Employees get fitter with Facebook

Text? Twitter? Online? Print? Video? How will HR/health planners be communicating in the future?

A recent survey of health promotion/benefits managers asked them to project 3 years out to 2013. Hope Health asked 13 key questions about what managers thought wellness and benefit communications would look like in the future. Good communication, all agreed, is a critical factor in achieving positive health outcomes.

The survey revealed these 4 emerging trends:

1. Socialize! The medium is becoming key to conveying the message. Electronic health information delivery and social media are making inroads alongside highly effective print products. Quick videos are effectively teaching self-care skills.
   
   
2. Did you know this? Health communication is as important as the quality of benefits a company offers. Employers are offering worksite wellness programs because they hope to impact health care costs.
   
   
3. Surprise! The biggest obstacle to effective health communication in the workplace is employees not taking time to read the information they are given.
   
   
4. Mixed messages! In addition76% of all respondents indicated they will continue to use print somewhat or consistently as part of workplace communications. And 52% agree that communication is critical to employee satisfaction or behavior change.

 

“Within a couple years workplaces will be using social media tools so seamlessly that we won’t think of it as social media,” said Shawn Connors, Hope Health President.  “We’ll just be focused on the content more than the medium. And communication will be much more telegraphic (bullets, lists, numbered items, Q&A, etc.), easy-to-understand, and focused.  Print will serve more as a teaser or an index to all the other sources of information available.”

Click for a free copy of the complete report, Wellness Communication Opinion Survey Results—Managers Tell Us What’s Coming by 2013, visit HopeHealth.com and click on “FREE Reports” or click www.hopehealth.com/pdf/OpinionSurveyRpt.pdf.