Quick Summary: Do more than serve lunch-with-a-speaker. Employees will come back for second and third helpings if educational events focus on their needs and give them reason to act.
For employees, it’s free lunch with benefits. For managers, lunch-and-learns are an opportunity to feed people with healthy ideas and information about benefits, wellness programs, and more.
Sound like lofty goals for a mid-day meeting? Not if you select topics that will engage employees and give them “take-out” in the form of activities, “homework” (keeping a food journal), or resources they’ll use.
“We have all sat through seminars where you are served food, you listen to a speaker, you leave, and you never think about it again,” relates Ginny Hridel, health and wellness manager of the Council of Smaller Enterprises (COSE) in Cleveland, Ohio. “If you can actually bring ideas to the table that employees can put into practice, those educational sessions will make a real impact.”
Here’s how to serve up lunch with benefits:
Take their pulse. Find out what health topics concern employees the most. An effective way to do this is through an annual survey, which makes a yearly habit of reaching out for ideas. The responses will guide your lunch-and-learn topics. “You might find that employees want to learn more about the health care plan, or maybe cancer is close to them,” Hridel says. Controlling blood pressure, cholesterol, and stress are other issues workers face. “Find out employees’ personal needs and interests.”
Examine behaviors. Take a hard look at your work culture and potential health traps that can be addressed. What’s in the vending machines? What do employees eat for lunch? Is anyone taking a break to go outside and exercise? “If your company is located down the street from fast-food row, where everyone goes daily for lunch, a potential educational opportunity is to talk about healthy fast-food choices,” Hridel suggests.
Give them take-out. After the lunch-and-learn is over, employees will leave with a full stomach of healthy food you provide. (“If you bring food, they will stay and eat,” Hridel says.) But what else will they take with them? Hopefully, information they can put into practice. For instance, if the lunch-and-learn topic is stress management, ask the speaker to teach relaxation exercises or provide a handout so employees can try guided imagery at home. Continue the mission to reduce stress by offering a yoga class onsite. “It could mean the employer says, ‘We’ll take a 5-minute break at 11:20 every day for everyone to do neck exercises,’ ” Hridel says. “That’s cultural change.”
Talk it up. Spreading the word at Foundation Software, with offices in Ohio, Texas, and California, involves lots of water-cooler talk, emails, flyers, and management support. “We advertise the event and managers encourage employees to participate,” says Tracie Kuczkowski, director of marketing. “It’s important to be persistent with communications—don’t just send out one message and expect everyone to know what’s going on.”
Next Steps:
• Pinpoint unhealthy behaviors in the work culture. Tailor lunch-and-learn sessions to address changing poor habits (smoking, poor nutrition, lack of exercise).
• Engage employees with programs that require some homework. For example, model an activity they can do on their own (for example, keep track of steps on a pedometer, maintain a food diary).
• Continue the momentum by building related wellness activities into the company schedule: organize a walking group, encourage people to try a 5-K run, change vending machine junk food to healthier options.
• Read Part 2 of this story here.
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