Employee Wellness Newsletter
Employee Wellness Newsletter: What?
An employee wellness newsletter is a document used within a wellness program to promote health among a companies employees. There are no standards with respect to employee wellness newsletter design, content, page count and/or tone. As a result newsletter vary widely from company to company.
Newsletters will often include health tips, healthy recipes, safety related articles and tips and information about upcoming wellness programs.
For the newsletter to be effective they should be short (1-2 pages at most), easy to read and should have a positive tone to them.
Employee Wellness Newsletter: Why?
Companies use employee wellness newsletters to promote health among their employees. Companies hope that health education and awareness will help encourage and/or enable employees to live healthier lives. There is little research to show that a newsletter of this type has any impact on worker productivity or health care costs, but they are a pervasive part of most wellness programs.
Employee Wellness Newsletter: When?
Frequency of employee wellness newsletter distribution is up to the company. Often it is dictated by the size of a companies wellness budget. Other times it's based on employee preference. Nonetheless, frequency ranges from daily to annually.
Employee Wellness Newsletter: Where?
Companies distribute newsletters in a host of different ways including via: mail, email, posting it on bulletin boards, posting it on their website, posting it on their company intranet, as a paycheck stuffer and by hand delivering it. The method used depends on the size of a companies wellness budget, company preference and employee preference.
Employee Wellness Newsletter: How?
Employee wellness newsletters are generally either purchased by the company (as a standalone service or as part of a wellness program), created in-house or gotten free from some resource.
Purchasing newsletters can be expensive and are not likely to see a big enough return on investment to justify the cost. Most purchased newsletters are hard copy, thus requiring that they be distributed by hand or via mail - both of which add more to the cost of the program.
In-house newsletters can take a lot of time to produce (far more than expected) and often look like something a middle schooler created - especially if there's clipart. Is that really the image a company wants to portray with their employees?
Free employee wellness newsletters would seem to be a great option, but you have to be very careful when selecting a source for free newsletters. All too often a so called newsletter is nothing more than an advertisement for a company or product. So, be sure to review the following:
- Is there a clearly defined editorial policy?
- Are information sources given?
- If advertising is allowed, is it clearly identified?
- Do you have to sign up to receive the newsletter? If so, is there a clearly defined process for unsubscribing from the newsletter?
- Is company contact information clearly provided?
- If registration is required for an electronic newsletter - is there a SPAM policy and privacy policy?
Free Employee Wellness Newsletter
Remember, you don't have to develop your own health newsletter - we offer them free for you to use within your organization's wellness program. Our free health and newsletter archive can be found here: Free Health Wellness Newsletter Archive
