Risks Associated With a Wellness Program
Cultural diversity in the Wellness Program
Being a multinational organization, the wellness program will first be initiated here after which it will then be introduced in the other organizational branches in various countries. This will help proper analysis to be conducted to understand the best strategies to apply to make the program effective which will help the program to be easily transitioned to those other countries. The same guidelines and policies will be applied in all the countries to ensure that there is uniformity in the wellness program within the organization and this will make it easy to management the wellness program.
Probable Risks Associated With a Wellness Program
- Cultural differences
Having people from different cultures can greatly affect the corporate wellness program in the sense that the implementations that are made may not be appreciated by employees from various cultural backgrounds. There are those people who may feel that the program does not favour them because it does not include activities that they love to do as a form of exercise. Communication is a key issue in a diversified organization; it plays a great role in ensuring that employees relate with one another effectively which helps improve work morale (Dailey, 2018). There are employees who may feel that the wellness program is discriminative because the physicians and the trainers that have been selected to help in the program do not speak a language that they understand which means that there will be communication barrier. If there is communication barrier, the employee may not be able to effectively communicate and this will affect the effectiveness of the wellness program.
- Privacy
A corporate wellness program requires substantial information from the employees in regard to their health as well as their lifestyles. Various cultures have different perceptions and beliefs when it comes to privacy, there are those people who prefer to keep matters of their health private, and other may feel insecure having their health information taken by the organization for fear of getting discriminated. This means that the employees have to typically undergo biometric and medical examinations, where they also get questionnaires that are commonly known as Health Risks Appraisals (HRAs) (Sinclair, 2017). This may not be accepted by employees from various cultural backgrounds that may feel that it interferes with their privacy rights and it can lead to disagreements between the employees who support and those that are against the program ideas. All this interferes with the employee’s medical privacy most especially most of the questions that they have to answer are private and highly sensitive. Some of the questions that are involved in these HRAs include for example whether one is pregnant and when they last received their menstrual periods (Sinclair, 2017). These are sensitive questions and one would wonder what an employee has to do with such information and it can greatly affect the morale of the employees at work and also negatively impact the wellness program.
Risk management strategies
Privacy
A wellness program should be all inclusive ensuring that they get the best care and this should be made possible by ensuring that their cultural differences are put to thought (Harbin, 2017). Language is one factor that can greatly help the wellness program to be effective. The organization will ensure that there is reduced miscommunication by providing translation resources in the appropriate languages and this could involve hiring bilingual trainers in the fitness program to help facilitate the issue of communication.
Before the wellness program is initiated the employees will always be educated about its importance and its effects on both the employees despite their diversity and the organization at large (Pomeranz, 2014). Doing this, will help the employees to understand and embrace the positivity of the program, understanding that any private information that they give in regard to their health will not be misused. The answers that are given in the HRAs will be properly stored to ensure that it cannot be accessed by any other individuals apart from the management and it will only be utilized to ensure that the employees get the best health care and exercise routines depending on their physical health.
Training employees
It is important for the organization to be responsible and this means having the employees’ compensations as well as having a liability insurance cover for any employment related injury and exercising is an employment activity that will be covered by the insurance (Pomeranz, 2014). To avoid injuries during exercise, the employees will always be properly trained on how to us the various equipment to ensure minimized injuries. The health and safety assessor will always be present during the exercise in order to talk to the employees to help them understand their responsibilities. The employees will also always be advised to seek the help of various training personnel available in the exercise facility while using various equipment to ensure that they are using them properly to avoid injuries (Sinclair, 2017).
Waivers
The employees will also be required to sign a waiver before using the various exercise equipment. A waiver is important in helping the employees to be responsible and careful while using the various exercise equipment and it will also help them to understand their responsibilities.
References
Dailey, S. L., Burke, T. J., & Carberry, E. G. (2018). For Better or For Work: Dual
Discourses in a Workplace Wellness Program. Management Communication Quarterly, 32(4), 612–626.
Harbin, T. (2017). Examining Employee Perceptions to Improve Workplace Health
Promotion Programs. Employment Relations Today (Wiley), 44(1), 41–47.
Pomeranz, J. L. (2014). Workplace Wellness Programs: How Regulatory Flexibility Might
Undermine Success. American Journal of Public Health, 104(11), 2052–2056. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2014.302149
Sinclair, D. (2017, January 31). Exercise in the workplace - Managing the risk. Retrieved
from https://www.theworkplacesolution.com/exercise-workplace-managing-risk/
