It’s impossible to ignore the positive impact of employee engagement, especially after the events of the past year. Changes brought on by COVID-19 have greatly underscored the need for a united workplace culture—and the need for a strong wellbeing program.

You don’t have to take our word for it...

“When people reported participating in a wellness program … they perceived themselves as healthier and more productive at work, and they had a more positive attitude toward their employer.”

— Harvard Business Review

But the how of generating that engagement can be trickier than the why, especially when your strategy needs to be tailored to your employee needs and company goals. Which is where a well-crafted wellbeing program comes in—by combining proven motivation philosophy with your own unique strategy and goals, you can build a happier, healthier workforce.

Using the tenets of self-determination theory (SDT) for wellbeing and engagement success

Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is a widely used framework for the study of human motivation and personality. There’s a lot to it—too much to go into here—but the theory keys in on three underlying psychological needs that can enhance any wellbeing strategy: relatedness, autonomy, and competence.

Here’s a bit more information on each area and how it can be applied to your wellbeing initiatives.

Relatedness: Employees feel connected to others and have a sense of belonging

70%

of employee participants feel their company’s offering is an indicator that their employer cares about them.

Your program’s online hub should give employees the opportunity to interact and support one another, and to get involved in their own community.

Navigate’s social wall, photo gallery, message center, and group challenges provide multiple engagement touchpoints, encouraging interaction from all employees by offering different features that will appeal to different personality types.
Going deeper, our incentive tracking table allows for custom program activities—show your people the impact they make by including community involvement or volunteerism in our incentive tracking table.

Autonomy: Employees feel like they have a choice

75%

of employee participants said it is vital for a wellness program to include a personalized, customized approach.

Every employee is on a unique wellbeing journey, which is why it’s necessary to offer choice through holistic resources that appeal to all types of people. Not only that, it’s also necessary to offer those resources in multiple ways, including videos, articles, challenges, and more—which is why Navigate provides those options across each of our 8 Pillars of Wellbeing: balance, community, financial, mindfulness, nutrition, physical, purpose, and social.

Competence: Employees feel that their actions are effective

96%

of indeed.com survey respondents said they are more likely to stay at a company when they feel confident.

A feeling of confidence or competence is important to everyone’s emotional wellbeing in all walks of life, including an employee’s job performance and their personal wellbeing. Public recognition, even from something as simple as a post on Navigate’s social wall, can provide that confidence boost in the short-term, while other platform features, such as device syncing and nutrition tracking, allow employees to monitor their long-term success in real time.

Engagement is never easy, but these building blocks—and the right tools, such as an impactful wellbeing program tailored to your goals and culture—can help

Ready to learn more about using a proven wellbeing strategy to engage your workforce? Spark a conversation with one of our wellbeing experts to get started.