How You Can Make Well-Being Emphases More Memorable and Actionable

The first couple months of the year generally mean it’s time to plan and prepare monthly well-being awareness campaigns. In the U.S.: February is National Cancer Prevention Awareness Month, March is National Nutrition Month, April is National Stress Awareness Month, May is National Mental Health Awareness Month ... the list goes on and on.

Even though regular touchpoints are key to ensuring your employees are utilizing the well-being resources available to them, when benefits communication is rote and episodic, employees tend to forget what’s available long before they need them.

“Ongoing communication isn’t about more emails. It’s about bringing care to life — consistently, clearly and in real time,” said Deb Smolensky, the vitality and well-being solutions global practice leader at workforce advisory firm NFP. “In today’s environment — where financial anxiety is the top stressor — this isn’t just a communications failure ... it’s a financial well-being failure that shows up in delayed care, poor decisions and preventable stress.”

This article discusses how you can turn well-being awareness into action with a little bit of creativity and a lot more communication.

Addressing the Gaps

According to Smolensky, NFP research shows only 42% of surveyed American workers rate well-being communications as strong, while 63% of employers believe they’re doing well. Even more concerning, 31% of workers rate well-being communications as poor, compared to just 9% of employers.

“That perception gap isn’t academic — it directly drives underutilization of programs employers are paying for,” she said. “You can’t expect people to value, trust or use something they don’t understand, especially when they only encounter it during moments of stress, illness or crisis.”

“Benefits are a product; well-being is the brand. And right now, most benefits communication looks like the first landline phone — functional, outdated and easy to ignore.” 

— Deb Smolensky, global practice leader, NFP

Boosting Your Well-Being Messaging

One of the biggest opportunities for HR and total rewards professionals is to stop thinking like policy writers and to start thinking like marketers, Smolensky said.

“Benefits are a product; well-being is the brand,” she said. “And right now, most benefits communication looks like the first landline phone — functional, outdated and easy to ignore.”

Instead, monthly well-being communications should mirror how people actually consume information, Smolenskey said, whether that’s through short videos, visuals or sound bites.

“Borrow from YouTube, podcasts and social media, while staying compliant,” she said. “Leaders sharing personal benefits stories, one-minute videos explaining [benefits] decisions or tools powered by artificial intelligence that simplify choices are all communications strategies — not extras.”

Smolensky also noted a monthly well-being calendar without activation is just words on a page. To be effective, she said a calendar needs nudges — via Teams, Slack, text or other platforms employees are already using.

“Calendars work best when they are flexible, inclusive and focused on enabling choice rather than driving behavior,” added Courtney Schroeder, the national well-being practice leader at risk management and consulting firm Gallagher.

When crafting your monthly well-being calendar, Schroeder said you should avoid these pitfalls:

• Don’t overload employees with too many messages or activities in a single month that can feel like “one more thing to do.”
• Avoid one-size-fits-all content that doesn’t reflect the challenges across organizations related to diverse roles, schedules or work location.
• Don’t engage in “well-being washing,” where messages promote care without addressing broader organizational stressors.

If incentives are involved, focus on them upfront, said Amy Mosher, the chief people officer at HR and payroll solutions company isolved, noting how employees are often more motivated to participate in companywide well-being initiatives when there is a prize.

“Incentives can be useful as attention triggers and habit starters,” Smolensky agreed. “They help employees pause, click and engage, but trust is built only when what they find is genuinely helpful, relevant and easy to use.”

But Schroeder added when incentives are tied to learning or exploration of benefits, rather than outcomes, they tend to be most effective.

“What matters most is remembering that every communication either strengthens the relationship with the employee or erodes it — there is no neutral,” Smolensky said. “Every message should make it easier to participate than to ignore. Awareness without a clear next step doesn’t inform — it frustrates.”

Measuring the Results

According to the experts interviewed in this article, tracking the success of your monthly well-being initiatives is two-fold: Did employees notice the communication, and did they act on the information?

Traditional metrics still matter (e.g., portal visits, click-throughs, webinar attendance, utilization trends), but they’re only part of the picture, Smolensky said. The deeper signal comes from behavior, she explained. For example, consider the following:

• Are workers making different benefits decisions?
• Are once-underused programs being accessed at the right moments?
• Are employees rating information as helpful?

Also, consider alignment and visibility with broader well-being or retention goals, and track if there’s a reduction in repetitive or basic HR and benefits-related questions, Schroeder said.

“Effective well-being communication is less about telling employees what they should do and more about making healthy choices easier, more visible and more socially supported,” she said. “Employee needs, life stages and stressors change throughout the year. Regular, bite-sized communication helps employees better understand, value and use the benefits and resources available to them.”

Overall, being consistent with your benefits and well-being communication is better than being perfect, Mosher said.

“Think of it as ‘microdosing’ well-being wisdom each month,” she said. “Spread awareness of your company’s approach to well-being or spotlight the benefit of the month with a quick video, a shoutout during an all-hands staff meeting or a simple addition to the monthly newsletter.”

Editor’s Note: Additional Content

For more information and resources related to this article, see the pages below, which offer quick access to all WorldatWork content on these topics:

• Employee Benefits
• Well-Being