It's Advertising 101, and it applies to benefits as well: Before you can market or sell a product, you must first gain an insightful, comprehensive understanding of the most important element of any sales transaction - the customer.
Without understanding the needs and motivations of your target customer, how can you determine not only how to sell your product or service, but ensure that you have the right product in the right market?
Consider the example of 3M. The company originally intended Post-It Notes to be sticky, reusable bookmarks. However, test marketing and product trials revealed that people far preferred using them as sticky notes. 3M then released Post-It Sticky Notes to the market and they became a roaring success - you no doubt have a set on your desk right now.
Later, the company invested $20 million to develop a product that was essentially a data storage compact disc. However, at the time, computer makers were not installing CD drives in computers. As a result, the product flopped when released to the market because they could not be used. 3M failed to account for barriers to entry, which can make or break a product launch.
A successful product does not stand on its own - it needs a market and customers to buy it. There are three core questions a good marketer will always ask when considering a new product:
1. Is there a market demand?
2. Are my customers motivated to buy it?
3. Can they afford it?
You should think of your workplace wellness program in the same way. Your wellness program is your product and together your employees (and possibly their dependents) are your target customers. This is an essential fact that too often goes overlooked.
Too many wellness programs are implemented without proper research and analysis on the target customer base.
For example, many wellness programs incorporate incentives aimed at driving participation without first finding out if those incentives will actually drive participation. Offering an incentive that doesn't really matter to your employees is unlikely to motivate them to take action.
Equally important, we often hear from employers that they want to - or are required to - show a return on investment to senior management to justify the program. However, they haven't taken the essential first step of establishing goals or metrics upon which to measure the success of the program.
Wellness-program coordination has become a recognized discipline with best practices and certified experts. It behooves employers to take advantage of best-practice guidelines - otherwise, they'll invest valuable time and resources in a program they cannot measure and won't achieve desired results.
To deal with this common problem, some basic market research should be done on your target customer base prior to launching a wellness program. We recommend a worksite assessment, and a needs and interest survey.
Worksite assessment
The worksite assessment is designed to take into account the physical and cultural framework in which the wellness program will operate.
Factors such as geographical distribution of employees and offices, in-office versus work-at-home employees, languages spoken, employee mobility, and whether to include spouses and dependents all will influence the types of programs you offer and how you communicate with your audience.
Without first taking some time to understand your environmental barriers and limitations, you cannot figure out how to overcome them.
Physical worksite characteristics, such as food and beverage options in onsite cafeterias and vending machines, and opportunities for physical activity (bike racks, basketball courts, stairs) also should be considered.
An organization's culture - meaning its values, expectations and behavioral norms - is an important factor in determining the potential or success of a wellness program, as it has a significant impact on whether employees embrace or reject the program, and whether management might be willing to use more innovative strategies and incentives.
Lastly, wellness program history or legacy issues might also impact the success of a new initiative.
Needs and interests survey
The needs and interests survey helps you understand what will attract and motivate your employees. Typically, it asks employees about their preferred methods of communication and when, where, and how they would be willing to participate in wellness programs.
You'll also want to ask what incentives would motivate them to participate, and what specific programs - weight loss challenges, learning about healthful cooking and eating, stress reduction/management - would be of interest to them.
Additionally, you can recruit employees to contribute to a wellness committee that can help with implementing and executing your programs.
Even if you believe you know your employee population well, the results of needs and interest surveys are informative and sometimes surprising. For example, most wellness surveys reflect that employees want education and information about nutrition, physical activity/exercise and managing stress.
However, on a recent survey for a national publishing company, two other top areas of interest were time management and financial education. As a result, the company will be offering seminars and programs on these topics in the near future.
Like any survey, the needs and interest survey should be carefully designed and interpreted. Some considerations are whether employees have been surveyed before, what the response of management was to the survey, and the length of time since the last survey.
If previous surveys were perceived by employees as yielding few results, response rates likely will be low. To counter this, you might consider offering an incentive for participation in the survey, such as a raffle. However, it's important to stress to employees that survey responses are confidential and providing their name for the raffle is optional.
Provide feedback to employees on the results of the survey as soon as possible, and reference the survey results in program announcements and other communications where appropriate.
Combining the results of the worksite assessment and the needs and interest survey will give you a solid foundation of objective market data upon which to build your program.
Recognizing the link between a thorough understanding of your population and the success of your wellness program will help you set targeted and measurable objectives. In so doing, you can feel confident that your efforts can and will achieve the desired results. -E.B.N.
Kristie Zoeller Howard is senior consultant, employee benefits, with Longfellow Benefits, a Boston-based employee benefits consulting firm. She holds the Certified Employee Benefits Specialist and Certified Wellness Program Director designations. She can be reached at khoward@longfellowbenefits.com.
Physicians weigh in on wellness programs
In a survey by the Midwest Business Group on Health, 72% of physicians indicate that U.S. companies should take part in efforts to improve their employees' health. However, 59% of doctors said that employers should inform them about measures to help a patient manage a chronic disease.
Other key findings:
* About 46% of doctors agree employers have a role in helping patients improve their medication adherence.
* 82% support using incentives to motivate employees to manage their chronic disease and stay healthy.
* 62% support reduced or waived copays for medical care to increase medical visits, and 70% favor such meaures to improve medication adherence.
