Let’s suppose that you have responded to the Workplace Self-Assessment Tool and found that you don’t know what the culture in your workplace is and if it supports wellness. That’s OK. You can begin to understand your workplace culture by asking yourself some of the questions listed below

Even if you already know about workplace culture, it may be helpful to ask yourself and other employees these questions. Take a moment to look at what you are doing to contributing to workplace culture and what is, and may not be, working.

What culture do you have in your workplace? Stop and think about it – what is your existing workplace culture? Have you spoken to others? How do they see the culture in your workplace? The Employer Workplace Self-Assessment Tool can help you reflect on how your workplace culture supports health and wellness. You may also want to look at whether your organizational culture is positive or negative, and why.

• What is being done in your workplace to contribute to a wellness culture?
• What are some signs that you may have a positive workplace culture?
• What are you doing that may contribute to a negative workplace culture?

If and when you know what the culture is in your workplace, decide what culture you want in your workplace.

• What culture do you want? You need a clear vision of what a wellness culture will look like in your workplace. You can only move forward if you can see where you’re going. Be concrete and specific; saying “a wellness culture” is not enough. If you don’t know what a wellness culture looks like in your workplace, how will you know once you have arrived at one?
• Who is involved? Wellness must be embedded and managed at all levels of the organization. This means that if you are trying to make a culture change in your workplace you need to have buy-in from leadership as well as the employees. It is important to involve your employees when defining what a wellness culture looks like in your workplace.
• What are you willing to give up? Creating a wellness culture means that you will have to make changes. Those changes include not only what you need to do, but also what you may need to give up to allow that culture to change. For example, increased flexibility can be very helpful for employees with arthritis, but, to provide increased flexibility, means you will have to give up some control.

Once you know what your current culture looks like and have a concrete idea of what you would like your workplace culture to be, identify what needs to change for you to get there.

• Start with the low-hanging fruit. There are likely some quick, easy, and inexpensive changes that could easily help move towards a wellness culture. For instance, is it policy that your employees need to call-in sick? Provide an alternate option where they can email or text instead.
• Identify the most important changes. What are the most important changes that need to take place to support a wellness culture? Be careful not to shut down an idea just because you don’t think it will work; see if there is anything that can be done, and if not, break down the idea and see if there is any other way that you can reach the same goal with a different method. If you can’t change something, acknowledge it and explain why to your employees. Be open, honest, and transparent.
• Or, is it just about communication? Reviewing your workplace culture may help you uncover some really great resources that employees don’t know about or have forgotten about. If the communication is lost, what is the issue? Is it the delivery? The relevance? It is important to identify what actually needs fixing before trying to fix it.

Now that you know what you need to do, here is how you do it:

• Plan what you’re going to do. Make sure that you have concrete actions that link to concrete outcomes. Don’t just say, “improve communication about wellness.” Your plan should say “Employees don’t know what wellness resources exist and to fix this we will: 1) make sure supervisors review wellness resources in 1:1 meetings, 2) offer webinars showing what resources are available and how to access them, 3) have a link to wellness resources on the intranet site with a rotating example of resources available.”
  
• Is it working? Make sure that you have a way of telling if your plan is working. What does success look like? After you have tried something, make sure you check back in with your workforce and see if your actions have made a difference or if you should try something else. Opening this dialog won’t only give you feedback on your strategies but hopefully will also move the wellness conversation and culture forward as employees see your investment and dedication to investing in a wellness culture

Having a wellness culture in the workplace means that you have built awareness around wellness at work – this means not only sharing preventative information about health conditions, but also encouraging staff, colleagues, and managers to recognize if an employee is struggling and could use help. Sometimes recognizing and acknowledging challenges and providing non-judgemental support, while directing the employee towards available support, can be a critical first step in supporting your employees and also reinforcing a culture that prioritizes employee health and wellness.