Creating a Wellness Program vision and brand for your corporation’s Corporate Health Promotion Program:

Why it’s important and how to do it

The Wellness Program Vision

A Wellness Program vision statement is a concise statement that summarizes the purpose and goals of your corporation’s commitment to establishing a Corporate Health Promotion Program. Taking the time to clarify and describe your corporation’s Wellness Program vision can provide a focus and a consistent direction for your Procedures for years to come. The vision statement reminds leaders and employees of the link between employee health and the corporation’s ability to achieve its overall mission.

Answer the following questions and you’ll have the components needed to build a simple and effective Wellness Program vision for your corporation’s culture of health:

• What do you want your Wellness Program to accomplish?
• How do you intend to accomplish it?
• How does this Wellness Program mission support or further the corporation’s mission?

A sample Wellness Program vision statement might be . . .

To have employees who perform at their best and who enable XYZ Corporation to be an industry leader in printing quality and customer service (corporation’s mission), XYZ Corporation is committed to offering opportunities for healthy behaviors during the workday (how) in order to encourage employees not to smoke, to be active, and to eat healthfully (what).

The Wellness Program Brand

In the same way that your corporation’s name and brand image provide visibility for your business, your Procedures toward establishing a Wellness Program will benefit from being easily recognizable to employees:

• A consistently used Wellness Program brand on all communications conveys to employees that the commitment to a culture of health is here to stay.
• A Wellness Program brand institutionalizes the culture and makes it more likely to withstand changes in staff and budget.

Do what you can to engage employees in establishing the identity (brand) for your corporation’s Corporate Health Promotion Program. Not only are they more likely to accept the name, it’s also a great way to announce to employees the corporation’s Wellness Program commitment. Here are two possible approaches to involving employees:

Option 1: Have a Wellness Program contest

1. Announce the Wellness Program contest guidelines and deadline.
2. Have the Wellness Committee review the ideas submitted, and select a name.

If, for example, your corporation, Premier Building and Design, is in the commercial construction business, you might receive the following Wellness Program ideas from employees:

• Cornerstone: Feeling well is what it’s all about
• Premier Elements: Building healthier employees
• Custom Build: Building health builds wealth
• Building Health: Designing better employee health

After reviewing the entries, your Wellness Committee determines that it likes the name “Premier Elements” and the subtitle “Building health builds wealth”. Your committee awards the “name the Wellness Program contest” prize to the two employees, those who submitted the pieces of the name that represent the final product.

Premier Elements: Building health builds wealth

3. Choose a Wellness Program logo to go with the name.

The Wellness Program logo is an important piece of the branding

• Review any ideas submitted for Wellness Program logos.
• If you’re fortunate to have a graphic design professional at your corporation, enlist her or his help with developing the Wellness Program logo!
• As an alternative, select a piece of clip-art that fits with the Wellness Program name you’ve selected. For example, the corporation referenced above might look for a symbol that conveys building, health and wealth.

Option 2: Wellness Committee determines the name and brand

1. Have your Wellness Committee brainstorm Wellness Program names.
• To get ideas flowing, ask members to write down all health-related words and words associated with your corporation or industry.
• Try clustering words together as in the construction corporation example above.
2. Once your Wellness Committee has narrowed down the possibilities to about three ideas, have committee members vote to select a name for your culture of health.
3. Choose a Wellness Program logo to go with the winning name.
4. Announce the corporation’s Wellness Program and the corresponding Wellness Program name. Explain that employees on the advisory committee chose the name.