance

Want to know of a communication “plan of action” that is free, easy to understand, and simple to implement

Believe effective employee communication is a blend of art and science, and the first part (art) can be ultra-powerful when promoting health and wellness

Think there must be some simple solutions for connecting with people better

This FREE eBook is produced and copyrighted by Hope Health. It is intended to help managers produce or improve upon wellness and benefit communication. We encourage you to share and forward this eBook as you wish. There are no registration requirements to obtain a copy. Please source excerpts (source: New Perspectives in Wellness — HopeHealth.com). Sales of this content by third parties is prohibited. © Hope Health (dba), IHAC, Inc.

Introduction

At the turn of the 20th century, the world’s best engineers and mechanics attacked the weighty challenge of human flight. They labored over ways to adapt what they knew — heavy machinery — to solve the problem.

The Wright Brothers looked at the same issue with a completely different perspective. As bicycle mechanics, they used light materials and understood wind resistance. As machine shop owners, they understood the nuances of motors and parts.

They knew steam engines wouldn’t fly.

In 1901, the brothers invented and built a small wind tunnel and discovered the basic principles of “lift,” enabling them to build a functional wing. On December 17, 1903, in a field in North Carolina, their vision took off.

The Wright Brothers weren’t smarter or more brilliant than other great minds of the day. The right solution was a convergence of a major challenge, an underappreciated set of experiences, and the brothers’ confidence in their ability to correctly and uniquely define the challenge.

We love this story for its enduring lesson. Today, many well-intentioned people are tackling major challenges — lack of participation in wellness programs and employee engagement, rising health care costs, unawareness of benefit plans, lack of productivity — with the same methods and strategies they’ve tried for years. They feel grounded — like a steam engine trying to fly.

The bottom line: It’s tough to get employees to tune in, let alone change their lifestyles, considering the way we’ve all been conditioned to think about health, wellness, and employee benefit programs.

Employers tell us they feel trapped in minutiae. It’s time for a new mentality. We’re calling for a refreshingly simple and inspiring approach that draws upon the very things that make humans powerful — a conversion of communication, creativity, and diverse experiences. This eBook can help you take a meaningful first step in that direction.

It blends our experience, reporting, and storytelling to help you view current workplace programs in a new light. It illuminates what can happen when management prioritizes communication, plans ahead, gives up a little control of the message, and fully engages in the dialogue and energy already present within the workplace and surrounding community.

you’ll gain insight from three sections:

trends:

Working with hundreds of companies and communities has given us 30 years’ worth of mental notes, anecdotes, data, and perspective. Mega-trends signal important new developments to understand and follow.

truths:

Some ideas are ageless, including concepts about effective employee communication. Let these basic truths serve as the foundation of your messaging.

today:

Every plan needs a framework — a place to begin, and some practical, energizing steps to serve as a guide. A new, forward-thinking process can inject life into your employee communication programs.

Let this eBook be your guide. Use it to apply a communications process that is flexible, reproducible, and relevant. Establish a framework where new ideas, programs, and events can be quickly and effectively communicated and shared. Begin to master the most honorable art — the art of persuasion — so your employee communication success can soar.

The Wright Brothers embodied a simple point: If something seems too hard to accomplish, it’s probably just being done wrong. There’s no sense doing the same wrong things harder.

Instead, if we can converge science and the arts, if we can tap into the active minds of employees and communities, if we can draw upon the power of multimedia tools, we will have our wind tunnel in place. We’ll have a new perspective.

The sky is the limit. Prepare for liftoff.

The 7 mega-trends in health communication that will change everything

During the past 30 years, Hope Health has worked with hundreds of companies and communities that deliver health and benefits messages to employees. Our passion and pleasure is to listen, learn, understand, motivate, and guide them, no matter their size or market.

This experience has given us a trove of mental notes and anecdotes, a blend of science and sensibility that informs our insight. We can mix concrete data with pound-the-pavement knowledge. We have walked a mile in many shoes, with many people like you.

Moving forward is a journey worth taking, now more than ever. Today, powerful health and benefits communication is the key difference maker for organizations aiming to improve their employees’ engagement, health, and productivity.

But success requires a new approach, a forward-thinking strategy that involves more energy, preparation, creativity, and fun.

The destination is a practical communication system you can follow and use. The first step is to understand the importance of seven mega-trends:

1. People will demand a reason to believe and commit.

Most organizations find it difficult to get employees to participate in wellness programs, especially workers who need the programs the most. It’s hard to get people to change their lifestyles and habits.

For years, the same basic strategies and systems have been relied upon. Experts in the “Medical Model” have been in the driver’s seat, and the results have been predictable:

A risk-driven model that screens populations and then focuses on the highest-risk people

An authoritative approach that tells us what to do or not do

The guiding presence of a coach or other medical professional

This health communication model produced numerous success stories, and medical-based facts will always be essential. The value and impact of science should never be underestimated. It’s a long-standing truth. But we still hear the same complaints from managers and program administrators: low participation in programs, unawareness of available benefits and self-help tools, non-compliance in making suggested lifestyle changes, and lack of sustainability.

Lifestyle choices contribute to about 50% of our disability and premature death. That was true 30 years ago, and it’s still true today.

We’ve succeeded at improving the health of targeted populations with intense resources and scrutiny, but we haven’t brought wellness to populations in a way that affects health outcomes.

We’re clinging to the same ideas. A “comprehensive” wellness program improves outcomes, but doesn’t guarantee its success. What you say and how you present your message is critical. What’s going to motivate Jack in Accounting? What’s going to make him take the stairs, start riding a bike, or enjoy the peace of working in a garden?

Jack is going to start moving when he is moved — when he’s emotionally invested in improving his health.

What is Jack’s “reason to believe?”

Target both sides of the brain.

Effective health, benefits, and wellness communication targets both sides of the brain — the left side that makes sense of pie charts, and the right side that has a passion for Picasso. It’s time to use the power of artful persuasion in messages. You can’t collect attention from employees unless you first connect with them.

“No worthwhile communication can take place until you gain the audience’s attention,” says Nido R. Qubein, business consultant and motivational speaker. “Remember, people do things for their own reasons, not yours or mine. To effect action, you have to show them how their best interests are served by what you’re saying.”

It’s time for creative visual graphics. It’s time for quick videos. Telegraphic messages. It’s time to invite a chef to your next staff lunch. It’s time to include yoga instructors and other artful perspectives in your communication. It’s time to end the Era of Sterile!

Cold stethoscopes and colonoscopies are not people’s idea of a wellness experience.

A total communications experience inspires, informs, shares, and celebrates the potential of the human spirit. It connects the employee with the employer and other team members with valuable, relevant, customized content that engages and motivates without preaching, criticizing or fear mongering. It creates an upbeat air of expectation. It’s laced with humor and fun.

We have information on the importance and power of wellness. These are your paintbrushes. Your canvas is white. You are an artist, and other artists surround you. How will your communication