April 7-9, 2022 • Hyatt Regency • Lexington, KY
Communication Strategies to Promote Comprehensive Well-being
Communication Strategies to Promote Comprehensive Well-being
Abstract: Communication to Cultivate a Culture of Health: Lessons from 5-Star AchieveWELL Organizations
Creating a culture of health within an organization offers benefits such as reducing both direct (e.g., healthcare related) (Aldana, 2001) and indirect (e.g., productivity related) costs (Gubler et al., 2017) and supporting employees in becoming and staying healthy (Goetzel & Ozminkowski, 2008). A variety of health and wellness programs within an organization are important for establishing a culture of health (Goetzel et al., 2007). Examples of culture of health programs include health education, nutritious food offerings, physical activity resources, preventive screenings, tobacco-free policies, and stress-reduction activities (CDC, 2016). These programs are facilitated communicatively to encourage employee participation and healthful behavior changes (Seaverson et al., 2009), therefore supporting the overarching culture of health. Recognized for their success in creating a culture of health, a group of organizations, distinguished as 5-Star AchieveWELL organizations, offer an opportunity to identify messaging strategies effective at promoting health and wellness within the workplace and therefore, creating a culture of health. To be recognized as 5-Star AchieveWELL, these organizations have demonstrated 5 years of health promotion programming, senior leader support of health initiatives, and health and wellness business strategy, among other criteria (Wellness Council of Indiana, 2020). The goals of this study included learning successful organization’s communication strategies utilized to create a culture of health, understanding how new employees are socialized into this health-focused culture, identifying how employees may resist the culture, and exploring how resistance is addressed. A total of 30 5-Star AchieveWELL organizations were eligible to participate in this study and 19 participated by completing an in-depth interview. These organizations represent a variety of work classifications and regions in Indiana. Employer size ranged from 55 to 37,000 employees and wellness program duration varied from 4 to 20+ years. Of the 19 participating organizations, 18 completed a questionnaire, including demographic information and specific communication strategies. Collected data was analyzed using constructivist grounded theory, facilitating identification of evident themes related to the goals of this study. Communication strategies to support a culture of health include using multiple communication channels, demonstrating leadership support, implementing policies, surveying employees and incorporating feedback, leveraging partnerships, creating a health promoting environment, and being willing to adapt and change over time. New employees are socialized into the culture of health during the recruitment process (i.e., anticipatory socialization; Jablin, 2001) as well as new employee orientation (i.e., organizational encounter; Jablin, 2001). The socialization process is high touch, involving multiple messages from a variety of sources leading up to employment and during the new employee stage. Resistance to health and wellness occurs in the form of non-participation and employee push-back, with this resistance often being met with compassion. These results contribute to and expand upon existing research in this field. Results offer practical implications for organizations desiring to create a culture of health as well as theoretical implications for scholars studying organizational socialization.