How do you get everyone excited about your vitality initiative; even the doubters?

The secret tip: focus on the long-term vitality plan.

We can't beat around the bush: in every organisation, you have colleagues who are less than enthusiastic about your vitality initiative or give no or little reaction. Now, do some employees come to you who you may not have heard about your initiative? It is often silent and absent colleagues who need the most support when it comes to improving vitality and health. It is crucial to approach them in a different way to engage them in your initiative.

Within Reach: Turn ambitious goals into achievable plans 🤲

It makes sense that you would initially opt for a short-term plan to get everyone excited. A short-term plan takes less time and, therefore, seems more manageable. This might motivate employees, but in practice, it is strangely counterproductive. A pitfall for any vitality initiative is to focus on short-term goals rather than a long-term plan. Quick results seem attractive to you and other sports enthusiasts, but it can feel overwhelming to colleagues who are not yet engaged in vitality. Impressive, short-term plans can feel unrealistic and overwhelming to them, and this can actually be demotivating. The idea is too far removed from the current lifestyle of these less-fit employees and, therefore, feels unachievable.

"Take 10,000 steps every day from now on? And then sticking to my routine in a month's time? I don't even walk 2,000 steps a day now; I don't know if this is going to work..."

Ultimately, your goal is to increase employee health and well-being; this big goal does not have to be visible in a month. Promoting employee health and well-being is a long-term goal that requires patience and consistency. While tangible results may not be visible immediately, it is important to recognise that every step in the right direction contributes to this higher goal.

Focus on success: make room for milestones🚀

Do you recognise that moment when you finally see or feel progression after working hard on your goal for a while? How wonderful it is when you put time and effort into something and see that you are growing! The moments when progression becomes visible are essential for your motivation to keep going. When we expect big results in a short period of time, we may skip those small moments of progression. You don't get a six-pack in a few weeks, and even though someone is doing well, results may not yet be visible within a short period of time. An employee who expects results soon but cannot yet see them may become disappointed and lose motivation to continue.

Creating a long-term vitality plan allows for trial and error, forgetting something and picking it up again. This bigger plan allows you to celebrate milestones, no matter how small, which creates lasting motivation and commitment. It's not about perfection; it's about progress. A long-term plan visualises this much better and has more room for it.

Imagine: you start with the goal of going for regular walks. At first, it goes well, but then busy days come, and you forget about walking for a while. No problem! You just pick it up again as soon as you can. And when you've been walking every other day for a month, that's a milestone to celebrate! Or you have a goal to eat more vegetables. Sometimes you forget this and reach for a quick snack. But instead of punishing yourself, repackage yourself the day after and continue your healthy eating habits.

With a long-term plan, you give employees the space to make mistakes and get back up, and by celebrating the small successes, you keep them motivated and committed to your vitality plan.

Is your vitality plan a short-term or long-term plan?🎯

These are 5 questions you can use to explore whether your current initiative is focusing on a too-short-term outcome:

What is the main goal you want to achieve with the initiative?

• Within what time do you expect someone who has never engaged with health to be able to achieve this goal?
• Has time been set aside for milestones that can be celebrated?
• Has time and space been set aside for a reflection or adjustment moment?
• Do employees who lose sight of the program have the time and space to pick themselves up and reconnect?
• Is space set aside for setbacks and awkward moments?

Ultimately, you want your vitality idea to include a long-term plan that appeals to different employees. This is important not only for productivity and teamwork within the organisation but also for employees' overall health. After all, they are the engine of the company. Get all employees excited by putting a long-term plan in your vitality idea or easily creating individual personal plans for each employee using NewU.